Hans Erl

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Stumbling block for Hans Erl at Eschersheimer Landstrasse 267

Hans Erl , including Tobias Erl (born on 8. October 1882 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died probably in June 1942 probably in the Majdanek concentration camp , possibly in the Sobibor extermination camp ) was a German-Austrian opera - and operetta - singer (pitch Bass ). Erl was a victim of the Holocaust .

Life

Erl received his artistic training shortly after the turn of the century. In 1904 he first attracted attention when he appeared in the premiere of Oscar Straus ' operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen at the Carltheater in Vienna . Hans Erl took on his first significant engagement in the 1908/09 season at the Raimund Theater in his hometown of Vienna. This was followed by engagements at stages in the German provinces such as Augsburg (at the Stadttheater from 1911 to 1913), Elberfeld (at the Stadttheater from 1913 to 1914). In 1914 he was surprised by the outbreak of World War I in Tsarist Russia (in Riga, today's capital of Latvia, where he gave concerts at the end of July 1914) and deported to Siberia as an enemy foreigner (Austrian). After seven weeks of internment, Erl and his wife Sofie, nee. Levi, leave the country again. At the end of November 1914, Hans Erl returned home to Vienna. Then he went to the city theater in Chemnitz.

Shortly before the end of the war, on August 1, 1918, Hans Erl moved to the Frankfurt Opera , where he was to celebrate triumphs as first bassist for the next decade and a half. His best-known roles and greatest successes with audiences included Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte . Erl was also seen as king in Lohengrin , as Mephisto in “Faust”, as Rocco in Fidelio , as Crespel in Hoffmann's stories , as Emperor Karl in “Oberon”, as Padre Guardiano in Verdi's La forza del destino , as Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni and in several Wagner performances: as Landgrave of Thuringia in Tannhäuser , as Veit Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and as Hunding in Die Walküre . Erl also played and sang the role of the king in the world premiere of Franz Schreker's Der Schatzgräber on January 21, 1920. His repertoire in Frankfurt alone comprised around one hundred roles. The Gurnemanz in Wagner's Parsifal became Erl's last role at Easter 1933.

Under pressure from the National Socialists who had just come to power, the Jew Hans Erl was dismissed from the theater management on August 31, 1933 with effect from the following day under pressure from the newly installed Nazi Lord Mayor Krebs. After Frankfurt's general manager Meissner had informed the pension fund of Erl's guest performance as “ Fiesco ” in Zurich in 1936, the artist, who was now economically distressed, was temporarily blocked from his meager pension. Erl remained based in Frankfurt / Main until the end. Shortly after the so-called Reichskristallnacht he was forced to undergo a special humiliation: Nazi henchmen abducted Hans Erl to the Frankfurt festival hall, where thousands of Jewish citizens were crammed together before being transported to the concentration camps. At least Erl escaped deportation after he agreed to sing the Sarastro aria " In these holy halls one does not know revenge " from the " Magic Flute " again. Like all Jewish pensioners at the opera, Erl was also given a sharp cut in the pension of 37 percent from February 1942. On June 11, 1942, the almost 60-year-old Jew was deported "to the east," as the documents say. The destination was probably the Majdanek extermination camp, but Sobibor camp is also possible. It is very likely that Hans Erl was gassed there shortly after his arrival.

His name is mentioned on the plaque of the municipal theaters. In 1955, in honor of Erl , a bust donated by Alfred Müllergroß and created by Georg Mahr was set up in the foyer of the opera .

Stumbling blocks for Hans and Sofie Erl were laid in Eschersheimer Landstrasse 267 in Frankfurt / M.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Other sources name Warsaw as the place of birth, but this seems very unlikely
  2. ^ Hans Erl in: New Free Press
  3. ↑ Hans Erl in: Wiener Bilder
  4. ↑ Stumbling blocks Frankfurt. Retrieved September 13, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Erl, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erl, Tobias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: June 1942
Place of death Majdanek or Sobibor concentration camp