Wolfgang Lesser

Wolfgang Lesser (31 May 1923 – 27 September 1999) was a German composer and music official of the GDR.

Born in Breslau, Lesser, son of a merchant, attended the Realgymnasium in Berlin and then completed an apprenticeship as a metalworker.

Already in 1939 he emigrated as a Jew[1] to London and worked in England as a varnisher and farmhand.

[2] From 1954 to 1961, he worked as a composer and teacher for the State Folk Art Ensemble of the GDR.

In particular, Lesser composed political songs and chansons, but also stage music (e.g. for Friedrich Wolf's Thomas Müntzer) and film music (e.g. for the DEFA films Die Schönste in 1957, Beschreibung eines Sommers in 1962 and König Drosselbart in 1965) as well as the school opera Oktoberkinder.