[78-L] Eislers and Brecht

[David Lewis]

Steve,

I have looked into Hanns Eisler in considerable depth. Gerhardt was an 
extremely dangerous double agent who had blood on his hands. Under pressure 
from US government agents, Hanns gave him up. When his sister found out about
it, she was so outraged that she gave Hanns up. In the end, all three were
deported. They tried to emigrate to Britain, but were turned away; that I've 
always found a little confusing as Gerhardt was long wanted by Scotland Yard
and I wonder why they didn't just let them in so that they could collar
Gerhardt. They all wound up in East Germany, and in his last years Hanns
found himself a hero of the state who was unable to work -- many artists in 
East Germany were in the same boat as he. He composed the East German national
anthem, but could not get his "Berliner Requiem" performed. He had to sneak
over into West Berlin in order to drink beer and play cards. 

Eisler was one of the greatest German composers of the 20th century, IMHO.
His film scores for early German talkies are simply astounding. However, his
intense dedication to communism, and his naivete about how it was being
implemented in the world, cost him everything.

BTW, the 1935 tour was very successful -- Eisler appeared at worker's rallies
singing agitprop songs he'd written with Brecht and was a big hit. When he
was deported, Woody Guthrie wrote a song about him which he did not record,
but the lyrics were published in a leftist magazine of that time. 

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com

Message: 21
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:51:02 GMT
From: "Steve Shapiro" <steveshapiro1 at juno.com>
Subject: [78-L] Eislers and Brecht
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Message-ID: <20100130.115102.2576.1 at webmail08.dca.untd.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
 
As a refugee, Hans Eisler toured in the U.S. in 1935.  This would have been 
concurrent with the Timely record.  I wrote about this to the list a few years 
ago.  Has Ron announced when he plans to recover the list's archives and make 
them available online?
 
Where I wrote:
 
> I think Hans wanted to leave the U.S., but they blocked him for a while. 
Brother Gerhardt wanted to stay, but they deported him.
 
I think I had the two brothers' situations reversed.
 
Wikipedia's reliability is a mixed bag, but it sounds like Gerhardt was one 
tough character.  Wikipedia does say that Hans composed a piece for 
Schoenberg's 70th birthday celebration./steve



 		 	   		  
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