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Joseph Schmidt * 1904

Dammtorstraße 28 (Oper) (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

Flucht Belgien tot 16.11.1942 Lager Girnbach/Schweiz

• http://www.verstummtestimmen.de/
  (Die Stolpersteine vor der Staatsoper wurden aus Anlass der Ausstellung 'Verstummte Stimmen' verlegt. Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter dem vorstehenden Link)

further stumbling stones in Dammtorstraße 28 (Oper):
Gustav Brecher, Dr. Max Fraenkel, Hermann Frehse, Camilla Fuchs, Mauritz Kapper, Jacob Kaufmann, Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann, Kurt Abraham Salnik, Magda Spiegel, Viktor Ullmann, Bruno Wolf

Joseph Schmidt, born 4 Mar. 1904 in Davideny (Bukovina), died 16 Nov. 1942 at Girenbad internment camp (Canton of Zurich)

Dammtorstraße 28 (Opera House)

Joseph Schmidt was born in Davideny, Bukovina (today part of Ukraine) in the multi-ethnic state of Austria-Hungary in 1904, the son of Jewish parents. As of 1925 he studied voice at the Berlin University for Music. Due to his very short stature of 1.54 m, he was not hired for the opera stage but for the new media of radio. Between 1929 and 1933, he sang as a tenor in 38 radio operas for Berlin Radio. He also played a part in well-known film musicals such as "Ein Lied geht um die Welt” (A Song Goes Round the World).

In Dec. 1933 he fled to Vienna where he played roles in more films from 1934 to 1936, including "Heut’ ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben” (Today is the Best Day of My Life). After Austria was "annexed” to National-Socialist Germany, he fled from the approaching Wehrmacht, first to Belgium and then to France. He managed to escape from a camp in Vichy France and fled to Switzerland where he was interned several times as an illegal refugee. He died of heart failure on 16 Nov. 1942 and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Zurich-Wiedikon.

In 1958 a feature film was made of his life (Ein Lied geht um die Welt). In 1963 a memorial plaque was hung for him in the courtyard of the West Berlin Jewish Community Center. As of 1977 the street Joseph-Schmidt-Straße in Berlin-Neukölln bears his name as does the square Joseph-Schmidt-Platz in Vienna as of 1995. In 2004 a music school was named after him in Berlin-Adlershof, that same year a special German postage stamp was issued to commemorate his 100th birthday.

In 2007 a Stumbling Stone was laid for him in Hamburg outside the Opera House, even though he had no concrete relationship to Hamburg. The Hamburg Stumbling Stone was laid in connection with an exhibition at the Hamburg Opera House in 2006 and is a permanent reminder of Joseph Schmidt’s persecution at this cultural institution. A memorial plaque was hung in 2007 at the entrance of the building where he lived in Berlin-Schöneberg at Nürnberger Straße 68.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 8; Endlich: Wege, S. 61; Heer/Kesting/Schmidt (Hrsg.): Verstummte Stimmen, S. 41; Mende/Wernicke (Hrsg.): Berliner Bezirkslexikon Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, S. 639 (Schmidt, Josef/Joseph); Wulf: Theater, S. 362/363; www.lexm-uni-hamburg.de; www.wikipedia.de.
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