Robert Gilbert (born Robert David Winterfeld) (29 September 1899 – 20 March 1978) was a German composer of

light music Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and ...

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

, singer, and actor. His father was Max Winterfeld, a composer and conductor who went by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Jean Gilbert. His brother was Henry Winterfeld, an author of children's books. Sometimes described as a "divided author", his early depression-era poem "Stempellied" about living on the dole was set to music by

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

. But "Am Sonntag will mein Süsser mit mir segeln gehen" ("On Sunday I'll go sailing with my Sweetheart") and "Das gibt's nur einmal" ("It Happens Only Once"), became his better known work.

Life

Gilbert was born in Berlin, and was a soldier during the last year of World War I, where he came in contact with

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and communist ideas that the political awareness of the 1900s had aroused. After his service in the war, he studied philosophy and art history in Berlin and in Freiburg and was engaged in political campaigns and demonstrations during this time. Gilbert's father, Jean Gilbert, born Max Winterfeld, was the son of a Hamburg businessman. Winterfeld struggled to enter the world of the theatre, beginning as a conductor and composing various pieces. French vaudeville was in fashion and in 1901, when Robert was one year old, he adopted the pen-name of Jean Gilbert. The family was poor for years and lived in seedy hotels, his father had to work nights playing piano wherever he could find work. Sometimes it was so cold that Robert's mother, Rosa, had to keep warm in bed while sewing hats to earn a little extra money. For a time, Robert's father was the conductor of a 40-man orchestra in a circus, an adventurous playground with circus elephants for Robert and his younger brother Henry. But this life did not last much longer. Jean Gilbert's operettas, (1909) and '' Die keusche Susanne'' (1910) were hugely successful and his song, "Pupchen, du bist mein Augenstern" became a hit. By 1911, Jean Gilbert was world-famous and rich. He had houses, women, an unusual family and wealth. But Robert rebelled. In 1918, Gilbert was drafted into the army, and there he came in contact with revolutionary ideas from a group of friends who belonged to a group known as the Spartakists."Gilbert, Robert"
(in German) He attended worker's meetings, listened to their speeches, and was moved by their hardships. Then, after his release from the army, he studied philosophy in Berlin and Freiburg and read Goethe and the major German writers. He met new friends who gave him work by

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Ernst Busch, the popular proletarian singer, das "Stempellied": "Keenen Sechser in der Tasche/ Bloß 'nen Stempelschein./ Durch die Löcher der Kledasche/ Kiekt de Sonne rein." ("Not a penny in my pocket/ Just a voucher for the dole".)

, who often visited Gilbert along with others from the circle of communist sympathizers, wrote the music for the depression era song. Then in 1929, came the cheerful "Am Sonntag will mein Süsser mit mir segeln gehen" ("On Sunday I'll go Sailing with my Sweetheart"). Gilbert himself recognized the split in his writings, stating that, "a certain conflict persisted throughout my whole life. I had a gift for entertainment and light music that largely came from my father. Along with that, I also always wrote other things." Those "other things" were the many songs that brought him a substantial income. A colleague, Horst Budjuhn expressed this split with his belief that Gilbert was always inspired by poetry and money. In the 1920s, during the period of inflation there was a row of depressing and cynical songs in which life was worthless. But when the economy recovered he returned to light music and between 1929 and 1931 came many of Gilbert's romantic hits that became his best-remembered works. "How I created hits, I've never known. I was always surprised when people suddenly began singing 'Das gibt's nur einmal' or 'Liebling, mein Herz lässt dich grüssen'.", Gilbert stated. In 1930 for the operetta '' Das Weisse Rössl'' (''The White Horse Inn''), Gilbert worked on the libretto and also included his own song, "Was kann der Sigismund dafür, dass er so schön ist?" ("Is it Sigismund's fault that he's so handsome?") The show became a huge success with many hit songs. From there UFA contracted with Gilbert to make films, beginning with '' Die Drei von der Tankstelle'', which inaugurated his long musical collaboration with

Werner Richard Heymann Werner Richard Heymann (14 February 1896 – 30 May 1961), also known as Werner R. Heymann, was a German-Jewish composer active in Germany and in Hollywood. Early life and education He was the younger of 4 boys born to a corn merchant. His olde ...

