Hein Bitz

Heinrich "Hein" Bitz (* 1914 in Cologne ; † 1987 ), called "Der Spatz vom Wallrafplatz", was a folk and street singer and for 40 years a "Cologne original" in this role.

Life

He was a trained electrician. He came to the Bündische Jugend in 1930/31 , was an anti-fascist in the Communist Youth during the Nazi era , was taken into protective custody in February 1936 on “urgent suspicion” of belonging to an illegal youth group and spent several months in prison with the Gestapo . There one eye was knocked out.

When he was unable to do his job due to poor eyesight, he became a street singer. Most recently he played in the group Drei Rabaue .

It owes its nickname to the venue where it was heard most often, Wallrafplatz in Cologne city center between the cathedral and Hohen Strasse .

In the 1960s and 1970s, Bitz sang parodies of the dialect of popular hits (e.g. when de Döppe sounds brightly on the Lys Assia hit when the bells ring brightly or all in white with a cauliflower (after Roy Black : Ganz in White with a bouquet of flowers )), whose texts he wrote himself. He accompanied himself on the guitar.

In addition, he also sang traditional songs such as Hermann Frey's wistful homecoming song Die alten Straßen… from the time of the First World War, the self-referential Ich bin ein Poor little street singer by Bruno Uher with the text by Paul Reif, which was introduced by the singing group in the 1930s Vier Richters became popular or the Colonia song by the "singing Kapellmeister" from Cologne-Kalk, Fritz Weber (1909–1984), whose text he wrote together with Rudi Lindt .

Bitz always sang live until his death in 1987; there is only one record with 19 songs by him, recorded in 1982 under the title En Jitarr, en Stemm unlösige Leedcher.

media

literature

• Eigelstein: Walk with Cologne songs. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger , May 11, 2013. ( Online )
• Hans Joachim Peters on a Bitz. hajope-art.de, April 6, 2013
• Singing elder. rheinnixe, December 20, 2009
• Walther Kiaulehn: Berlin - fate of a cosmopolitan city. Verlag CH Beck 1997, ISBN 3-406-41634-9
• Barbara Manthe: Navajos and Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne. Inappropriate and resistant youth behavior under National Socialism. Master's thesis, University of Cologne 2006.
• Barbara Manthe: Navajos and Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne: On the politicization of inappropriate youth behavior in the “Third Reich”. Article, Cologne 2007.
• Bernd-A. Rusinek : Köln-Ehrenfeld 1944. Partial preprint from a dissertation on the edelweiss pirates as part of the research assignment of the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia on forms of youth resistance in the Third Reich with special consideration of the situation in Cologne at the chair for modern history at the University of Düsseldorf. 324 p .: Düsseldorf 1987
• Josef Pütz (Hrsg.): Song booklet Die Drei Rabaue, original Cologne street singers . Cologne no year (around 1965)

Audio documents

• Hein Bitz - The Sparrow from Wallraffplatz (LP / CD). Trikont-Verlag, Munich (1982)
• Interview with Hein Bitz on his 65th birthday, with the song Kutt Noh Kölle

Web links

• Hein Bitz - has 19 entries on dismarc.org
• koelschakademie.fin with 13 titles that were composed / written by Hein Bitz († 1987).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In kölsch he “sings like that” his tunes, as he says. Cologne Express
2. ↑ Announcement: July 17th - Edelweiss Pirate Festival on July 3rd, 2011 at hagalil.com
3. ↑ ^{a b} museenkoeln: "Mucki" Koch, Peter and Helga Schäfer & SakkoKolonia: En der Blech (see also Von Navajos and Edelweißpiraten - Unadjusted youth behavior in Cologne 1933–1945 )
4. ↑ Tach zesamme !!! (PDF; 245 kB) koelschemusik.info
5. ↑ Three rabbits at discogs.com
6. ↑ Kölsche Lied –Texte: “When de Döppe bright sounds” ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on forum.express.de 
7. ↑ Kiaulehn p. 243, text to be read at volksliederarchiv.de ( Online ( Memento of the original from December 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) 
8. ↑ DNB catalog Poor little street singer: I'm a poor little street singer; Beguine Serenade / Bruno Uher a. Paul Reif
9. ↑ Online on YouTube
10. ↑ to be found at koelschakademie.finbot.com ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.