Heinz Wehner (jazz musician)

Heinz (Heinrich) Wehner (born May 21, 1908 in Obstfeld in Westphalia; † probably January 1945 near Landsberg an der Warthe ) was a German jazz musician , band leader and arranger who, with his "Telefunken Swing Orchestra", was one of the top European bands counted.

Live and act

Wehner had since he was twelve at the Conservatory in Hanover studied music and recognized his special skills as a violin and trumpet soloist; with Börge Friis (1914–1998) in Berlin he was later able to deepen his knowledge in practice. Wehner, enthusiastic about the jazz of the twenties, first founded a trio in 1925, which he was able to expand into an octet over the next few years . He was soon performing with this ensemble not only in the Hanover region, but also in the Bergisches Land and Norderney.

In 1933 he had the opportunity to make his first major appearance in the famous “Tabaris” dance palace in Düsseldorf . In the same year he stood with a six-member bar band in the Berlin Ritz-Bar . In 1934 he could be heard in the “Europahaus” in Berlin at the Anhalter Bahnhof , where many well-known jazz and entertainment orchestras performed at that time. Shortly before this performance, Wehner was able to win over the well-known Willy Berking as trombonist, but also Benny de Weille and the pianist Helmuth Wernicke . From then on he celebrated great success with American swing numbers . Telefunken , one of the largest German record companies, invited him to make his first studio recordings in early 1935 . In February of the same year, Wehner's first recording of "White Jazz" took place with a ten-man band. These early arrangements first appeared in Telefunken's inexpensive Musikus range . As the exclusive contractual partner of Telefunken, Heinz Wehner's band advanced to become the "Telefunken Swing Orchestra". The Telefunken company, which, inspired by the sales successes since 1937, was also on the lookout for foreign jazz talents, was able to afford an American-style swing orchestra regardless of the measures taken by the Reich Chamber of Music . Records were made with other great musicians such as Peter Igelhoff , Eric Helgar and Franz "Teddy" Kleindin . In slippery contributions such as "Meine Adelheid" composed by Roman Blahnik and sung by Igelhoff, Wehner drew on the German cabaret music tradition of the past decade in May 1936.

The Telefunken Swing Orchestra Heinz Wehner also included Herbert Müller (clarinet / alto saxophone), Willy Berking (trombone), Kurt Hoffmann (trombone), Ewald Meyer, Artur Flömer, Helmuth Wernicke (piano), Hermann Scholz, Ronny Niepel and the Austrian Theo Ferstl (trumpet and arrangement), who switched to the newly founded German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra (DTU) in 1942 . In addition to the direction, Wehner usually also took on the vocal parts in English and German. The recordings from 1935 to 1941 clearly show the way from the jazz band to the elegant, swinging big band .

Wehner became internationally known through public appearances, records and radio . In the 12/1937 issue of the US jazz magazine " Down Beat ", the critic Dick McBougall described the Telefunken Orchestra in jazz magazine as "the best band in the Nazi empire". Similar praise came from Sweden . From then on, at the latest, Heinz Wehner was one of the most popular German-speaking swing musicians along with Teddy Stauffer , which was also reflected in the number of his recordings.

For a tour through Sweden planned for 1938, Wehner tried successfully to win over Kleindin, who was also a good cellist, which was very beneficial to him on the dance afternoons planned there. The band only performed with swing music in the evening. The Sweden tour was a great success. The highlight was always Wehner's arrangement of " Tiger Rag ". It is said that the actual concert appearances were much “hotter” than the recordings that have been made, which always had to struggle with the omnipresent censorship . In September 1938 he played “Bye Bye Blues”, first published in 1930, on Telefunken.

Wehner worked for many leading Berlin dance cafes and palaces such as the "Cafe Berolina" or the " Femina ." With seven engagements, a total of 16 months, Wehner held the top position among the bands playing in the " Delphi Palace ". The reputation of this dance palace as a place of pilgrimage for swing was established in 1936 by Elfriede Scheibel, the owner of the “Delphi” and her commitment by Teddy Stauffer and his “Original Teddies”. In 1941 Wehner married Elfriede Scheibel. In January of the same year the "Delphi-Fox" had already been recorded for record sales. Theo Ferstl composed the jazz instrumental piece dedicated to the Tanzpalast.

