Leo Schönbach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leo Schönbach (born September 30, 1892 in Leipzig , † February 4, 1945 in Shanghai ) was a German musician and Kapellmeister .

Life

Leo Schönbach was born in 1892 as the youngest of three children into a Jewish merchant family from Czernowitz ( Bukowina ) . His maternal grandfather ran a "25-Pfennig-Bazaar" in Halle (Saale) around 1900 , his father owned a shop for household and kitchen appliances, which was taken over by Leo Schönbach's older brother Jakob after his death.

Leo Schönbach received music training at the Leipzig Conservatory and then played as a solo cellist at the Ducal Court Theater in Altenburg . From 1917 to 1920 he worked as a choir director and from 1920 to 1924 as a solo repetitor and conductor at the Stadttheater in Halle. He then worked as a freelance bandmaster, music teacher, cellist, pianist and as a concert accompanist for well-known singers such as Marcel Wittrisch .

Schönbach was a member of Halle's humanitarian Freemasons lodge "Zur Burg am Saalestrande", which also accepted non-Christians. When it moved to a Christian grand lodge in 1926 , he inevitably left the lodge.

In 1935 Schönbach was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer due to his Jewish origins and was thus banned from performing on German theaters. From then on he earned his living by performing, which were organized by the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden . He took over the management of the Jewish Choir Association and continued to work as a conductor , solo cellist and pianist. As a concert accompanist for the Jewish singer Beatrice Freudenthal-Waghalter , he traveled to several major German cities. In 1937 he took over the musical direction of the Leipziger Kleinkunstbühne "Der Bunte Karren".

In August 1938 the Schönbach family was asked to leave Germany immediately. However, all attempts to obtain visas failed. At the beginning of 1939 Leo and Jakob Schönbach tried to illegally enter the Netherlands. But they were discovered and arrested. On March 11, 1939, the two brothers were finally able to emigrate to Shanghai . Her sister Regina and Jacob's wife and daughter followed a little later. They financed their departure through the forced sale of their house in Halle as well as with funds from the emigrant aid fund.

In Shanghai Schönbach became musical director of the “Russian Club Theater” together with Henry Margolinski , where he conducted numerous operettas and operas , including Emmerich Kálmán's Die Csárdásfürstin in 1943 . In the middle of the rehearsals for Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana , he suffered a fatal stroke on February 4, 1945 . Several hundred people came to his funeral. In an obituary he was referred to as the "King of the Shanghai Operetta".

Leo Schönbach's brother returned to Halle with his family after the war, his sister Regina emigrated to the United States .

Commemoration

Stolperstein in memory of Leo Schönbach; Lafontainestrasse 4, Halle (Salle)

In 1999 the Leo-Schönbach-Weg was named after him in the theater district in the Böllberg / Wörmlitz district of Halle . In August 2010 the street sign was provided with an additional board that contains information about his life.

On November 3, 2012, a stumbling block was laid in front of his last house in Germany at Lafontainestrasse 4 in Halle .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Community foundation Halle: Education in passing: Wörmlitzer Theaterviertel. Community Foundation Halle provides street signs in the “theater district” with additional information.
personal data
SURNAME Schönbach, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician and Kapellmeister
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1945
Place of death Shanghai