Edmund Guschelbauer

Louise Montag and Edmund Guschelbauer, 1885

Edmund Guschelbauer (born October 16, 1839 in Alservorstadt , today Vienna ; † February 6, 1912 in Vienna) was one of the most important Viennese folk singers and a couplet poet . He successfully embodied the "old Viennese" type with comic singing and an intimate presentation style. He also introduced the custom of letting the audience sing along to the refrains, which was enthusiastically received by them.

Live and act

Art Nouveau - medal 1903 40th anniversary on Guschelbauer singer in Vienna. Front.

The reverse of this medal with his song text: The old Drahrer.

Edmund Guschelbauer was born in 1839 in Alservorstadt, a suburb of Vienna that was incorporated eleven years later . His mother was a single parent and kept her head above water financially with handicrafts. Soon after he was born , the two moved to Sechshaus , which is in today's 15th district , where Edmund Guschelbauer grew up. After primary school he did an apprenticeship as a gilder , but sang as an apprentice on Sundays in taverns in Neustift and Schottenfeld . After completing his apprenticeship, Guschelbauer was unemployed, which is why he went on a hike . Back in Vienna, he first appeared in some social clubs, where he met the famous folk singer Josefine Schmer in 1862 . This brought him to the elite singing society "Kampf", where she also performed herself. In the following years of his career Guschelbauer is said to have been with a total of 28 different singing companies, such as "Schwarzblattln", "Kraus", "Antonia Mansfeld" and "Anna Ulke".

In 1869 he married Katharina Geißler, with whom he supposedly had 11 children, five of whom were still alive in 1909. From 1895 Guschelbauer was a widower. In 1879 he brought out his best-known song: "The old Drahrer". At that time he was engaged in the romper theater under the cloth arbor . The song became a kind of hymn of Viennese recklessness. Guschelbauer was also known for his interpretation of the Viennese songs by Alexander Krakauer .

One of the stages he used most frequently was the Dreher establishment, where he appeared 74 times from 1869 to 1899. In 1883 Guschelbauer received a concession for his own singing company. In this he joined forces with Luise Montag until 1888, and Johann Baptist Moser was with him from 1888 to 1892 .

His enormous popularity can still be seen today in the extensive reports about him in numerous newspapers. On his 40th stage anniversary, Guschelbauer was celebrated between March 1 and 3, 1903 in nine articles by the Viennese newspapers. As part of these celebrations, he was also granted citizenship of the City of Vienna on March 2nd . An estimated 4,000 people attended the subsequent celebrations in the Katharinenhalle in Dreher Park. After its 40th anniversary, however, little is known about Guschelbauer. The heyday of folk singing was finally over, cabaret and the cinema were enjoying increasing popularity among the audience. In contrast to the many other Viennese folk singers, who often had to spend their retirement years in poverty, Guschelbauer was not doing really badly in old age either. In the 1900s, however, he no longer earned 300 guilders a month, as in his prime.

For the documentary film Types and Scenes from Viennese Folk Life , made by Anton Kolm and his Wiener Kunstfilm in 1911 , the only known film recordings were made by Edmund Guschelbauer, who died a year later.

Edmund Guschelbauer died on February 6, 1912. He was first buried at the Baumgartner Friedhof, but was later transferred to an honorary grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery at the instigation of the "Zwölferbund der Wiener Volkssänger" (group 56B, row 9, no. 20). In the newspaper reports of the following decades up to 1939 it became clear that Vienna was convinced that Guschelbauer was the last great folk singer to have had.

In 1952 the Guschelbauergasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after him.

Works

These are vocal pieces that were performed by Guschelbauer. In part he is also their author, although he could no longer name the author of his most famous lecture piece "Der alten Drahrer".

• Then you have gnua . Couplet. Text: Fritz Lung.
• That must be a woman . Couplet. Text: J. Philippi.
• The old Drahrer .
• I'm an old Spleni. Deutschmeisterlied 1896. Text: Ed. Notices. Music: CW Drescher
• I can not do it!
• Julchen, do you want to smoke tobacco? Viennese song. Text: Gustav Nelling.
• Oh you big donkey! Original couplet.
• Rosa, my darling . Choir song. Text: Gustav Nelling. Music: Rudolf Hauptmann. Refrain: Guschelbauer.

Audio documents

Guschelbauer left gramophone recordings on G&T and Jumbo-Record:

1. G&T

1.1. 7 'records

• 2-42 090 (mx. 967 v -Go-2x) Alter Drah'rer (Poldhamer - Sioly)
• 2-42-091 (mx. 969) Julchen, do you want to smoke tobacco? (Guschelbauer)
• 2-42 096 (mx. 968) Pratermarsch

• 44 106 (mx. 2443) The Almfrieden (Carl Lorens)
• 44 107 (mx. 2444 B) Steff'lwalzer
• 44 108 (mx. 2445) The happiest person is the Jaga in the forest (Wanthaler)
• 44 109 (mx. 2446) Drah'ma um and drah'ma auf (captain)

• 44 168 (mx. 965) There heart in the chest (Sioly)

1.2. 10 'records

• 2-42 564 (mx. 734 zg) That must be a woman
• 2-42 565 (mx. 735 zg) Deutschmeisterlied
• 2-42 566 (mx. 736 zg) Drah'rer and Mondschein

2. Jumbo record

• 14 252 Weaner yodelling dance
• 14 253 The Waldbua
• 14 254 That's Wean way
• 14 255 But folks, leave it to renna
• 14 256 Muatterl, I'm in love
• 14 257 By the old linden tree

literature

• Guschelbauer Edmund. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 109.
• Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 2. Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 643.
• Alan Kelly: Catalog of the vocal recordings of Deutsche Grammophon Berlin-Hanover from 1898-1925 (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.) , photomechan. Reprinted by Hansfried Sieben, Düsseldorf undated [around 1970]
• Berthold Leimbach: Sound documents of cabaret and their interpreters 1898-1945. Göttingen, self-published, 1991; large-octave hardcover - unpag.

Web links

• Entry on Edmund Guschelbauer in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Wiener Volksliedwerk bockkeller , Volume 9, Number 1, March 2003, pp. 4–6 (PDF file; 3.68 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vienna Volksliedwerk: bock cellar. ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.9 MB) Volume 9, No. 1, March 2003, p. 5 (accessed on October 11, 2008)
2. ↑ Kelly p. 45
3. ↑ Kelly p. 173
4. ↑ Kelly p. 174
5. ↑ Kelly p. 53