Fred Kassen

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Friedrich Wilhelm Kassen, also : Kaßen (born August 7, 1903 in Bochum - Langendreer , † April 7, 1972 in Cologne ), was the German founder and director of the Cologne cabaret and cabaret theater Senftöpfchen .

Career

Fred Kassen was given a supporting role in the movie “The Wrong Husband”, which was released on March 27, 1931, and sang the song “One day your little heart will be mine”. Here the tenor met the Comedian Harmonists who were also involved .

Another encounter in July 1935 earned him membership as the 3rd tenor in the non-Jewish successor group, Master Sextet , which he left in September 1939 due to disputes. Kassen's composition I am writing a letter to my mother was a Nazi-sponsored soldier's song that appeared in February 1942 as the B-side of Sven-Olof Sandberg's Lili Marleen .

In November 1945, Kassen was employed by the US military government in Marktheidenfeld . When Kassen's first wife, the American Ethel Louise Wright, left for the United States with her US boss in 1946, Kassen met his next wife, Alexandra Kassen , who was 20 years his junior in 1947 . After the war he founded the piano bar "Bei Fred" with her on Tegernsee . In 1955 he started the Stachelschwein artists' pub , in which the cabaret group “The Nameless” also appeared. From this emerged the Münchner Lach- und Schießgesellschaft , which celebrated its premiere on December 12, 1956 with Ursula Herking , Dieter Hildebrandt , Hans Jürgen Diedrich and Klaus Havenstein under the direction of Sammy Drechsel . She was accompanied on the piano by the porcupine owner Kassen. The compositions of the couplets came from Fred Kassen, starting with “Because they don't have to do what they do” (premiere on December 12, 1956) to “Eine kleine Machtmusik” (May 7, 1958). In 1958, Kassen sold the program to director Sammy Drechsel.

Foundation of the theater

Grab Fred and Alexandra Kassen (August 2018)

In February 1959, the Kassen couple moved to Cologne and took a small ensemble with them, consisting of Brigitte Mira , Heinz Junge, Gerd Martienzen and Bruno W. Pantel . On March 5, 1959, the couple opened the Senftöpfchen cabaret and cabaret theater on Cologne's Pipinstrasse , for which Kassen worked as a copywriter, composer, director, pianist and director. Well-known actors, musicians, cabaret artists and small artists have performed here over the years. Ironic, critical and sharp political criticism and unusual performances (“Folies Parisiennes”) gave the first cabaret in Cologne national and international weight.

When Fred Kassen died unexpectedly in 1972 at the age of 68, Alexandra Kassen took over the theater and was able to increase the theater's reputation even further. Her primary goal was to promote young talent. Of the two children, the daughter Alexandra Franziska (* 1956) supported her mother with the theater tour.

The grave of the Kassen couple is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hallway 71 no. 45/46).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Death certificate No. 809 from April 7, 1972, registry office Cologne East. In: LAV NRW R civil status register. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  2. ^ Main network of January 6, 2009, Marktheidenfeld's chief prosecutor .
  3. ↑ Eberhard Fechner : The Comedian Harmonists - Six CVs , Heyne, Munich 2003, pp. 255 ff.
  4. ↑ Ute Becker: The Chronicle: History of the 20th Century to Today , Gütersloh, Munich 2006, p. 410.
personal data
SURNAME Checkout, Fred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kassen, Friedrich Wilhelm; Kaßen, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater founder and director
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Bochum - Langendreer
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1972
Place of death Cologne