Fritz Löhner-Beda


Fritz Löhner-Beda, born Bedřich Löwy, was an Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer. Once nearly forgotten, many of his songs and tunes remain popular today. He was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp.

Life

Löhner-Beda was born Bedřich Löwy in Wildenschwert, Bohemia in 1883. In 1888, his family moved to Vienna, and in 1896 changed their surname to the less Jewish surname Löhner. Having passed his Matura exams, he began the study of law at the University of Vienna, where he became a member of the Jewish Kadimah student association. After he had obtained his doctorate, he worked as a lawyer from 1908 onwards. A dedicated football player, he was among the founders of the Hakoah Vienna sports club in 1909.
In 1910, Löhner-Beda decided upon a career as an author. He wrote numerous light satires, sketches, poems, and lyrics but also contributed to several newspapers, often under the pen name "Beda", a shortened version of his Czech first name, Bedřich. In 1913, he met Franz Lehár, for whom he wrote the libretto of the 1916 operetta Der Sterngucker. Two years later, in 1918, Löhner-Beda was called up for military service in World War I, which he left as an officer and a convinced antimilitarist.
In the 1920s, Löhner-Beda became one of the most sought-after librettists and lyricists in Vienna. Together with Lehár as composer, as co-author, and Richard Tauber as singer, Löhner-Beda produced the operettas Friederike, Das Land des Lächelns, and, with as co-author, Giuditta. Together with his friend Alfred Grünwald as co-author and Paul Abraham as composer, Löhner-Beda produced Viktoria und ihr Husar, Die Blume von Hawaii, and Ball im Savoy.
On April 1, 1938, almost immediately after the Anschluss, Fritz Löhner-Beda was arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. On September 23, 1938, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp. There, together with his fellow prisoner Hermann Leopoldi at the end of 1938, he composed the famous anthem of the concentration camp, Das Buchenwaldlied :
The line wir wollen trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen was adopted by the Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl for the German title of his 1946 book Man's Search for Meaning.
Even though Löhner-Beda's name appeared in the Nazi Encyclopedia of Jews in Music in 1940, his songs and the Lehár operettas were still performed. The circumstances surrounding Franz Lehár possibly attempting to intercede with the Nazis on Löhner-Beda's behalf are clouded. Supposedly, after World War II, Lehár denied any cognizance of Löhner-Beda's concentration-camp imprisonment, but one source states that Lehár may have tried personally to secure Hitler's guarantee of Löhner-Beda's safety.
On October 17, 1942, Löhner-Beda was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp, near Auschwitz. The circumstances of his death are described in Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews: during an inspection by several directors of the IG Farben syndicate around Otto Ambros, Fritz ter Meer, Carl Krauch, and Heinrich Bütefisch, the already diseased Löhner-Beda was denounced as not working hard enough, for which he was beaten to death on December 4, 1942. A Kapo accused of the murder in the 1968 Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial was acquitted of the charge due to lack of evidence.

Notable songs

Among the most famous songs for which he wrote the lyrics are: