Anna Wiktoria German-Tucholska[1] (14 February 1936 – 26 August 1982)[2] was a Polish singer, immensely popular in Poland and in the Soviet Union in the 1960s–1970s. She released over a dozen music albums with songs in Polish, as well as several albums with Russian repertoire. Throughout her music career, she also recorded songs in the German, Italian, Spanish, English, and Latin languages.
Russian and Polish singer
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2020)
Anna German was a Polish and Russian language singer. She was born in the city of Urgench in Uzbekistan (Central Asia), then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Her mother, Irma Martens, was a descendant of Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites invited to Russia by Empress Catherine the Great. Her accountant father, Eugen (Eugeniusz) Hörmann (in Russian, Герман), was also of a German–Russian pastor family and born during travel in Łódź in Congress Poland (part of the Russian Empire), now in Poland. Eugen Hörmann's father, Anna's grandfather, Friedrich Hörmann, who had studied theology at Łódź, was in 1929 incarcerated in Gulag Plesetsk by communists for being a priest; he died there. In 1937, during the NKVD's anti-German operation, Eugen Hörmann was arrested in Urgench on false charges of spying, and executed (officially, sentenced to ten years in prison). Thereafter Anna, with her mother and grandmother, survived in the Kemerovo Region of Siberia, as well as in Tashkent, and later in the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs.
In 1946, German's mother (who had married Herman Gerner, a Polish People's Army soldier) was able to take the family to Silesia, first to Nowa Ruda and in 1949 to Wrocław.
German quickly learned Polish and several other languages and grew up hiding her family heritage. She graduated from the Geological Institute of the University of Wrocław. During her university years, she began her music career at the Kalambur Theater. German became known to the general public when she won the 1964 II Festival of Polish Songs in Opole with her song Tańczące Eurydyki ('Dancing Eurydices'). One year later, she won the first prize in the Sopot International Song Festival.
German performed in the Marché international de l'édition musicale in Cannes, as well as on the stages of Belgium, Germany, United States, Canada and Australia.
She also sang in Russian, English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German and Mongolian.[3] In 2001, six of her Polish albums were reissued on CDs. In recent years, many compilation albums of her songs have also been released in both Russia and Poland.
Career in Italy
In December 1966 in Milan, German signed a contract with the CDI company to release her records, thus becoming the first performer from behind the "Iron Curtain" who recorded in Italy. In Italy, German had performed at the Sanremo Music Festival, starred in a television show, recorded a programme with the singer Domenico Modugno, performed at the festival of Neapolitan songs in Sorrento and received the "Oscar della simpatia" award.
Car accident and treatment
On 27 August 1967, while in Italy, on the road between Forlì and Milan, Anna German was involved in a severe car accident. At high speed, the car driven by the impresario of the singer crashed into a concrete fence. German was thrown from the car through the windshield. She suffered multiple fractures and other internal injuries. An investigation revealed that the driver of the car – her manager Renato Serio – fell asleep at the wheel. In aftermath, Serio received only a fracture of the hand and foot. The third passenger, singer Elena Zagorskaya, suffered some scratches but wasn't seriously injured. Meanwhile, German survived the biggest wounds, and had not regained consciousness in aftermath of the crash. After the plaster was taken off, the singer still lay in a hospital bed for half a year. Then it took her a few months to relearn to sit and walk.[4]
Later, she released the autobiographical book Wróć do Sorrento? ('Come Back to Sorrento?'), dedicated to the Italian period of her career. The book's circulation was 30,000 copies.
On 23 March 1972, German married Zbigniew Tucholski. Their son, Zbigniew Tucholski, was born in 1975. In the last years of her life, German composed some church songs. Before she died in 1982 of osteosarcoma (at the age of 46), she joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[10] German was buried at the Evangelical Cemetery in Warsaw.
Anna loved to cook oriental dishes. Her other favorite foods were boiled potatoes with herring, pickles, pies with cabbage, black tea with lemon, and oatmeal cookies. She did not consume alcohol.
The main street in Urgench, Uzbekistan, the birthplace of Anna German, bears her name.
