Richard Weize (born August 4, 1945, in Bad Gandersheim, Germany) is the founder of
Bear Family Records
Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging primarily in country music but varying in everything from 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks.
History
T ...
label, operator of the Richard Weize Archives, and an author. Weize and his work has been featured in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
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''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
''
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Die Zeit
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The first edition of was ...
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Welt,
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Die Presse
(, ) is a German-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vienna, Austria. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria.
History and profile
was first printed on 3 July 1848 as a liberal (libertarian)-bourgeois newspaper within the ...
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Der Standard
''Der Standard'' () is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria.
History and profile
''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first editio ...
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and more.
Education
Weize grew up in Bad Gandersheim. His family has been working in the bookbinding trade since 1845, as well as running a book and stationery shop. His passion for pop music emerged when the first Anglo-American 45-rpm records appeared in Germany in the 1950s, and it was fueled with
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...
,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
and the
Star-Club
The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 3 ...
in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
. By 1960, Weize had become a pioneering record trader, importing hard-to-get country and rock ‘n’ roll albums from the US and selling them – with a small surcharge – to his friends. Not only was this the start of his own record collection, but also one of the foundation stones of his Bear Family Records business.
Bear Family Records
Weize founded Bear Family Records in 1975. The label was such a grassroots operation at first that Weize began by typing the label's first "catalogues" on his typewriter, but soon he had to employ some staff to help him with his work. By then Bear Family had changed from a mail order business to a record label selling their own rereleases worldwide. In building the company, Weize had found many companions – producers, authors, musicians, music lovers – some of whom continue to contribute to the label's releases. Among them: Jürgen Brückner, John Cowley, Hank Davis,
Colin Escott
Colin Escott (born 31 August 1949) is a British music historian and author specializing in early U.S. rock and roll and country music. His works include a biography of Hank Williams, histories of Sun Records and The Grand Ole Opry, liner notes ...
, Bill Geerhart, Martin Hawkins, Hugo Keesing, Michael Kleff, Volker Kühn, Rainer E. Lotz, Bernd Matheja, Ted Olson, Tony Russel, Dr. Jürgen Schebera.
Further Activities
Weize retired in 2015, but continues to compile records for Bear Family Records. In addition, he is on the board of the Klaus Kuhnke Archives and continues to release recordings on the "and more bears" label. He, too, has published two books, "1000 Nadelstiche (Amerikaner & Briten singen deutsch 1955-1975"—1000 Needlesticks (Americans and British sing in the German language 1955–1975)--and "Creole Music of the French West Indies – a discography 1900-1959.” and co-written"
"LONDON Label Lexikon," and contributed a foreword to "The TELDEC Story."
Family
Richard Weize has five children from his first two marriages with Helga and Petra Weize: Ricky (1964), Rene (1965), Tobias (1972), Sarah (1974) and Philipp (1979). Since 1994, Weize has been living with his third wife, Birgit in Vollersode near Bremen.
Awards
Richard Weize has been honored with numerous awards, including the "W.C. Handy Award," the "Blues Music Award," and several of Bear Family albums have been nominated for Grammys in the U.S. He also received a special award by the Association of German Music Critics in 2003 for his life's work, and in 2009 the German music industry honored his achievements by granting an Echo award to Bear Family for "outstanding contributions to music."
On 2 February 2021 Richard Weize was awarded with the Cross of the Order of Merit – on proposal of Germany's Federal President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who has served as President of Germany since 2017. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again f ...
– for his life's work. He has devoted his life to the preservation and accessibility of musical cultural assets. Or, as stated by
Götz Alsmann in his written eulogy: "Richard Weize’s work is one big recovery of cultural treasures, purely and simply the preservation of the world’s musical heritage." According to Alsmann, Weize's work in the field of musical history is by all means comparable to that of Ludwig von Köchel or Otto Erich Deutsch, whose directories are fundamental contributions to the cataloging and preservation of Mozart's and Schubert's music.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weize, Richard
German music people
Living people
1945 births
People from Bad Gandersheim
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany