Fritz Grünbaum

Franz Friedrich "Fritz" Grünbaum (7 April 1880 – 14 January 1941) was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and popular song writer, actor, and master of ceremonies whose art collection was looted by Nazis before he was murdered in the Holocaust.

Grünbaum was born and grew up in Brünn, then the capital of the Margraviate of Moravia (now Brno, Czech Republic).

He later stated his father's occupation as "art dealer".

From 4 October 1899 to 31 July 1903, he studied at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna, lodging in the 2nd district like the majority of Jewish migrants to Vienna.

He did not complete a doctorate in law, so could not practise, but left with the equivalent of a master's degree.

While still a student, he worked as a journalist and as a legal advisor to the finance department and the police in Brünn and began a literary association there, the Neue Akademische Vereinigung für Kunst und Literatur, which brought many contemporary writers to the city.

In 1906, he returned to Vienna and became master of ceremonies at a new cabaret in the basement of the Theater an der Wien called Die Hölle (cabaret) (Hell); it opened on 7 October 1906 with Phryne, the first operetta for which he wrote the libretto (with Robert Bodanzky).

In 1907, when he was on stage presenting at the cabaret, an officer made an anti-Semitic heckling remark; Grünbaum boxed his ears and subsequently fought a sabre and pistols duel with him and was wounded.

From 1907 to 1910 he left Vienna for Berlin, under contract as a master of ceremonies with Rudolf Nelson after a first appearance at Nelson's Chat noir cabaret.

He then returned to Vienna, where he worked at Die Hölle for two more years and then at Simplicissimus (now Simpl cabaret).

He was now well known for rhymed monologues, libretti, and song lyrics.

On 1 August 1908, he married Carli Nagelmüller, a fellow cabarettist whom he had met at the Chat noir; they were divorced in December 1914, and she died in 1930.

He then married singer Mizzi Dressl.

His career was interrupted in 1915 by service as a volunteer in the First World War, but his work continued to be performed and he continued to write, including pacifist poetry published only after war's end.

Grünbaum also appeared frequently as a master of ceremonies in Berlin.

On 10 November 1919 he was married for the last time, to Elisabeth "Lilly" Herzl.

In the 1920s, he moved frequently between Vienna and Berlin, where in 1921 he met Karl Farkas; in 1922 they began collaborating as masters of ceremony, both extemporising rhyme, the so-called Doppelconférence for which they became famous.

Starting in the 1920s, Grünbaum amassed a well known art collection, especially of Austrian modernist art, works from which were featured in catalogues and exhibitions.

The collection came to include over 400 pieces, including 80 by Egon Schiele.

The collection disappeared during the Nazi period.

In late 1924, he began an association with Kurt Robitschek and Paul Morgan's Kabarett der Komiker (Comedians' Cabaret) or Kadeko in Berlin, also writing for its newsletter, Die Frechheit (Cheek).

He also appeared to acclaim in the German cities of Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Munich, and further afield in Karlsbad, Marienbad and Prague, performed at the Berlin Volkstheater and the Vienna Kammerspiele, and appeared in more than ten films.

He also became more politically engaged.

In September 1925 he began a weekly column of verse commentary in the Vienna Neue 8 Uhr-Blatt, and in April 1927 was a co-signatory of the Kundgebung für ein geistiges Wien, calling for intellectual freedom to be guaranteed.

When the power failed during a performance, he once quipped: "I can't see a thing, not a single thing; I must have stumbled into National Socialist culture."

Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Jewish performers were forbidden to appear in Germany, and many moved to Vienna.

Grünbaum was the subject of an article in Der Stürmer the following year.

His and Farkas' last revue, Metro Grünbaum – Farkas tönende Wochenschau, premièred on 29 February 1938; on 12 March, the Nazis marched into Austria and the show closed after two weeks.

Grünbaum and his wife, Lilly, attempted to flee to Czechoslovakia, but were caught.

Initially he was interned in Vienna as a political undesirable, rather than a Jew; on 24 May 1938, together with Morgan, Fritz Löhner-Beda and Hermann Leopoldi, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp.

He was transported from there to Buchenwald on 23 September 1938, and on 4 October 1940 back to Dachau.

He continued to quip, for example musing on the effectiveness of starvation as a cure for diabetes and in response to a guard refusing him soap, saying that those who did not have enough money for soap had no business running a concentration camp.

She was evicted from their flat in Vienna on 15 July 1938, moving in with a friend, Elsa Klauber; after several forced relocations, they were both deported on 5 October 1942 to the Maly Trostenets extermination camp, where she died on 9 October.

After a final performance on New Year's Eve for his fellow inmates, he died on 14 January 1941.

A star was dedicated to him on the Walk of Fame of Cabaret in Mainz, Germany.

He is buried in Vienna Central Cemetery, Old Israelite Part, Gate 1.

Fritz Grünbaum was married three times.

In the early 1950s, approximately 25% appeared on the art market through Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld.

The fate of the rest is unknown.

Grünbaum's heirs have fought to gain possession of works that were once part of his collection.