Seppl Dammhofer

Seppl Dammhofer (born July 2, 1884 in Berlin , † September 11, 1929 in Zurich ) was a Swiss folk singer and humorist .

life and work

Although he was born in Berlin as Adolf Jakob Gut, Seppl Dammhofer, as he later called himself by his stage name, was the child of Swiss parents. He learned the trade of book printer and then went to southern Germany, where he appeared as a "South German mountain type actor". After gaining some reputation for himself as a humorist on stage , he decided to give up the printing job and go to the theater entirely.

He returned to Switzerland and in 1915 took over the management of the Corso Theater in Zurich, where he became one of the most popular Swiss comedians in the 1920s. Primitive and of massive body weight, he appeared sedate and comfortable to his audience. He had written himself a part of his humorous lectures, in his repertoire but were also texts German colleagues, who he worked for the Swiss public and the Swiss German translated.

The themes of his scenes and couplets were taken from everyday culture: the rather unpleasant visit to the dentist or the courtroom and the participation in soldiers' school and maneuvers are the small pleasures at the “Buure-Chilbi”, the farmer's church fair, at the “Suuser” and the “Blueschtfahrt” "the Maiausflug, opposite, or those in the glee club, while protecting hard, with a zoo and on a journey by rail as well as the festivities in Ordinary Time, as the appearance of Santa Claus (St. Nicholas) and Christmas eve . “Schaaggi Buume” is the name of the character through whose mouth Dammhofer reports all of this. In many cases his lectures were accompanied by singing and music.

He occasionally appeared with the popular Berner Preis yodeler Paul Gerber (1880–1941), with whom he also made a gramophone recording.

Guest tours have taken him to Germany and Austria again and again. So he stepped z. B. 1912 in the Colosseum Theater in Essen, where he was able to save a colleague, the lecturer Grete Sylvant, from immediate death in the flames in the event of an accident. At the beginning of the First World War he was a guest in Bonn in the specialty theater "Sonne".

On Saturday and Sunday, June 29th and 30th, 1918, he worked alongside other artists in Zurich in an "evening entertainment" on the occasion of a folk festival on the Albisgüetli . The event was for charitable purposes.

In Zurich he ran the Maximum Theater as director and actor.

Dammhofer died impoverished and ill at the age of 45 in a Zurich hospital.

The Zurich “local writer” Kurt Guggenheim remembers the artist in his novel “Salt of the Sea, Salt of Tears” (cf. Works Vol. 6, p. 41), in which he describes his stay in Le Havre: “Once I took part in such an event to which the then well-known comedian Seppl Dammhofer was invited. To show his thanks and to pay off the contribution to the amusement that the whole society probably expected, he gave a funeral speech about a sow that had just been slaughtered in that inn. "

Audio documents

After 1918 he had his lectures and couplets recorded on gramophone records of the brands Grammophon (abroad Polydor ), Odeon , Artiphon and Vox . The catalog of the music archive in the DNB names 24 of his titles.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b so Leimbach; according to the Zurich paperback, his name was Josef Gut, cf. Zürcher Taschenbuch , Volume 110. Verlag Buchdruckerei an der Sihl AG, 1990, p. 241
↑ cf. Inscription “Süddtsch. Gebirgtypen-Darsteller "on postcard , dated September 2, 1911 (accessed February 22, 2018)
↑ cf. Tanja Stenzl at theaterwissenschaft.ch
↑ z. B. the dentist sketch by Paul Bendix or the funny train ride by Hans Blädel .

↑ This is the grape must that is still fermenting , which is called "Sauser" in Southwest Germany and South Tyrol, or "Brakeman" in Franconia. “Every year on the second weekend in October, the innkeepers of the restaurant zur alten Sonne invite you to“ Suuser-Chilbi ”in Obermeilen. Suuser is served fresh from the barrel, and as a specialty the white one, which is little known here. There are a total of three types: one for women, one for men and one non-alcoholic for children. ”See meilen.ch

↑ cf. Zürcher Taschenbuch - Volume 114, Page 307: “27. July 1923 Paul Gerber (yodeler), Zurich; Seppl Dammhofer (humorist), Zurich Part II: (Locally unknown) "

↑ bourgeois Margarete Suschny, born in 1886 in Vienna, the Jewish faith, d. March 16, 1912 in Essen. See the memories of Kitty Suschny at centropa.org

↑ However, she died shortly afterwards from the consequences of the severe burns she had suffered, cf. the report in the magazine Cabaret Revue at steinheim-institut.de : “A terrible misfortune, to which a young life fell victim, occurred on Friday evening, March 15th at 1/28 o'clock in the Colosseumtheater in Essen. The lecturer Fraulein Grete Sylvant wanted to warm herself a little on a small alcohol stove in her room and carelessly placed the full alcohol bottle too close to the burning stove. Suddenly a terrible crash. The bottle had exploded and the whole contents poured burning over Grete Sylvant. A terrible moment. Transformed into a pillar of fire, she ran down the corridor and back to her room, where the fire was already dreadful. At this moment, the comedian Seppl Dammhofer rushed into the burning room to save his colleague, but smoke and fire drove him back again. Without thinking of himself he threw himself into the fire, seized his blazing colleague and, supported by the baritone singer of the 'Colombo' band, carried her out of the room, smothered the fire with a blanket and tore the clothes that were still burning from her body . Terribly burned, they were carried to the next room, where their colleagues rushed over due to the noise and the fire took care of them. Seppl Dammhofer then hurried back into the burning room, tore the burning bed apart, pulled down the flaming curtains and put out the fire with the fire brigade, which had meanwhile been alerted, thus preventing a major accident. Dammhofer burned both hands very badly. "

