Kurt Schwabach

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

German-Jewish writer, pianist, cabaret artist, composer and singer, whose 2,000 printed titles make him one of the most successful hit lyricists of the German-speaking entertainment scene. Schwabach initially worked as a journalist then wrote lyrics for the "Cabaret of comedians" and other Berlin cabarets such as "The Gondola", "The Morando" and the "Nelson Revue". He became a sought after songwriter. He had his first success in 1921 with his set by Mischa Spoliansky "Lila song", which he dedicated to the sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935). He became known for his hits written with the composer Willy Rosen in 1929-1930. In 1933 Schwabach was banned from working for "racial" reasons. He then tried to find a connection in the London film industry. After the completion of his second script, however, he was denied a work permit in England, so he returned to Berlin in 1935. In 1937 he left Germany again to escape arrest by the Gestapo. He first went to Prague via Switzerland and Vienna, where he made his mark for a year. After the occupation of Prague by the Germans in 1939, he fled across the Polish border, was arrested and deported to Hungary. On foot he reached Budapest and was finally able to take a boat illegally to Palestine. There he spent 14 months in a British detention centre, before he could take up auxiliary duties as a gas station attendant, waiter and bartender in Tel Aviv. Incidentally, he wrote programs for the German-language cabaret Adi Körners in Haifa. His mother and sister were deported and murdered in the Theresienstadt and Lodz/Litzmannstadt ghettos at the beginning of the 1940s. In 1949 Schwabach returned to Germany and settled in Hamburg. He initially worked for the music and film music production company Sikorski-Verlag. Until the 1960s, he worked as a librettist. In February 1960, he wrote the lyrics for "Bonne nuit, ma chérie" for singer Wyn Hoop in German for the Eurovision Song Contest 1960. He also provided the lyrics for several hit films. In 1961, he was diagnosed with "chronic sub-depressive conditions" attributed to his persecution during the National Socialist (Nazi) era. He took his own life on 26 October 1966 in Hamburg. The cause of death was given as carbon monoxide poisoning. He was aged 68. Link to Wikipedia biography (German)