Fritz Löhner-Beda

A kapo or prisoner functionary (a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who was assigned by the SS guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks in the camp), accused of the murder in the 1968 Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial was acquitted of the charge due to lack of evidence.

On October 17, 1942, he was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp, near Auschwitz.

An other good fried in the KZ was the actor Fritz Grünbaum. Fritz Löhner-Beda had to witness his death in January 1941.

Even though Löhner-Beda's name appeared in the Nazi Encyclopedia of Jews in Music in 1940, his songs and the Lehár operettas were still performed (but with no mention of their librettist).

Léhar did nothing to help Löhner-Beda, who was arrested in Vienna on March 13, 1938, and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 1, 1938; indeed, he curried favor with the Nazi powers-that-be in the following years.

He was regarded as the most successful artistic union of that time together with Ludwig Herzer, Franz Lehar and Richard Tauber. This group realised among others the operettas "Friederike" (28), "Das Land des Lächelns" (1929) and "Giuditta" (1934). Other operettas are "Viktoria und ihr Husar" (1930) and "Die Blume von Hawaii" (1931).

He experienced the height of his career in the 20's and managed his breakthrough in 1922 with his songtext to Hermann Leopoldi's song "Das Lied von der sterbenden Märchenstadt Wien" and became one of the most popular librettists.

In the 1920s, Löhner-Beda became one of the most sought-after librettists and lyricists in Vienna. Together with Lehár as composer, Ludwig Herzer as co-author, and Richard Tauber as singer, Löhner-Beda produced the operettas Friederike (Frederica, 1928), Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles, 1929), and, with Paul Knepler as co-author, Giuditta (1934). Together with his friend Alfred Grünwald as co-author and Paul Abraham as composer, Löhner-Beda produced Viktoria und ihr Husar (Victoria and Her Hussar, 1930), Die Blume von Hawaii (The Flower of Hawaii, 1931), and Ball im Savoy (Ball at the Savoy, 1932).

In 1919, his son Bruno was born, the product of a relationship with Anni Strassmann; Bruno was able to immigrate to the United States in the 1930s. In 1925, Fritz Löhner-Beda married Helene Jellinek, and Liselotte was born in 1927, Evamaria, in 1929.

In 1918, Löhner-Beda was called up for military service in World War I, which he left as an officer and a convinced anti-militarist.

In 1910, Löhner-Beda decided upon a career as an author. He wrote numerous light satires, sketches, poems, and lyrics but also contributed to several newspapers, often under the pen name "Beda", a shortened version of his Czech first name, Bedrich (Frederick). In 1913, he met Franz Lehár, for whom he wrote the libretto of the 1916 operetta Der Sterngucker (The Stargazer).

Having passed his Matura exams, he began the study of law at the University of Vienna, where he became a member of the Jewish Kadimah student association. After he had obtained his doctorate, he worked as a lawyer from 1908 onwards. A dedicated football player, he was among the founders of the Hakoah Vienna sports club in 1909.

In 1888, his family moved to Vienna, and in 1896 changed their surname to the less Jewish surname Löhner.