Category Archives: People

Bill Wilder in Berlin

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Brendan

It was Paul Whiteman, America’s ‘King Of Jazz’ that first brought Billy Wilder to Berlin in May 1926. The twenty-year-old journalist rookie journalist from Vienna had so impressed the band leader with his review of their shows at the city’s … Continue reading →

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Joseph Schmidt

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Brendan

Tenor and actor Joseph Schmidt was born in March 1904 in the Austro-Hungarian village of Davideny, which became part of Romania after WW1 and is now in Ukraine.   His mother encouraged him into a career in music despite objections … Continue reading →

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Jeanne Mammen

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Brendan

  (pic: db-artmag.com) Artist and Illustrator Jeanne Mammen lived and worked on the fourth floor of the rear building at Ku’damm 29 for over 50 years. Berlin born, she studied art in Paris, Brussels and Rome before returning home to … Continue reading →

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Walter Jurmann

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Brendan

Austrian-born musician and songwriter Walter Jurmann was drawn to Berlin at the height of the Weimar era and immediately found both a home in the ultra-modern new Erich Mendelsohn housing development on the Ku’Damm and work playing the piano in … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday Mr. Bachardy

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Brendan

The portrait artist Don Bachardy is 80 today. Donald Jess Bachardy was born on May 18th 1934 in Los Angeles.  In February of 1953, he met the British writer Christopher Isherwood, 30 years his senior, and they began a relationship … Continue reading →

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