Harry Frommermann
Harry Frommermann (born October 12, 1906 in Berlin , † October 29, 1975 in Bremen ; Harry Frohman emigrated ) was a German singer. He became known as the founder, arranger and 3rd tenor of the Berliner Ensemble Comedian Harmonists .
Life
Frommermann came from a Jewish family, his father was a native Russian. In 1922 Frommermann decided to attend an acting school. He fell out with his father about this. In 1924 he was thrown out of drama school. After the death of his mother, he was now completely on his own.
In 1927 he placed an advertisement in the newspaper:
"Caution. Rare. Tenor, bass (professional singer, not over 25), very musical, nice-sounding voices, wanted for a unique ensemble, specifying the daily available time. "
Due to the economic downturn, hundreds of applicants registered, allegedly including Johannes Heesters and Zarah Leander, who was still completely unknown at the time . Most applicants, however, were completely untalented. Frommermann was disappointed and was about to give up when Robert Biberti stepped on the scene. Biberti loved the successful American vocal ensemble The Revelers as much as Frommermann did. Together with Biberti's colleagues, they decided to found something similar in Germany: initially as “Melody Makers”, who soon thereafter called themselves Comedian Harmonists . As an arranger , Frommermann wrote the choral pieces for the songs.
From the first appearance in 1928, the ensemble began an unparalleled career. Numerous appearances in Berlin were followed by recordings and several tours through Germany and half of Europe. Because of the high proportion of Jewish members, the Comedian Harmonists were relatively unsuspicious and popular in other countries that were critical of the Nazis. Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels did not like the success of the “Jewish” group at all; in February 1935 he enforced their ban on appearing in the Reich Chamber of Culture . The farewell concert in Berlin was a last huge success streaked with sadness. With the disappearance of this very internationally oriented ensemble, there was no longer any popular music with an international resonance in Germany.
The three Jewish members Harry Frommermann, Roman Cycowski and Erich A. Collin emigrated to Vienna , from where they continued to tour successfully all over the world under the name “Comedy Harmonists”. In December 1941, they were in New York from the US entry into the war surprised and the ensemble fell apart. Frommermann's attempt to start over with a different ensemble in New York failed due to lack of funds. Frommermann was drafted into the US Army and changed his name to Frohman. Because of an accident at work, he did not have to go to the front, but instead entertained the wounded as an entertainer.
After the Second World War he came back to Berlin and worked as a translator (including at the Nuremberg Trials ) and later as an intelligence officer. After his discharge from the army, he went to Zurich and became a real estate agent. An attempt to build a new ensemble with Collin failed. Frommermann then went to Rome in 1949 and worked as an artistic advisor for radio.
In 1951 he returned to Switzerland to set up an import-export company. This attempt also failed. He then tried to get a job with television in the US, but was not hired. His wife left him and a new marriage was divorced in 1956. Frommermann tried to stay afloat as a packer in the port of New York , later he manufactured alarm systems in a company. He worked as an assistant accountant, taxi driver and sold kitchen furniture. His health continued to deteriorate.
Musically, he started a new attempt in New York in the fall of 1953 as Harry M. Frohman - The Vocal Orchestra, in which, as a one-man orchestra, he imitated instruments with his voice and recorded them on tape. From these experiments only a picture of Rimsky-Korsakov's flight of the bumblebee has survived.
Frommermann had already met the German Erika von Späth during his time as an American soldier and had been in correspondence with her for years. In 1960 he applied to her advice for compensation for the loss of his existence through the Nuremberg Race Laws of the Third Reich. In 1962 he was awarded a lifelong pension, returned to Germany and moved in with Erika von Späth. He was now constantly ill and died in Bremen in 1975 at the age of 69 . He is there in the Riensberg cemetery , grave site T299.
Also in 1975 Eberhard Fechner made his well-known documentary about the Comedian Harmonists. Preliminary talks had already taken place for the interview with Frommermann, but he died 14 days before filming began. In the film, Frommermann's partner Erika von Späth and his first wife Marion were interviewed.
Frommermann was played by Ulrich Noethen in Joseph Vilsmaier's film Comedian Harmonists .
literature
- Eberhard Fechner: The Comedian Harmonists. Six résumés. Quadriga, Weinheim 1988, ISBN 3-88679-174-2 (paperback edition: Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-87315-7 ).
- Jan Grübler: The family of Harry Frommermann, founder of the "Comedian Harmonists" . 1st ed., Dr. Köster, Berlin 2014, ISBN 3-89574-864-1 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Harry Frommermann in the catalog of the German National Library
- Harry Frommer man in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comedian Harmonists Forum (with portrait photos)
Individual evidence
- ↑ THE STORY OF THE COMEDIAN HARMONISTS. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Harry Frommermann | Comedian Harmonists. Retrieved September 20, 2017 (German).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pious man, Harry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Frohman, Harry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 12, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 29, 1975 |
| Place of death | Bremen |