Harry Frommermann

Vocation

Lifestyle

German-Jewish singer who became known as the founder, arranger and third tenor of the Berlin ensemble Comedian Harmonists. After their debut performance in 1928 and numerous appearances in Berlin the ensemble made recordings and several tours through Germany and half of Europe. The Comedian Harmonists had a high proportion of Jewish members, and they were popular in countries outside Nazi Germany. However, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels did not like the success of the "Jewish" group at all. In February 1935, he banned them from performing in the Reichskulturkammer. Their farewell concert in Berlin was a last-ditch success overshadowed with melancholy. With the disappearance of this very internationally-oriented ensemble there was no more popular music of international resonance in Germany. The three Jewish members, Harry Frommermann, Roman Cycowski and Erich Collin, emigrated to Vienna, from where they continued to make successful tours around the world under the name "Comedy Harmonists". In December 1941, they were surprised while in New York by the entry of the USA into the war, and the ensemble fell apart. Frommermann's attempt to restart in New York with another ensemble failed due to lack of funds. Frommermann was recruited by the US Army and changed his name to Frohman. Because of a service accident, he did not have to go to the front, but entertained the wounded as an entertainer. After the Second World War, he returned to Berlin and worked as a translator (including at the Nuremberg trial), later as a communications officer. After his release from the army, he went to Zurich and became a real estate agent. An attempt to build a new ensemble with Collin failed. Then Frommermann went to Rome in 1949 and worked as an artistic advisor on radio. In 1951 he returned to Switzerland to set up an import-export company. This attempt failed, too. He then tried to get a job in television in the United States, but was not hired. Frommermann tried to stay afloat as a packer in the port of New York, later he made alarm systems for a company. He worked as an assistant accountant, taxi driver and sold kitchen furniture, meanwhile his health continued to deteriorate. In the fall of 1953 in New York he attempted a solo musical comeback as "Harry M. Frohman - The Vocal Orchestra," a one-man-orchestra-band. In 1962 he was awarded a life-long pension and returned to Germany where he died on 29 October 1975 at age 69 in Bremen. Link to Wikipedia biography (German)