Hermann Leopoldi
Biography
A Viennese pianist and cabaret composer who was made to write a camp song by the SS, set Löhner-Beda's words to music in Buchenwald, and was released in 1939 while his lyricist was not.
Vienna, Berlin, the recording studios, 1888–1937
Born in Vienna-Meidling on 15 August 1888, Leopoldi took his first engagement as a pianist in 1904, straight out of school. He composed, appeared on the cabaret stages, made records, and worked in Berlin as well as Vienna. In 1937 the Republic of Austria gave him its Silver Medal of Merit. That was the year before everything ended.
Arrested as a Jew, 1938
He was arrested on 26 April 1938 "als Jude" — as a Jew — and taken to Dachau. In August he was transferred to Buchenwald.
The song was ordered, 1938
The camp's Schutzhaftlagerführer, Arthur Rödl, called on the prisoners to write a camp song for Buchenwald. Leopoldi composed the music that same year to a text by Fritz Löhner-Beda, and the result runs to three verses. This is the fact that changes the Buchenwaldlied from what it is usually taken for: it was not smuggled into existence in defiance. An SS officer commissioned it, and two of the most accomplished entertainers in the German language were in his camp to write it.
Released, and the difference that made, 1939–1959
At the beginning of February 1939 Leopoldi was released from the camp. In early March he left for the United States and reached New York on 20 March 1939. He gave concerts, obtained recording contracts, and returned to Vienna in 1947, where he died on 28 June 1959. Löhner-Beda, who wrote the words, was deported to Auschwitz-Monowitz and beaten to death there in December 1942. The two men made the same song and the difference in what followed was total.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Hermann Leopoldi's connection to Buchenwald?
- Arrested in Vienna in April 1938 "as a Jew" and transferred to Buchenwald that August, he composed the music of the Buchenwaldlied in the camp.
- Was the Buchenwaldlied written freely or under order?
- Under order — the camp's Schutzhaftlagerführer, Arthur Rödl, called on the prisoners to write a camp song; it was commissioned, not composed in defiance.
- What happened to Hermann Leopoldi after his release?
- Released at the beginning of February 1939, he left for the United States and reached New York that March. He gave concerts, obtained recording contracts, and returned to Vienna in 1947, where he died in 1959.
- What happened to his collaborator, Fritz Löhner-Beda?
- Unlike Leopoldi, he was not released — he was deported to Auschwitz-Monowitz and beaten to death there in December 1942.
Connected Places in Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar
Held here from August 1938; he composed the music of the Buchenwaldlied in the camp.
Historical Context
Arrested in Vienna in April 1938 as a Jew, and in Buchenwald from that August until February 1939.
The regime wanted Weimar for what its name meant, and it built a concentration camp on the hill above the town. Both facts belong to the same twelve years.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1888
1959
Austrian
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
From July 1937 the SS had prisoners build a camp on the Ettersberg, the wooded hill above the town. 277,800 people from more than fifty countries were held there; 56,000 did not survive.
A prisoner of the camp in its second year, when the Schutzhaftlagerführer ordered a camp song written.