[78-L] Eislers and Brecht

[David Lennick]

This thread started with my comments after seeing the film "I Was a Communist 
for the FBI" the other night. Gerhard Eisler is referred to as being out on 
bail and is seen at a big Commie get-together. I wonder how many other real 
personages are portrayed, aside from Matt Cvetic? The climatic scene occurs at 
a HUAC hearing in Washington. Reference is made to the Korean War, but Eisler 
jumped bail and sailed away in May 1949, per WackyPackia.

dl

David Lewis wrote:
> 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
> 
>