In 1954 many of my former classmates were assembled around the 35 cm diameter black-and-white screen, watching the soccer match between Hungary and "West Germany." The Germans became world champions beating the favorite Hungarians 3 to 2 at Bern's Wankdorf Stadium on July 4, 1954.
At that time, one of my highlights on television was a cabaret show, a one-man show by a guy at his piano called Gerhard Bronner, singing his critical political songs.
In 1953 Bronner traveled from Vienna to Hamburg, changing his career from an Austrian cabaret artist to a job at German television. In those years, Hamburg had the one and only television studio in the German-speaking world where Bronner wanted to try out the new media. Until 1955 he was the leader of the entertainment department of the North German Broadcasting Corporation (NDR).
In the following years, I lost sight of this talented man until 2005. Two years before his death in Vienna, he came to Freiburg.
In his show, the old man read from his autobiography Spiegel vorm Gesicht (Holding up a mirror), interrupted by some of his better-known songs. I was so fascinated that I bought his book and learned about the poor Jewish boy born in Vienna in 1922 who, on several occasions, had escaped the Nazis at the very last moment. Once, he had to cross the Danube river swimming with a friend who had perished.
Last week my memory came back reading Bronner's name on Facebook and the following citation being typical for him. At the commemoration ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Concentration Camp Gunskirchen on May 7, 2005, he held up a mirror to his Austrian fellow citizens: Three things cannot be combined: intelligence, honesty, and National Socialism. One can be intelligent and a Nazi, but then he is not honest. Somebody being honest and a Nazi is not intelligent. When one is honest and intelligent, he will not be a Nazi.
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In his show, the old man read from his autobiography Spiegel vorm Gesicht (Holding up a mirror), interrupted by some of his better-known songs. I was so fascinated that I bought his book and learned about the poor Jewish boy born in Vienna in 1922 who, on several occasions, had escaped the Nazis at the very last moment. Once, he had to cross the Danube river swimming with a friend who had perished.
Last week my memory came back reading Bronner's name on Facebook and the following citation being typical for him. At the commemoration ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Concentration Camp Gunskirchen on May 7, 2005, he held up a mirror to his Austrian fellow citizens: Three things cannot be combined: intelligence, honesty, and National Socialism. One can be intelligent and a Nazi, but then he is not honest. Somebody being honest and a Nazi is not intelligent. When one is honest and intelligent, he will not be a Nazi.
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