The asteroid 2519 Y discovered in 1975 by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova was named in honour of Anna German.
The amphitheatre in Zielona Góra, Poland, has been named in Anna German's memory.
In 2002, the Tańczące Eurydyki Song Festival aimed at popularizing the musical legacy of Anna German and Polish popular music was launched.
The Anna German Musical High School in Białystok bears the name of the singer.
In 2012, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in Wrocław at the entrance to the house where Anna German used to live.
In 2012, a Russian biographical mini-series (co-produced with Poland, Ukraine and Croatia) about the life of Anna German was filmed.
A star on the Moscow Walk of Fame honouring Anna German was unveiled.
Several streets in Polish cities including Warsaw and Rzeszów were named in remembrance of the singer.
In 2013, a star on the Walk of Fame of the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole devoted to Anna German was unveiled.
Books about Anna German
1974 Nagrabiecki Jan: Anna German. 1974
Aleksander Zygariov: Anna German. 1988
Aleksander Zygariov: Anna German. 1998 (reissue)
Mariola Pryzwan: Wspomnienia o Annie German. 1999
Adriana Polak: Człowieczy los. Wspomnienia o Annie German. 2000
Artur Hörmann: Die unbekannte Anna German. 2003 (The book was written by the uncle of Anna and brother her father Eugene Herman)
Mariola Pryzwan: Tańcząca Eurydyka. Wspomnienia o Annie German. 2008
Ivan Ilichev: Анна Герман – Гори, гори, моя звезда!. 2010
Jordan Naoum: Anna German. 2011 ISBN6138327977
Mariola Pryzwan: Anna German o sobie. 2012
Ivan Ilichev: Мы долгое эхо (We long echo). 2012
Mariola Pryzwan: Tańcząca Eurydyka. Anna German we wspomnieniach. 2013
Marzena Baranowska: German. Osobisty album Anny German. 2013
Ivan Ilichev: Анна Герман. Белый ангел песни (White angel of the song). 2013
German. Śpiewający anioł. Super album. 2013
Ivan Ilichev: Эхо любви (Echoes of love). 2013
Volga Yerafeyenka: Anna German. „Uśmiechaj się”. 2014
Irma Martens-Berner: Człowieczy los. Wspomnienia matki Anny German. 2014, ISBN978-83-7295-299-8 (Consultants books: son A. German, Dr. Zbigniew I. Tucholsky and her husband, engineer Zbigniew A. Tucholsky)
Ivan Ilichev: Анна Герман. Сто воспоминаний о великой певице (Anna German. A hundred memories of great singer). 2016
Literary works
1970 „Wróć do Sorrento?...” (Come Back to Sorrento?...)
Bajka o skrzydlatym szpaku (The tale of the winged Starling). The book is written by Anna to her son
1988 «Вернись в Сорренто?...» translated from Polish into Russian by R. Bello
2002 „Wróć do Sorrento?...” reissue
2012 „Wróć do Sorrento?...” reissue
Discography
Albums
Anna German grave in Protestant Reformed Cemetery in Warsaw
Na tamten brzeg (1964) [Onto that shore]
Tańczące Eurydyki (1965) [Dancing Eurydices]
Recital piosenek (1967) [A recital of songs]
I classici della musica napoletana (1967) [Classics of the Canzone Napoletana]
Człowieczy los (1970) [Fate of Man]
Domenico Scarlatti – Arie z opery Tetide in Sciro (1971) [Domenico Scarlatti – Arias from opera Tetide in Sciro]
Wiatr mieszka w dzikich topolach (1972) [Wind lives in wild poplars]
To chyba maj (1974) [It has to be May]
Anna German(1977)
Anna German(1979)
Pomyśl o mnie (1979) [Think about me]
Tylko w tangu/Dookoła kipi lato (1979) [Only in tango/Summer is all around]
Śpiewa Anna German (1979) [Anna German is singing]
Надежда (Nadezhda, 1980) [Hope]
Последняя встреча (Poslednyaya vstrecha, 1982) [Last meeting]
Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.
2019-2025 WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии