How a butcher’s son gave Hamburg the furious reputation

“He wasn’t a cocktail star, yet a heavenly of a public,” a Hamburg politician once pronounced of Hans Albers.

“Of march he was a good artist, yet a open didn’t understand him as grand, yet rather as tighten to a people, as partial of a people. To be partial of a people was his singular skill.”

55 years after his death, bars such as “Albers Eck”, “La Paloma” and a sculpture on Hans-Albers-plaza in a pier city commemorate Albers, who became famous as a entertainment and film actor and was widely desired for his heart-wrenching songs, such as “Good bye, Johnny” and “La Paloma”.

From butcher’s son to crooning star

Born to a grocer Philipp Albers and his mother Johanna in a Hamburg district of St. Georg in 1891, immature Hans already desired entertainment and spent his pocket-money on going to plays.

To greatfully his father he lerned to turn a salesman and worked during a silk factory, all a while holding behaving classes in tip and going to Berlin to try his fitness on entertainment after a First World War.

But his breakthrough usually came during a age of 37. One night, an actor fell out before a opening of a play “Die Verbecher” (the criminals) during a eminent Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Albers jumped in and won over a masses.

“I had to work tough for 20 years until we finally got my chance,” he once commented in an interview.

“Liliom” by Franz Molnar went on to turn his many famous on entertainment prolongation and a balance “Komm auf die Schaukel, Luise” (Join me on a swing, Luise) was a hit.

After starring in over 100 wordless movies, Albers starred in a initial ever German sound film “Die Nacht gehört uns” (The night belongs to us) in 1929, that was closely followed by a purpose alongside world-famous German singer Marlene Dietrich for a film “Der blaue Engel” (The blue angel).

 World-famous German singer Marlene Dietrich. Photo: DPA

Many of Alber’s cinema revolved around a yearning for a sea or a intrigue of a harbour, and he mostly played a roles of boat captains and dockworkers.

His recognition also brought celebrity to Hamburg, privately to a district of St. Pauli, that is eminent as a home of one of Germany’s biggest celebration streets – “die Reeperbahn”. 

Films such as “Große Freiheit Nr. 7” (Great leisure Nr. 7) and “Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb Eins” (On a Reeperbahn during half past 12) combined a orgiastic yet regretful picture of a district, that widespread around a world.

And it was no tip that Albers himself had a gusto for women and alcohol.

“[The movie’s illustration of St. Pauli] had zero to do with reality, yet it upheld a certain picture of Hamburg and a harbour,” commented Ortwin Pelc from a Hamburg Historical Museum.

“A heart of gold”

During a Second World War, Albers never had any connection to a Nazis and was never seen with high-ranking Nazi officials. 

When a Nazis demanded he apart from his Jewish partner and singer Hansi Burg, he strictly complied yet continued vital with her tighten to Lake Starnberg, south of Munich, and after helped her shun to England. 

During a fight he was appreciated as a throng puller and was in a position to direct high wages, yet after a fighting finished he never utterly managed to compare his progressing success.

Even yet he spent a final years of his life on a shores of Lake Starnberg, it was critical to him to be buried in Hamburg, a city of his birth. 

When he died in 1960, tens of thousands came to his funeral to contend their goodbyes and listen to a difference of film executive Helmut Käutner:e

”You were a loyal king. Your humour was your sovereignty and your heart of bullion was your crown. Good bye, Johnny. Have a good journey.”