with such hits as "Ein Freund, ein guter Freund", ("A Friend, a Good Friend"), and "Liebling, mein Herz läst dich grüssen" ("Darling, my heart sends you greetings"). The partnership continued with '' Der Kongress tanzt'', and the hit "Das muss ein Stück vom Himmel sein" ("This must be a piece of Heaven") and the song that always remained associated with both of them, "Das gibt's nur einmal, das kommt nicht wieder" ("This happens only once, it doesn't come again"). The next hit movie was '' Bombs on Monte Carlo'', which featured the hits "Eine Nacht in Monte Carlo" and "Das ist die Liebe der Matrosen" ("The love life of sailors"). But the opportunity for further success was denied when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

became chancellor in 1933 and the first of the Nuremberg laws were enacted which denied Jews access to work in theater, film, music or any arts or entertainment occupations or venues. And Gilbert along with his family fled Berlin. The next years were spent in Vienna, where Gilbert learned the Viennese dialect and continued writing poetry as the Nazi influence gained strength until Austria welcomed Hitler in 1938. Since Jews were not allowed to travel, it was only with great difficulties that he escaped from Austria to France and from there to America in 1939. For ten years, Gilbert, his wife Elke and their daughter Marianne lived in Riverdale, a suburb of New York City for ten years. There Gilbert set himself the task of learning English, especially the everyday language as spoken in the streets, with hopes of eventually reaching Broadway. In the meantime, he found work in clubs and cabarets, which brought an intermittent income, while Elke worked in factories as a seamstress. During these years, Gilbert published his first volume of poetry, ''Meine Reime, Deine Reime'', which contained his serious insights, along with sharp political satire, and reminiscences of the lost beloved city of Berlin. The volume was admired by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

who hoped to get it re-published in Germany. Meanwhile, Robert's father Jean Gilbert and his second family were also forced to flee from Nazi Germany, travelling first to Spain, then to England and finally Argentina. Jean Gilbert found work as an orchestra conductor for Buenos Aires Radio in 1939, certainly a comedown from his earlier wealth and renown in Germany, but still a good position where he could use his musical talents. He died there unexpectedly in 1942 at the relatively young age of sixty-three. Despite improving his American English, Gilbert's efforts to reach the Broadway theatres were unsuccessful and in 1949, he returned to Europe. There the post-war theatre and film industry was reviving, not in Berlin, which was still a divided city, but in Munich. Gilbert was welcomed upon his return and in 1950 he had a successful one-man theatrical evening. After the end of the wartime ban on works by Jewish writers and composers, his earlier songs were played everywhere. These continued to provide some income. One striking feature of Gilbert's interviews and appearances during this time was that there was no mention of the reason for his ten-year absence or of the Nazi murderous persecution of Jews. But it had been twenty years since Gilbert's early successes and it wasn't just the landscape that had changed, after the war musical tastes changed also. Though he worked tirelessly, his later songs could not attain the popularity of his earlier "evergreens". During these years, as he had in America, he worked on the serious side of his lifelong writings, creating a long near-epic poem about his wanderings entitled ''The Organ-Grinder's Odyssey'', which some critics, like

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

, considered his best work. Toward the poem's end, the narrator describes the Berlin he had returned to in 1949: bombed-out buildings still covered with ashes and dust, bleak in winter's cold, the actual city not unlike the one he had envisioned in New York City in 1940. Gilbert's ''Odyssey'' ends with an account of the returning dynamism of Germany's

Economic Miracle Economic miracle is an informal economic term for a period of dramatic economic development that is entirely unexpected or unexpectedly strong. Economic miracles have occurred in the recent histories of a number of countries, often those undergoi ...

with its author painfully aware that the rising computer generation was leaving him and his peers behind. In the 1950s he entered a second marriage and, after the birth of the couple's son, Stefan, Gilbert moved with his new family to

Locarno Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...

in Switzerland's Tessin region. Then in the 1960s, he embarked on a successful second career translating American Broadway musicals. A former close boyhood friend, Frederick (Fritz) Loewe introduced Gilbert to his collaborator,

Alan Jay Lerner Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre bot ...

, and that meeting resulted in a string of major hits – the German translations of ''Annie Get Your Gun'', ''Hello Dolly'', ''Gigi'', ''My Fair Lady'' and ''Man of La Mancha''. All of these international hit shows are still played in revivals in many theatres throughout German-speaking countries. Gilbert died in

, Switzerland, in 1978 at the age of seventy-eight. A record of his work with titles of the nearly 400 songs he wrote as well as the five volumes of his poetry, and many personal letters can be found at the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

in Berlin.

Selected filmography

* ''

Light-Hearted Isabel ''Light-Hearted Isabel'' () is a 1927 German silent comedy film directed by Eddy Busch and Arthur Wellin and starring Lee Parry, Otto Wallburg, and Gustav Fröhlich.Grange p. 228 The film's sets were designed by the art directors Otto Erdman ...

'' (1927) * '' Kohlhiesel's Daughters'' (1930) * '' The Battle of Bademunde'' (1931) * '' Amourous Adventure'' (1932) * '' The White Horse Inn'' (1952) * '' The Forester's Daughter'' (1952)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Robert German lyricists 1899 births 1978 deaths German male writers People from Locarno