The three Rulands

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The three Rulands were a vocal trio in the 1930s. After a song with which they mocked the plans to rebuild Berlin , they were banned from performing for life in January 1939.

Start of career

Schoolmates Wilhelm Meißner (tenor), Heinz Woezel (baritone) and Manfred Dlugi (bass) began their careers in Bad Lauterbach in the summer of 1933, where they gave weekly cabaret appearances at Kaffee Roseneck under the name Teddies. In the same year they were discovered for Werner Finck's cabaret Die Katakombe , where they made their first appearance on September 20, 1933. The first recordings of texts by Joachim Ringelnatz were made as early as 1933 . From 1934 the trio also appeared as a refrain singer. At a performance in Greifswald, Heinz Woezel was replaced by Helmut Buth.

Climax

After their previous main venue, the catacomb, had been closed for political reasons, the trio renamed itself The Three Rulands. Based on the medieval Rolande , which symbolically protect the city rights, the new name should originally be The Three Rolands. At the request of the artist family Roland, the name was changed to The Three Rulands. After the Comedian Harmonists were banned , The Three Rulands succeeded them. They appeared in the Berlin Wintergarten (Varieté) and in the comedians' cabaret . From 1936 on, further recordings were made in which folk songs and hits were parodied. There were also film appearances, u. a. 1936 in the Harry Piel film His best friend . On the radio, the Rulands received in the monthly program broadcast by the Reichsender Leipzig that interests you too! With the "Rulands-Eck" a separate program section. With the popularity of the trio, the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda grew interested in harnessing the group for its own purposes. In November 1938, two weeks after the November pogroms , the three Rulands, who had never spoken out anti-Semitic before, performed a song in the Rulands-Eck that downplayed the anti-Jewish violence of the regime and at the same time indirectly justified it by indulging in greed among the Jewish population and accused of improper business practices.

End of career

In January 1939 Die Drei Rulands appeared in the comedians' cabaret number Die drei Stadtbauarchitekten , in which they targeted National Socialist plans for the redevelopment of Berlin, which included extensive redevelopment of the city center, including the demolition of entire quarters. The number was enthusiastically received by the audience. Officials saw it as an attack on a subject that was not to be criticized. In addition, in the edition of the Berliner Tageblatt of December 25, 1938 , Werner Finck had attested the Nazi leadership for a hidden lack of humor. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels then decided to set an example. The trio was banned from performing and - together with Werner Finck and Peter Sachse - were excluded from the Reich Chamber of Culture , which amounted to a lifelong professional ban. Even an intervention by Albert Speer , who had taken the Stadtbauarchitekten number as a nice and harmless joke, could not change that. Wilhelm Meißner and Helmut Buth were drafted into the Wehrmacht, Manfred Dlugi into the Reich Labor Service .

All three artists survived the Second World War . After the end of the war, they initially performed together, but soon separated. Wilhelm Meißner and Manfred Dlugi were still active in the Federal Republic into the 1950s, but could no longer build on their earlier successes.

Sound carrier

A collection of recordings by the Drei Rulands was published in 2001 by the German Austrophon, which also contains Die Stadtbauarchitekten . The CD is still available.

  • The Three Rulands: Laughter Is Trumps . da music / Deutsche Austrophon 2001, EAN 4012772013030

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Grüttner, The "Rulands-Eck". Anti-Semitism in cabaret. doi : 10.23691 / jgo: article-98.de.v1