Willi Blank

Willi Blank (* 1920 ) was a German accordion player . The war-blind musician was a frequent guest on radio in the 1950s, performed mostly as a soloist or in a duo with his daughter Elke Blank and had a predominantly folk repertoire.

Life

He began studying mechanical engineering, which he was unable to complete due to his conscription to the Air Force in 1940 during World War II. In 1944 he was released as a war blind man. Since his house in Pforzheim also fell victim to the war, he came to Wurmberg as an "evacuate" , where he stayed.

He had already learned to play the harmonica as a child and found consolation on an instrument saved from the war. In 1948 he was one of the founders of the Wurmberg harmonica playing ring and was an enthusiastic soloist at the founding concert. In 1950 he was obliged to make sound recordings for the first time by the Süddeutscher Rundfunk, and many more followed from the following year. The recordings, which were often interspersed in the morning concerts, made him known to a larger audience without the audience knowing that he was blind. Due to his talent, he soon received international offers, which he turned down.

In addition to being a soloist, he also performed in a duo with his daughter Elke Blank and with the equally blind lute player and reciter Hans Ebbecke .

In the 1950s and 1960s he took part in various international harmonica competitions, some of which he won.

Appointed professor in 1962, he was a lecturer at several universities.

In December 1966 he took part in the German President's Christmas concert at Bellevue Palace, which was recorded for television, and in the following year, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon from the Federal President .

Prizes, awards, honors

• Silver Medal of Merit of the German Harmonica Association (1952)
• Gold medal of German television (1955)
• Winner of the European Accordion Championship in Antwerp and Grand Prix of the Queen of Belgium (1956)
• Two-time accordion world best at the championship in Leuwen (1960)
• Appointment as Professor of the Royal Art de l'Accordeon (1962)
• Two times Champion du Monde in Wavre / Brussels (1963)
• Honorary award from the German Embassy in Belgium and the daily newspaper "Le Soire" (1963)
• Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (1967)
• German Folk Music Medal in Gold (1967)
• Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (1981)

Publications

• With dancing fingers around the harmonica (LP, 1972)

literature

• War blind on Stuttgarter Welle , in: Der Kriegsblinde , 3rd year, issue 5, January 1952, p. 19.
• You are now listening to Willi Blank , in: Kriegsblinden-Jahrbuch 1953 , Wiesbaden 1953, pp. 122–123.
• The meteoric rise of the radio and screen artist , in Badische Latest News from March 4, 1964