Gigants of entertainment | Paula Wessely and Hermann Leopoldi # 2021

HERMANN LEOPOLDI 

Hermann Leopoldi is one of the most celebrated composers, pianists, singers and, as he called himself, "piano humorists" of the Viennese Lied as well as the German-language Schlagers of the 1920s to 1950s. Beyond wit and satire, his songs also reflect the political and social upheavals of his time. His life and career paint a picture of mores from the Danube monarchy through the interwar period, the Nazi dictatorship, to postwar democracy.

After the end of the war and at the invitation of the then Minister of Education Hurdes as well as the Viennese City Councilor for Culture Matejka, Leopoldi returned to Vienna and was able to continue where he had been abruptly interrupted in 1938. Bars, vaudevilles and entertainment venues flocked to him, and together with his partner Helly Möslein he toured Austria, Germany and Switzerland, becoming the first post-war star of German pop.

Some of his songs are still known today, but the person behind them and their fate have unfortunately been forgotten more and more in recent decades. The film aims to change that. Leopoldi's life story is told along his songs, in a mixture of "classic" documentary and music documentary (with Erwin Steinhauer as "performing host").