Franz Baumann (singer)

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Franz Baumann (born December 7, 1890 in Stettin , † December 23, 1965 in Berlin ) was a German singer, actor and songwriter.

Life

Franz Baumann first studied German in Berlin, Jena and Heidelberg. He then completed vocal training in Wiesbaden, Milan and Naples. Baumann began his artistic career as a concert singer, mainly devoting himself to songs by Franz Schubert. But also folk songs, operetta tunes and high-quality hits were in his repertoire. Many recordings underlined his success, which eventually also occurred internationally. He gave many concerts in Holland and Switzerland. Baumann also took on feature film roles several times up to 1933.

The increasing spread of radio brought Baumann another career boost as a singer. His voice was well suited to the new medium, and during a longer stay in New York he also stood in front of the microphone for broadcasters there. His voice was also heard on Paris radio and the BBC. The radio technical magazine Der Funkspruch was proud of this success in its July 22nd 1928 issue:

“As the first and only German singer, Franz Baumann recently sang for a week on the London radio station with unprecedented success and not only booked a huge success for himself, but also opened up a new international circle of friends for German song. Baumann sang German folk songs in London in German and English. It is interesting that the London daily press writes, among other things, the following: 'Franz Baumann sings in four languages, and he has mastered English so perfectly that he sang without even suspecting a foreign accent.' Over there in the press he was widely referred to as the German radio and 'gramophone' star. "

In 1937 Baumann finally returned to Germany. He was considered the “most popular radio tenor ” in Germany, whose career continued unchecked after 1933.

As early as 1931 he had written the song Far is the Way Back to Home and also sung it himself on a shellac record . This marching song was used in the xenophobic film Refugees (1933) and became (with modified and expanded text) the battle song of the Hitler Youth . Ernst Erich Buder was named as the composer , but it actually went back to a popular English song from the First World War. After the Second World War, the song with Baumann's text reappeared in Bundeswehr songbooks, and the singer Heino also had in his repertoire. In the confession song Deutschland, du Land der Treue (based on the melody of Blau Äugelein by Theodore F. Morse), Baumann wrote the following lines:

“Swastika flags, black, white and red,
greet and admonish: Be faithful until death!
Germans, be brothers, shake hands!
Hail our leader! Hail the fatherland! "

The lyrics were printed in the Arbeitsdienst -Liederbuch (1934) and in Singend wir marschieren (1938).

The vast majority of the other texts written by Baumann were of a non-political nature and fitted into the entertainment mainstream of the 1930s. He wrote the German lyrics for the hits Ramona , Altes Spinnrad , Heimweh nach Virginia , Donkey Serenade and Moonlight Serenade . He also wrote many song texts for feature films, including for the anti-English propaganda film Mein Leben für Irland (songs: Now shoulder your sticks boys and We are from St. Edwards ) and for the Paul Hörbiger film Drei Mäderl um Schubert ( Song: The nightingale sings softly ).

Baumann's songs are no longer traceable from the time after the Second World War. He died in 1965 at the age of 75 as a result of two traffic accidents in Berlin.

Filmography

actor

  • 1919: The white roses from Ravensberg
  • 1920: Oops, teacher
  • 1927: I was a student at Heidelberg
  • 1928: The German song
  • 1929: All girls in Jena are so blonde
  • 1930: be a student when the violets bloom
  • 1932: The wrong tenor (short film)
  • 1933: The little swindler

Songwriters for films

Discography

CD (selection)

  • I was never alone with Lilly (on numerous samplers, including: Die Goldenen Zwanziger , Membran International 2004)
  • Kokolores (Sampler Das Grammophon Conquers the Living Room , Membrane International 2004)
  • The way back to my homeland is long (Sampler Schlager im Spiegel der Zeit 1931 , Bear Family 2010)
  • Greetings from home (sampler greetings from the Bohemian Forest , Roba Digital / Flex Media 2011)

Self-sung shellac records with your own text (selection)

  • Your heart belonged to me only once (music: drooning), gramophone 22377
  • Today I sing only for you (music: Walter Bransen -Franz Baumann), Odeon 0-2082, Vox 3580, Polidor 20744
  • Dear, good night (music: Walter Bransen), gramophone 21214, homocord 4-2534
  • Maria della Salute (music: Hans Ailbout), gramophone 10096
  • Rio Grande (traditional sea shanty), gramophone 2039
  • When the little mandolin sings (music by Hans Ailbout), gramophone 2586 and 2039

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Artists on the radio. A pocket almanac from the magazine of Deutsche Rundfunk, Rothgießer & Diesing AG, Berlin 1932
  2. ↑ Berthold Leimbach (ed.): Sound documents of the cabaret and their interpreters 1898–1945. Göttingen 1991
  3. ^ Volker Kühn: Text accompanying the CD Schlager im Spiegel der Zeit 1931. Bear Family, Hambergen
  4. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. Auprès de Zombry 2004, page 1131
  5. ↑ Berthold Leimbach (ed.): Sound documents of the cabaret and their interpreters 1898–1945. Göttingen 1991
personal data
SURNAME Baumann, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer, actor and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1965
Place of death Berlin