Hermann Leopoldi

By 1922 he and his brother were well enough known to open their own cabaret, Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal, which developed a reputation as a centre for such later celebrated performers as Hans Moser, Szöke Szakall, Max Hansen, Fritz Grünbaum, Karl Valentin, Raoul Aslan and Otto Tressler.

After its closure in 1925 Leopoldi toured with his first singing partner Betja Milskaja appearing in Berlin, Paris, Budapest, Bukarest, Prague and Switzerland as well as Vienna.

Following the take-over of the Nazis in Austria on 11 March 1938 – the so-called Anschluss – Leopoldi, his wife, son and daughter attempted to flee from Vienna by train but the border to Czechoslovakia had already been closed.

Rare among cabaret artist émigrés, Leopoldi quickly established a successful career in New York, performing both German and English language versions of his ‘Wiener Lieder’, and even running a musical café called Viennese Lantern.

[4] Leopoldi and his new partner Helly Möslein returned to Vienna in 1947, where he resumed the career cut short in 1938, performing and touring all over post-war Germany, Austria and Switzerland.