Heinz Erhardt 100 Jahre - Das Beste (2-CD)

Heinz Erhardt

Heinz Erhardt (1909–1979) was the most popular funnyman of the post-war era – actor, comedian, cabaret artist, writer, composer and schlager-maker in one. For more than thirty years he was the great comic turn of the 'Bunte Abende'; his catchphrase 'Noch'n Gedicht' ('Another poem') became his verbal trademark, and his spoonerisms and rhymed absurdities still raise a laugh today.

Born in Riga as the son of a theatre conductor, he grew up surrounded by music; his grandfather owned a music shop. His career began not with a poem but with small, witty cabaret chansons that he wrote and composed himself – Fräulein Mabel, Mein Mädchen, Pappis Wiegenlied and Agamemnon. From his debut in Breslau he was brought to Berlin's 'Kabarett der Komiker' and the 'Scala'.

Conscripted into the navy during the war, he ended up entertaining the troops; after 1945 he started out as a radio raconteur and comic compere at NWDR Hamburg with series such as 'So was Dummes'. From 1950 he devoted himself above all to film, becoming a darling of post-war cinema with comedies like 'Witwer mit fünf Töchtern' and 'So ein Millionär hat's schwer'; his volumes of verse sold in the millions. On stage he always played the infantile, guileless and shy innocent – a rogue who passed himself off as a fool and was loved for it. In the ZDF poll 'Unsere Besten' he ranked second among the best-loved comedians, decades after his death.

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