Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was born on July 6, 1898 in Leipzig, but went to school in Vienna. In 1919, after two years as kk soldier during the First World War, he became a student of Arnold Schönberg, to whom he later dedicated his first sonata for piano op. 1, which was published in 1923. In 1925, he moved to Berlin where he started to compose pieces for workers’ choirs and agitprop troops and collaborated with Berthold Brecht (“Die Massnahme”, “Die Mutter”). From 1933, Eisler lived at first in Paris, Svendborg and London, before he wrote his most important chamber music works in his American exile (after 1938), amongst them “Fourteen Ways to describe Rain”. In Hollywood he was responsible for the music of eight films and composed his “Hollywood Song Book” based, amongst others, on texts by Brecht and Hölderlin.
In 1948, Eisler returned to Europe, at first to Vienna and Prague, finally to Eastern Berlin. Although he wrote the GDR’s national anthem, using a text by Johannes R. Becher, he got into conflict with the country’s cultural bureaucracy when his opera libretto “Johann Faustus” was published. Until 1955 he worked mostly in Vienna for the Neue Theater in der Scala and the Wien-Film at Rosenhügel. In the GDR he composed works for the Berlin Ensemble and DEFA. In 1959 he was able to attend the world premiere of his German Symphony at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, which he had composed mostly in exile. Hanns Eisler died on September 6, 1962 in East Berlin.
In 1948, Eisler returned to Europe, at first to Vienna and Prague, finally to Eastern Berlin. Although he wrote the GDR’s national anthem, using a text by Johannes R. Becher, he got into conflict with the country’s cultural bureaucracy when his opera libretto “Johann Faustus” was published. Until 1955 he worked mostly in Vienna for the Neue Theater in der Scala and the Wien-Film at Rosenhügel. In the GDR he composed works for the Berlin Ensemble and DEFA. In 1959 he was able to attend the world premiere of his German Symphony at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, which he had composed mostly in exile. Hanns Eisler died on September 6, 1962 in East Berlin.