The fact that the music chamber never intervened significantly against the jazzy “Delphi” is possibly thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Wehner's wife. Nevertheless, it remains unusual that Wehner - even if there were warnings - received praise from the German trade press for his swing despite "the occasional bubbling heat waves and English refrain singing" ( Der Artist magazine ). One reason was certainly the fact that the younger German audiences in the big cities in particular were impressed by perfectly staged American music revue films until the USA entered the war at the end of 1941, the pieces of which were then played by German bands. In order to keep the audience in a good mood, revues with a wealth of equipment and, towards the end, also color productions, were shown on the cinema screens, which, with some strongly swinging elements, followed on from American models. As the shellac recordings show, Wehner continued undeterred to fall back on the popular pieces in the USA and sang their texts in the original English, such as " Over the Rainbow " made famous by Judy Garland in 1940 from the musical film " The Wizard of Oz ". Both titles were banned three months later and could only be sold for export.

At the beginning of the war in 1939, Joseph Goebbels had already banned the broadcasting of dance music on the radio. However, since the German soldiers at the front began to listen to more and more banned British channels from this point on, and American films remained in the cinema programs until the German declaration of war, the ban on broadcasting was again relaxed by December 1940 - shallow dance music, later also jazzy pieces, were allowed again. However, individual departments were now all the harder against the swing and jazz bands. The orchestras benefited from the fact that opinion about swing was very divided among the population. Young people in particular are taken with "crass and perverse hot music", according to reports from the Reich , the secret internal political situation reports of the Reichsführer SS security service of March 6, 1941. Among other things, the report also includes Wehner, who was then employed in Dortmund was attacked for his "hot and swing melodies". The sometimes hesitant, then again offensive and sometimes even deliberately negligent behavior of the National Socialists towards jazz and swing both in the Reich and in the occupied territories does not produce a uniform picture.

In the year of his marriage, 1941, Wehner was sent to Norway to take care of the troops as head of a Wehrmacht orchestra for the soldiers' station in Oslo , where he accompanied Lale Andersen in 1942 . During his vacations at the front he played regularly in the "Delphi" and recorded swing records until the end. In Norway, under the sign of the imperial eagle with a swastika, unsalable “special recordings on behalf of the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territories” with the “Heinz Wehner dance band” were created for troop support. Singers such as Olga Rinnebach and Rosl Rauch performed. He stayed in Norway with his Wehrmacht orchestra until 1944; then he was transferred to the eastern front via occupied Czechoslovakia . A recording made with the orchestra of Czech jazz musician Karel Vlach in Prague at the end of 1944 is considered to be his last recording. Heinz Wehner was last seen on January 21, 1945 during the fighting in retreat near Landsberg an der Warthe. In 1958 he was declared dead .

Arrangements (selection)

• Music sounds , 1936 (Hodgson / Farley / Riley / Berthold) Heinz Wehner with the Telefunken Swing Orchestra; Singing: Heinz Wehner and the Spree Revellers
• Meine Adelheid , 1936 - (Blahnik / Peter Igelhoff ) Heinz Wehner with the Telefunken Swing Orchestra; Singing: Peter Igelhoff
• I would like to be a chicken , 1936 - (Music: Peter Kreuder / Text: Hans-Fritz Beckmann ) Heinz Wehner with the Telefunken Swing Orchestra; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• First you say “Yes” and then you say “No” , 1936 (Music: Leo Eysoldt / Text: Kurt Feltz) Heinz Wehner with the Telefunken Swing Orchestra; Singing: Eric Helgar
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday , 1937 ( Manfred Zalden / Wilhelm Krug / Heinz) Heinz Wehner with band ; Singing: Eric Helgar
• San Francisco , 1937 ( Bronislaw Kaper / Walter Jurmann / Gus Kahn ) Heinz Wehner with chapel; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• Tiger Rag , ( Nick LaRocca ) Heinz Wehner with band
• Bye Bye Blues , 1938 (Hamm, Bennett, Lown, Gray) Heinz Wehner and his dance orchestra
• Das Fräulein Gerda , 1938 ( Helmuth Wernicke ) Heinz Wehner with chapel; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• The uncle doctor said in 1938 (Peter Igelhoff / Klaus S. Richter) Heinz Wehner with a band; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• Little woman why so sad , 1939 (Fritz Weber) Heinz Wehner with chapel
• Under the Red Moon of the Pampas , 1939 (Jack Lorimer / Tommie Connor) Heinz Wehner with chapel; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• Over the Rainbow , 1940 ( Harold Arlen ) Heinz Wehner with chapel; Singing: Heinz Wehner
• In A Eighteenth Century Draing Room , 1940 (Warnow based on: Mozart, Piano Sonata in C major, KV 545) Heinz Wehner with chapel
• Delphi Fox , 1941 (Theo Ferstl) Heinz Wehner with chapel
• You are so loved to me , 1941 (W. Borchert) Heinz Wehner with chapel; Singing: Rosl Rauch

