Grock

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Charles Adrien Wettach (1903)

Grock (born January 10, 1880 as Charles Adrien Wettach in Loveresse , Switzerland ; † July 14, 1959 in the Oneglia district in Imperia , Italy ) was a Swiss clown .

Huge floppy shoes, baggy pants and a tiny violin were his trademarks, as well as his "Waruuuuuum?", Which was produced in all keys, followed by a "Nit möööööglich!", Uttered with the greatest naivety and bottomless astonishment.

Grock mastered 15 musical instruments, played the violin , piano , concertina , saxophone , clarinet , accordion and guitar with virtuosity and also composed songs and solo pieces for accordion and piano. He spoke six languages, in addition to his mother tongue French, fluent English and Italian, German, Spanish and Hungarian.

Life

His parents were Jean-Adolf Wettach and his wife Cécile-Fanny Péquenat. His was an artist, then a watchmaker, finally an innkeeper. Adrien spent part of his youth in Biel , where his father initially worked at Brandt & Cie , later Omega . Later, his father took over the «Paradisli» restaurant in Biel, where the young Adrien and his sister Jeanne had his first appearances. His sister later married the artist Géo Lolé with whom her brother also worked.

From 1897 to 1899 Adrien Wettach worked as a language, gymnastics and riding instructor for the sons of Count Bethlen Kalman in Hungary . He then played in Budapest as a violinist in a Schrammel quartet. After one of these appearances he was hired as a partner by the clown Alfred Prinz. Shortly afterwards, the two appeared as "Alfredianos" in a Hungarian circus. In the amphitheater in Nîmes (southern France) Adrien Wettach and his partner “Brick” performed for the first time on October 1, 1903 under the name “Grock”.

In the following years he conquered the circus arenas and from 1911 the music halls of all of Europe, America and North Africa . After the outbreak of World War I, he lived in England for nine years from 1915, where he celebrated triumphs in the Coliseum Theater (London). Before 1920, Grock married Ines Ospiri. She was ten years younger than him, divorced and had a daughter named Bianca. Grock had the magnificent "Villa Bianca" (now known as Villa Grock ) built on the Italian Riviera from 1924 to 1930 .

In his 30-minute legendary stage sketch , made into a film in 1931 - one of the very first European sound films - Grock a. a. on a grand piano and a harmonium from the Stuttgart company J & P Schiedmayer .

His appearances in Nazi Germany after 1933 brought Grock harsh criticism after the Second World War. Shortly before the outbreak of war, Grock said goodbye to the stage and retired to his villa in Oneglia. In 1944 he fled to Switzerland and soon appeared there again. In 1951, at the age of 71, Grock founded his first successful circus company. In order to be able to perform his number in the round of the circus, he designed a rotating ring especially for it. In 1952 he visited Charlie Rivel in France and persuaded him to go on a tour together. Grock was in the ring for the last time on October 31, 1954 in Hamburg. He spent his old age in his villa in Oneglia ; there he died on July 14, 1959. Grock left behind numerous compositions for accordion (see literature). In memory of him, an SBB train composition of the type SBB RABDe 500 037-7 (ICN) was named after him.

  • Grock with his wife, 1930 in Berlin

  • Paradisli restaurant in Biel

  • Autograph

  • SBB tilting train «Grock»

  • Signature of Grock in his book "A Life as a Clown"

Movie

such as

  • Grock's stage sketch with Max van Embden (from 1931), restored, as a DVD supplement to the illustrated biography "Grock - Stranger than Truth"
  • Grock - king of the clowns . Documentary by Felice Zenoni, 2003
  • Documentation Grock - a clown legend , directed by Alix Maurin Fabiano d'Amato. France, Switzerland, 2019, Arte, 53 min. ( The TV premiere broadcaster, Arte )

Fonts

  • Nit m-ö-ö-ö-ö-glich. The memoirs of the king of clowns . Edited by Ernst Konstantin. Mundus-Verlag Jupp Gerhards, 1956.
  • A life as a clown, my memories . Publisher and edition Circus Grock, 1951.

literature

  • Laurent Diercksen: Grock. Beyond the imagination .
  • Laurent Diercksen: Grock . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz - Dictionnaire du théâtre en Suisse. Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 753 f. (French).
  • Ernst Konstantin: Grock - Nit possible. The memoirs of the king of clowns. Mundus-Verlag, Stuttgart 1956.
  • Adam Kuckhoff: Scherry: The life of the clown Grock . 1931.
  • Hansruedi Lerch: Grock. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Toni Meissner: "Not possible!" Charles Adrian Wettach. In: Karl Hoche , Toni Meissner, Bartel F. Sinhuber: The great clowns. Athenaeum, Königstein im Taunus 1982, pp. 53–63.
  • Oliver M. Meyer: Grock. Stranger than the truth (with DVD insert).
  • Thomas Eickhoff (Hrsg.): Grock - accordion works of the famous clown (sheet music of Grock's own compositions for accordion, with 2nd voice ad lib). Hohner-Verlag, Mainz 2014.
  • Raymond Naef: Grock. A rediscovery of the clown .
  • Raymond Naef: Grock - the famous clown and his music (book and CD). Akkodeon magazine edition, 2011.
  • Edmund Stadler:  Grock. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 101 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Grock  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Villa Grock - Imperia - Historical travel guide. Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ ARTISTIC / CHARLIE RIVEL: Man is bad - DER SPIEGEL 14/1953. Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a well-known photo by photographer Jochen Blume (* 1925) shows a moment of this farewell ( welt.de November 23, 2010 )
  4. ↑ Xaver Frühbeis: "Nit possible!" BR-Klassik , July 14, 2017, accessed July 15, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Grock
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wettach, Charles Adrien (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss clown
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Loveresse , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1959
Place of death Oneglia, Imperia , Italy