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Anna German | |
|---|---|
| Анна Герман | |
.jpg) German in her student years, 1959 | |
| Born | Anna Viktoria Yevgenyevna German (1936-02-14)14 February 1936 |
| Died | 26 August 1982(1982-08-26) (aged 46) |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1960–1982 |
| Awards |   |
| Signature | |
 | |
Anna Wiktoria German-Tucholska[1] (Russian:Анна Виктория Герман,romanized: Anna Viktoria German, 14 February 1936 – 26 August 1982)[2] was a Polish singer (lirico-spinto), immensely popular inPoland and in theSoviet Union in the 1960s–1970s. She released over a dozenmusic albums with songs inPolish, as well as several albums withRussian repertoire. Throughout her music career, she also recorded songs in theGerman,Italian,Spanish,English, andLatin languages.
Anna German was born in the town ofUrgench inUzbekistan (Central Asia; then theUzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of theSoviet Union).
Her mother, Irma Martens (1909—2007), was the child ofPlautdietsch-speakingMennonites with descendants from the Netherlands who exchangedFriesland for the area around theVistula delta and on EmpressCatherine the Great's invitation came to live in theRussian Empire.[3] Martens' mother Anna Friesen had been born in present-dayUkraine.[3] Later, the family settled in theKuban. Martens' native language was aPlautdietsch variant with both German and Dutch influences.[3] In the 1996 radio programmeSpoor Terug on Dutch public broadcasterVPRO, Irma Martens said that she and her family always identified as Dutch despite her Polish passport.[3] Martens studied German inOdesa, but had to leave her village due to a lack of work as a teacher and instead moved toRedkaya Dubrava inAltai Krai.[3] Due toNKVD Order No. 00439,[note 1] Martens fled to Uzbekistan, where she met Eugen Hörmann.[3]
Her accountant father, Eugen (Eugeniusz) Hörmann (in Russian, Герман), was also of aGerman–Russian pastor family and born inŁódź inCongress Poland (part of theRussian Empire), now inPoland. Eugen Hörmann's father, Anna's grandfather, Friedrich Hörmann, who had studied theology in Łódź, was in 1929 incarcerated inGulagPlesetsk by communists for being a priest; he died there. In 1937, during theNKVD'santi-German operation, Eugen Hörmann was arrested in Urgench on false charges of spying, and executed (officially, sentenced to ten years in prison).
Thereafter Anna[note 2], with her mother and grandmother, survived in theKemerovo Region ofSiberia, as well as inTashkent, and later in theKirghiz andKazakh SSRs.
In 1946, German's mother (who had married Herman Gerner, aPolish People's Army soldier) was able to take the family toSilesia, first toNowa Ruda and in 1949 toWrocław.
Anna quickly learned Polish and several other languages and grew up hiding her family heritage. She graduated from the Geological Institute of theUniversity of Wrocław. During her university years, she began her music career at the Kalambur Theater. German became known to the general public when she won the 1964 IIFestival of Polish Songs in Opole with her songTańczące Eurydyki ('DancingEurydices'). One year later, she won the first prize in theSopot International Song Festival.
German performed in theMarché international de l'édition musicale inCannes, as well as on the stages ofBelgium,Germany,United States,Canada andAustralia.
She also sang in Russian, English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German andMongolian.[4] She recorded several albums forPolskie Nagrania Muza in Poland andMelodiya in the Soviet Union. In 2001, six of her Polish albums were reissued on CDs. In recent years, manycompilation albums of her songs have also been released in both Russia and Poland.
In December 1966 inMilan, German signed a contract with the CDI company to release her records, thus becoming the first performer from behind the "Iron Curtain" who recorded inItaly. In Italy, German had performed at theSanremo Music Festival, starred in a television show, recorded a programme with the singerDomenico Modugno, performed at thefestival ofNeapolitan songs inSorrento and received the "Oscar della simpatia" award.
On 27 August 1967, while in Italy, on the road betweenForlì and Milan, Anna German was involved in a severe car accident. At high speed, the car driven by the impresario of the singer crashed into a concrete fence. German was thrown from the car through the windshield. She suffered multiple fractures and other internal injuries. An investigation revealed that the driver of the car – her managerRenato Serio – fell asleep at the wheel.
After the accident, German had not regained consciousness. After the plaster was taken off, the singer still lay in a hospital bed for half a year. Then it took her a few months to relearn to sit and walk.
Later, she released the autobiographical bookWróć do Sorrento? ('Come Back to Sorrento?'), dedicated to the Italian period of her career. The book's circulation was 30,000 copies.
In 1964, German toured theSoviet Union for the first time as part of a delegation of Polish artists, performing songs byGeorge Gershwin,Mark Fradkin,Arno Babajanian. The editor of the "Melodiya" Anna Kachalina invited German to record some songs in Polish and Italian.[5] Her first songs in Russian were recorded in the fall of 1964.[6]
In the 1970s, German toured, performed and recorded in theSoviet Union, working withAleksandra Pakhmutova,[7]Yevgeniy Martynov,[8]Vladimir Shainsky,[9][10]David Tukhmanov,[8]Oscar Feltsman,[8]Yan Frenkel,Vyacheslav Dobrynin,[9]Alexander Morozov and others. She had become an acclaimed and popular artist there. She remembers: "I loved touring the Soviet Union. <...> These tours did not bring a lot of money, it was much more profitable to fly to America or even participate in some kind of concerts in Europe. But nothing can compare with the emotional reception in Soviet cities and towns."[11]
Her most notable songs in Russian are "Shine, Shine, My Star", "And I like him" (Russian:А он мне нравится,lit. 'A on mne nravitsya'), "Hope" (Russian:Надежда,lit. 'Nadezhda'), "No Hurry" (Russian:Не спеши,lit. 'Ne speshi'),"Randomness" (Russian:Случайность,lit. 'Sluchaynost''), "When Gardens Bloomed" (Russian:Когда цвели сады,lit. 'Kogda tsveli sady'), "Echo of Love" (Russian:Эхо любви,lit. 'Ekho lyubvi').[12][13]
On 23 March 1972, German married Zbigniew Tucholski. Their son, Zbigniew Tucholski, was born in 1975. In the last years of her life, German composed some church songs. Before she died in 1982 ofosteosarcoma (at the age of 46), she joined theSeventh-day Adventist Church.[14] German was buried at theEvangelical Cemetery inWarsaw.
Media related toAnna German at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by 1976 title=Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest | Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 | Succeeded by to the 1994 contest |
