Hermann Leopoldi

Hermann Leopoldi, born Hersch Kohn on 15 August 1888 in Vienna, was an Austrian composer, cabaret performer, and pianist who appeared on Broadway in 1945 in the musical The Day Before Spring. He died in Vienna on 28 June 1959 at the age of 70.

Leopoldi's father, Leopold Leopoldi — born Leopold Kohn, the family having officially adopted the surname Leopoldi in 1911 — was a musician who taught his son piano and helped him find his earliest professional engagements as an accompanist and bar pianist. Leopoldi married Eugenie Kraus in 1911, the same year the family name was formalized. He served as a forces entertainer during the First World War, and his son Norbert was born in 1912 and his daughter Gertrude in 1915. His first significant public appearance came at the Viennese cabaret Ronacher in 1916.

By 1922, Leopoldi and his brother had established their own venue, Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal, which became a showcase for performers including Hans Moser, Szöke Szakall, Max Hansen, Fritz Grünbaum, Karl Valentin, Raoul Aslan, and Otto Tressler. After the cabaret closed in 1925, Leopoldi toured extensively with his first singing partner, Betja Milskaja, performing in Berlin, Paris, Budapest, Bucharest, Prague, Switzerland, and Vienna. He composed music for some of the most celebrated Wienerlieder — songs about Vienna — setting texts by writers including Peter Herz and Fritz Löhner-Beda. His compositions include A Little Café Down the Street (In einem kleinen Café in Hernals, words by Peter Herz), Schnucki, ach Schnucki (words by Rudolf Skutajan), Schön ist so ein Ringelspiel (words by Peter Herz), Powidltatschkerln (words by Rudolf Skutajan), and I Am a Quiet Drinker.

Following the Nazi annexation of Austria on 11 March 1938, Leopoldi, his wife, son, and daughter attempted to flee Vienna by train, but the border to Czechoslovakia had already been closed. When the train returned to Vienna, SS officers separated passengers into Jewish and non-Jewish groups. A train conductor who was a fan of Leopoldi's work helped him and his family escape through a side door. Despite this, on 26 April 1938 — by which point Leopoldi had already been scheduled to travel to the United States — he was arrested and transported first to Dachau and then to Buchenwald. While imprisoned at Buchenwald, he performed his own songs for fellow prisoners. In response to a contest organized by the camp commander, he composed the Buchenwaldlied, setting music to words by Löhner-Beda. The song was entered by a non-Jewish Kapo and selected as the winner, though the promised prize was never awarded. Leopoldi later recalled that the camp commander failed to recognize the song's revolutionary character, and that it was sung by prisoners morning, noon, and night. He noted that the commander would dance to the melody while prisoners were being whipped nearby, and that the song eventually spread from the camp to surrounding villages and beyond. Meanwhile, Leopoldi's wife had traveled to the United States, from where she secured his release through a substantial bribe. Upon arriving in New York City, Leopoldi was met by reporters, and photographs of him kissing American soil upon arrival were distributed worldwide.

In New York, Leopoldi built a successful career performing both German- and English-language versions of his Wiener Lieder, and he operated a musical café called Viennese Lantern, which served both American audiences and the community of artists who had fled the Nazi regime. His Broadway appearance came in 1945 with The Day Before Spring. Leopoldi and his new partner Helly Möslein returned to Vienna in 1947, where he resumed the career that had been interrupted in 1938, performing and touring throughout post-war Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. His son Ronald was born in 1955. In 1958, Leopoldi was awarded the Golden Medal of Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. He died of a heart attack in Vienna in June 1959. In June 1984, a park in the Viennese district of Meidling was named in his honor.