↑ cf. Bonner Chronik 1914-18 about the specialty theater “Sonne”, Bonn, in the First World War: “And one realizes that a warmly liberating laugh is medicine especially in the current times. Anyone who makes you laugh like that is Seppl Dammhofer, a southern German humorist who was really spoiled here at the time. He stayed the same; a funny fellow who is as funny as serious, as emotional as sarcastic, as it suits him. "(October 1914)

↑ cf. Poster: VOLKSFEST / on the Albisgütli / on Saturday and Sunday, June 29th and 30th 1918 / in favor of German warrior widows and orphans in / Switzerland and Switzerland. Shown with image file no. kb0563_020 , State Museums in Berlin, Art Library. Mention the name of Dammhofers alongside other artists ("Bruno Wünschmann, Benno Haller, Seppl Dammhofer / Hermann Klink, Dina Dietrich, Hornik siblings") as contributors.

↑ cf. Poster “Maximum Theater Zurich. Direktion S.Dannhofer ”with picture of the artist at poster-gallery.com , accessed on February 21, 2018; however, considering Dammhofer's death in 1929, the assignment “year: approx. 1950” should not be correct.

personal data
SURNAME	Dammhofer, Seppl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dammhofer, Sepp'l; Dammhofer, Josef (stage name); Good, Adolf Jakob (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss folk singer and humorist
DATE OF BIRTH	July 2, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1929
Place of death	Zurich

[Leim-1] so Leimbach; according to the Zurich paperback, his name was Josef Gut, cf. Zürcher Taschenbuch , Volume 110. Verlag Buchdruckerei an der Sihl AG, 1990, p. 241

[2] . Inscription “Süddtsch. Gebirgtypen-Darsteller "on postcard , dated September 2, 1911 (accessed February 22, 2018)

[3] . Tanja Stenzl at theaterwissenschaft.ch

[4] z. B. the dentist sketch by Paul Bendix or the funny train ride by Hans Blädel .

[5] This is the grape must that is still fermenting , which is called "Sauser" in Southwest Germany and South Tyrol, or "Brakeman" in Franconia. “Every year on the second weekend in October, the innkeepers of the restaurant zur alten Sonne invite you to“ Suuser-Chilbi ”in Obermeilen. Suuser is served fresh from the barrel, and as a specialty the white one, which is little known here. There are a total of three types: one for women, one for men and one non-alcoholic for children. ”See meilen.ch

[6] . Zürcher Taschenbuch - Volume 114, Page 307: “27. July 1923 Paul Gerber (yodeler), Zurich; Seppl Dammhofer (humorist), Zurich Part II: (Locally unknown) "

[7] urgeois Margarete Suschny, born in 1886 in Vienna, the Jewish faith, d. March 16, 1912 in Essen. See the memories of Kitty Suschny at centropa.org

[8] However, she died shortly afterwards from the consequences of the severe burns she had suffered, cf. the report in the magazine Cabaret Revue at steinheim-institut.de : “A terrible misfortune, to which a young life fell victim, occurred on Friday evening, March 15th at 1/28 o'clock in the Colosseumtheater in Essen. The lecturer Fraulein Grete Sylvant wanted to warm herself a little on a small alcohol stove in her room and carelessly placed the full alcohol bottle too close to the burning stove. Suddenly a terrible crash. The bottle had exploded and the whole contents poured burning over Grete Sylvant. A terrible moment. Transformed into a pillar of fire, she ran down the corridor and back to her room, where the fire was already dreadful. At this moment, the comedian Seppl Dammhofer rushed into the burning room to save his colleague, but smoke and fire drove him back again. Without thinking of himself he threw himself into the fire, seized his blazing colleague and, supported by the baritone singer of the 'Colombo' band, carried her out of the room, smothered the fire with a blanket and tore the clothes that were still burning from her body . Terribly burned, they were carried to the next room, where their colleagues rushed over due to the noise and the fire took care of them. Seppl Dammhofer then hurried back into the burning room, tore the burning bed apart, pulled down the flaming curtains and put out the fire with the fire brigade, which had meanwhile been alerted, thus preventing a major accident. Dammhofer burned both hands very badly. "

[9] . Bonner Chronik 1914-18 about the specialty theater “Sonne”, Bonn, in the First World War: “And one realizes that a warmly liberating laugh is medicine especially in the current times. Anyone who makes you laugh like that is Seppl Dammhofer, a southern German humorist who was really spoiled here at the time. He stayed the same; a funny fellow who is as funny as serious, as emotional as sarcastic, as it suits him. "(October 1914)

[10] . Poster: VOLKSFEST / on the Albisgütli / on Saturday and Sunday, June 29th and 30th 1918 / in favor of German warrior widows and orphans in / Switzerland and Switzerland. Shown with image file no. kb0563_020 , State Museums in Berlin, Art Library. Mention the name of Dammhofers alongside other artists ("Bruno Wünschmann, Benno Haller, Seppl Dammhofer / Hermann Klink, Dina Dietrich, Hornik siblings") as contributors.

[11] . Poster “Maximum Theater Zurich. Direktion S.Dannhofer ”with picture of the artist at poster-gallery.com , accessed on February 21, 2018; however, considering Dammhofer's death in 1929, the assignment “year: approx. 1950” should not be correct.