Anna Wiktoria German-Tucholska[1] (14 February 1936 – 26 August 1982)[2] was a Polish singer (lirico-spinto), immensely popular in Poland and in the Soviet Union in the 1960s–1970s.

Her mother, Irma Martens (1909—2007), was the child of Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites with descendants from the Netherlands who exchanged Friesland for the area around the Vistula delta and on Empress Catherine the Great's invitation came to live in the Russian Empire.

[3] Martens studied German in Odesa, but had to leave her village due to a lack of work as a teacher and instead moved to Redkaya Dubrava in Altai Krai.

In 1937, during the NKVD's anti-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 the Kemerovo Region of Siberia, as well as in Tashkent, and later in the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs.

In 1946, German's mother (who had married Herman Gerner, a Polish People's Army soldier) was able to take the family to Silesia, first to Nowa Ruda and in 1949 to Wrocław.

German performed in the Marché international de l'édition musicale in Cannes, as well as on the stages of Belgium, Germany, United States, Canada and Australia.

[4] She recorded several albums for Polskie Nagrania Muza in Poland and Melodiya in the Soviet Union.

On 27 August 1967, while in Italy, on the road between Forlì and Milan, Anna German was involved in a severe car accident.

In 1964, German toured the Soviet Union for the first time as part of a delegation of Polish artists, performing songs by George Gershwin, Mark Fradkin, Arno Babajanian.

[6] In the 1970s, German toured, performed and recorded in the Soviet Union, working with Aleksandra Pakhmutova,[7] Yevgeniy Martynov,[8] Vladimir Shainsky,[9][10] David Tukhmanov,[8] Oscar Feltsman,[8] Yan Frenkel, Vyacheslav Dobrynin,[9] Alexander Morozov and others.

<...> 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.