[2] By 1945, when the war ended, he was an inmate at the Evangelical Johannes Orphanage in Berlin-Spandau, where he witnessed the destructive final months of the fighting and the arrival of the Soviet troops.
The boy had passed through his eighth birthday a few weeks earlier: memories of what he saw as he walked with his foster mother across the city would remain with him for the rest of his life.
[4] The upshot of their meeting was a collaboration between the lyricist Schneider and the composer Bath on a song called "Wenn die Großstadt schlafen geht" ("When the big city goes to sleep"), which appeared in 1955.
[2] Inevitably plenty of them were "bread and butter" texts, written because he needed the money, but his overall output also included many well known hits, performed by East Germany's new generation of popular singers.
[1] Some of Schneider's earlier successes were sung by Uta Bresan ("Ich wünsch mir mehr als die Nacht" / "I wish for more than the night"),[5] Chris Doerk ("Jedes junge Mädchen wird mal geküsst" / "Every young girl is kissed"), Monika Herz ("Kleiner Vogel" / "Little bird",[6] "Charly adé"), Olaf Berger ("Es brennt wie Feuer" / "It burns like fire", "Es kommt so oder so" "It comes like this or like that"), Brigitte Ahrens ("Wo ist die liebe Sonne" / "Where the dear son is"[7]), Hauff and Henkler ("Heut ist wieder Vollmond" / "Today it's full moon again")[8] and Frank Schöbel ("Looky, Looky", "Gold in deinen Augen" / "Gold in your eyes", "Ja, der Fußball ist rund wie die Welt" / "Yes, the football is round like the world"[9]).
Examples included Renate Holm ("Lebe wohl, kleine Schwalbe" / "Fare well, little swallow"), Tina York ("Gib dem Glück eine Chance" / "Give luck a chance"), Marika Kilius ("Erst kam ein verliebter Blick" / "It started with a loving glance"), Manuela ("Wie viele Wege" / "So many ways", "Ich hab mich verliebt in dich" / "I fell in love with you"), the Jacob Sisters ("Sonne und Regen" / "Sunshine and rain"), the Hazy Osterwald sextet ("Looky, Looky"), Ted Herold ("Bin schon vergeben" / "Already taken"), Bruce Low ("Ein Souvenir aus Berlin") and Ralf Bendix ("Gott sei Dank ist sie schlank" / "Thank God she's slender").
[10] Others included the Warsaw band, "Czerwone Gitary" ("Red Guitars") with their hit song "Anna Maria", Lili Ivanova from Sofia with "Bunte Wagen" ("Colorful cars") and Karel Gott from Prague with "Fällt ein Stern aufs Meer" ("If a star falls onto the sea").
[1] Success within the world of Schlager-style popular music was als marked by a large number of prizes, both nationally and at international song competition festivals.
[citation needed] For nearly ten years Dieter Schneider was the editor in charge of the popular "sailors' series", Klock 8, achtern Strom, transmitted from the East German Television studio at Rostock, a ninety minute "feel-good" Schlager music show (which some western commentators thought flagrantly copied its format from equivalent West German television programmes).
[1] After reunification in 1990 Schnieder successfully negotiated the reconfiguration of the country's music business, with new songs for performers such as Dagmar Frederic, Edith Prock, Gerd Christian, Wolfgang Edenharder and "Little Toni" from De Randfichten.