Hermann Leopoldi was born in Vienna as the son of a musician, who tought him to play the piano. As a 16-year old he started a musical career himself. When World War 1 ended he joined the comedian Fritz Wiesental to create the cabaret ‘Leopoldi-Wiesental’. Following a short stay in Berlin, he returned to Vienna. In the 1920s and 1930s he was one of the most popular composers of traditional Viennese songs. He was awarded the Austrian Silver Ordre de Merite in 1937.
Following the Anschluss, Hermann Leopoldi was arrested in 1938 and held in the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. While in Buchenwald Leopoldi and Dr. Fritz Beda-Loehner created the Buchenwaldlied, which the inmates of the concentration camp had to sing when marching. Hermann Leopoldi’s family managed to ‘ransom’ him in 1939 and consequently he was able to immigrate to the USA settling in New York, where he worked as a pianist in Alt-Wien. With his partner, Austrian singer Helly Moeslein, and the English version of the Viennese song Ein kleines Cafe in Hernals (“In a Little Cafe Down the Street”) he became famous in the USA. Invited back by the Lord Mayor of Vienna, Theodor Koerner, Leopoldi and Moeslein returned to Austria in 1947 and became extremely popular, performing throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland, including in films, as well as recording their hits. Hermann Leopoldi’s humorous songs such as Ringelspiel, Powidl Tatschkerl and Schnucki .. fohr’ ma nach Kentucky are still very popular.