Actors - Hans Albers

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Hans Albers

	Actors - Hans Albers

Hans Albers (September 22 1891 - July 24 1960) was a German actor and singer, nicknamed "Der Blonde Hans" (The Blond Hans). He is closely associated with the North German port city of Hamburg, and especially the Hamburg neighbourhood of St. Pauli, where there is a "Hans Albers Platz." Today he is more known for his music than his films, and his music is still widely-known in modern Germany, even among young people. Outside of Northern Europe, however, Albers remains virtually unknown, although the image of an older man in a seaman's cap and raincoat playing accordion and singing may be recognised by many outside of Germany, even if they don't know that this image is based on Hans Albers. As a case in point, McDonald's used such an image in an American television ad campaign in 1986.

Many of Albers' songs were humorous tales of drunken, womanzing sailors on shore-leave, with double entendres such as "It hurts the first time, but with time, you get used to it" in reference to a girl falling in love for the first time. Albers' songs were often peppered with Low German dialect, which is spoken in Northern Germany. His most famous song is by far "Auf der Reeperbahn Nachts um Halb Eins," (On the Reeperbahn at 12:30 a.m.) which has become the unofficial anthem of the colourful neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, strip-clubs, porn-shops, swingers clubs, anarchist-occupied squat-houses and as the place where The Beatles lived and played prior to becoming the biggest musical group of all time.

His birth name was Hans Philipp August Albers. He was the son of a butcher in the Hamburg neighbourhood of St. Georg. He ended an apprenticeship as a salesman in order to pursue his interest in theatre, and began taking acting classes without his parents' knowledge.

Albers was drafted in 1915 and served on the Western Front.

After World War I, Albers moved to Berlin, where he found work as a comedic actor in various Weimar-Era Berlin theatres. His breakthrough performance was that of a waiter in the play "Die Verbrecher," (The Criminals). It was also in Weimar Berlin that Albers began a long relationship with the Half-Jewish actress Hansi Burg. Albers never married Burg, perhaps in part because such a marriage would have been outlawed after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

After roles in over one hundred silent films, Albers appeared in the first German motion picture with sound, "Die Nacht Gehört Uns," (The Night Belongs to Us), in 1929. Soon thereafter, Albers played alongside Marlene Dietrich in one of the German diva's most famous films, "Der blaue Engel," (The Blue Angel).

Weimar-Era German theatre and music had a strong Jewish presence, and German entertainers of the day tended to be leftists. Therefore, most opposed the Nazis and Albers was no exception. When the Nazis came to power, Albers and his girlfriend moved to Starnberger See in Bavaria. He stopped working in theatre, in order to distance himself from the totalitarian regime, which had taken over all apsects of German life, including the entertainment industry. The Nazis forced Albers to end his relationship with Hansi Burg, and she fled to Switzerland and then to Great Britain in 1939.

In 1943, Albers was paid a huge sum of money to star in the hit-film "Műnchhausen," but always was careful not to give the impression that he was endorsing the National Socialist regime. Also in 1943, Albers starred in "Grosse Freiheit Nr. 7" with actress Ilse Werner. The film had to be shot in Prague because of bomb-damage to Hamburg.

After World War II, Albers had a few successful films and songs, but he never again enjoyed the public acclamation he had before and during the war. This may have been due in part to Alber's increasing alcoholism during the 1950's.

Albers died in 1960 in a sanatorium near the Starnberger See of internal bleeding.

Albers, Hans Albers, Hans Albers, Hans Albers, Hans

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Hans Albers ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Hans Albers; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay