Franz Grothe

Franz Grothe was born in Berlin on 17 September 1908.^[2] He was trained as a pianist and composer at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and began working in Dajos Béla's band at the age of 18. In his early career he wrote lighter popular songs and worked as an arranger for Robert Stolz, Franz Lehár, and Emmerich Kálmán. During the Great Depression he penned a number of escapist optimistic tunes of a lively nature.^[1]

With the rise of sound film, Grothe oriented his career into composing for the cinema. He composed the music to a total of 167 films from 1929 through 1967. Several of his films were operettas or musicals; many of which were created with lyricist Willy Dehmel [de] whom was his most frequent collaborator. He also worked on films with Fritz Rotter, Robert Gilbert, and Karl Wilczynski among others. He wrote several songs that became popular hits in German speaking countries, and was particularly known for his dance music and love songs. Many of these were recorded and performed on the radio by popular German entertainers.^[1]

In 1935 Grothe's stage musical Vier unter einem Dach premiered. This was followed by the operettas Die unsterbliche Sehnsucht (1937) and Die Nacht mit Casanova (1942). He did not write another stage work until the 1970s; producing the musicals Moral (1974) and Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (1977).^[1] When jazz was officially banned in Nazi Germany in 1935, Grothe ignored it and continued to write music using a swing style.^[1] However, Grothe officially joined the Nazi party and was appointed Werner Egk's deputy while Egk was the leader of the Composer division ("Leiter der Fachschaft Komponisten") in the State-Approved Society for the Exploitation of Musical Performing Rights (German: Staatlich genehmigte Gesellschaft zur Verwertung musikalischer Aufführungsrechte; STAGMA) which was then under the control of the Nazi Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber).^[4]

With Georg Haentzschel, Grothe co-founded the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra in 1941. He had a major success with the satirical musical film The Spessart Inn (1958). He also composed music for German television in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the recipient of the Paul-Lincke-Ring [de] (1966), the Filmband in Gold [de] (1975), and the Max Reger Prize (1978). He served as chairman of the board of GEMA from 1972 until his death^[1] in Cologne on 12 September 1982.^[2]