Literature and audio samples

• Gerhard Conrad: Heinz Wehner. A bio discography. Menden 1989.
• Knud Wolffram: Swinging Delphi - 1936–1942, audio CD-ROM with a detailed booklet on the Delphi Palace and its orchestras; Pumpkin Pie Records 2005.
• Michael H. Kater : A daring game. Jazz under National Socialism . Publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3462024094 .
• Heinz Wehner Swingin 'the Jinx Away Telefunken Swing Orchestra 1935–1941, audio CD-ROM with detailed comments and many pictures; Edition Antikbüro, Berlin 2003, order no. TZ1000, 426005136100.
• Jürgen Wölfer : Jazz in Germany. The encyclopedia. All musicians and record companies from 1920 until today. Hannibal, Höfen 2008, ISBN 978-3-85445-274-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Horst Heinz Lange: Jazz in Germany. The German Jazz Chronicle until 1960 . Georg Olms Verlag , Hildesheim 1996. ISBN 3487083752 . P. 92.
2. ^ Wolfgang Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 95
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Knud Wolffram: Swinging Delphi. A dance palace and its bands 1936–1942. (Supplement) Pumpkin Pie Records 2005.
4. ^ Horst Heinz Lange: Jazz in Germany. The German Jazz Chronicle until 1960 . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1996. ISBN 3487083752 . P. 105.
5. ↑ who was considered the best trumpeter of his time
6. ^ Klaus Schulz: Jazz in Austria 1920-1960 . Album Verlag, Vienna 2003. (Supplement to the CD). P. 42.
7. ↑ Friedel Keim: The great book of the trumpet. Instrument, history, trumpeter lexicon . Schott Musikverlag, Mainz 2005. ISBN 3795705304 . P. 702.
8. ^ Wolfgang Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, pp. 95ff.
9. ^ Horst Heinz Lange: Jazz in Germany. The German Jazz Chronicle until 1960 . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1996. ISBN 3487083752 . P. 93.
10. ↑ Knud Wolffram: dance floorboards and pleasure palaces. Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, Berlin 1992. ISBN 3894680474 . P. 165.
11. ↑ Knud Wolffram: dance floorboards and pleasure palaces. Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, Berlin 1992. ISBN 3894680474 . P. 144.
12. ^ Hans-Jörg Koch: The request concert on Nazi radio . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2003. ISBN 3-412-10903-7 . P. 79.
13. ^ Wolfgang Knauer "Play yourself, man!" The history of jazz in Germany. Stuttgart 2019, p. 97f. Knauer is also of the opinion that "the adjustments of the recording repertoire to the rules of the Reichsmusikkamer ... can be clearly understood in Wehner's discography".
14. ↑ Bernd Polster: Jazz in National Socialism . Transit-Verlag, Berlin 1989. ISBN 3887470508 . P.56.
15. ↑ Günter Grull: radio and music by and for soldiers. War and post-war years 1939-1960 . Wilhelm Herbst Verlag, Dessau-Roßlau 2000. ISBN 3923925662 . P. 98.
16. ↑ Michael H. Kater: Different Drummers. Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany . Oxford University Press, New York 2003. ISBN 0-19-516553-5 . P. 176. (in English)