Anna German

Anna Wiktoria German (February 14, 1936 – August 25, 1982) was during her lifetime known as a Polish singer and was immensely popular in Poland and in the Soviet Union in 1960s-1970s. She released over a dozen music albums with songs in Polish, as well as several albums with Russian repertoire.

Anna German was a Polish and Russian-language singer of a Russia-German family. She was born in Urgench, a city with a population of 22,000 in northwestern Uzbekistan in Central Asia, then Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. Her mother, Irma Martens, was the descendant of Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites invited to Russia by Catherine II. Her accountant father, Eugen (Eugeniusz) Hörmann (in Russian, Герман), was also of a Russia-German pastor family and born during travel in Łódź (Czarist Russian Empire) now Poland. Already Eugen Hörmann's father, Anna's grandfather, Friedrich Hörmann, who had studied theology at Lodz, was in 1929 incarcerated in Gulag Plesetzk by Communists for being a priest, where he died. In 1937 during the NKVD's anti-German operation Eugen Hörmann was arrested in Urgench on false charges of spying, and executed (officially, sentenced to ten years in prison). Thereafter, Anna and her mother and grandmother survived in the Kemerovo Region, Tashkent, and later in the Kyrgyz and Kazakh SSR.

In 1946 her mother (who had married German Berner, an Ludowe Wojsko Polskie soldier who died in the war) was able to take the family to Silesia, first Nowa Ruda and then Wrocław in 1949.

Anna quickly learned Polish and several other languages and grew up hiding her family heritage. She graduated from the Geological Institute of Wroclaw University. During her university years, she began her music career at the Kalambur theater. Anna finally became successful when she won the 1964 II Festival of Polish Songs in Opole with her song "Tańczące Eurydyki". One year later, she won first prize in the international song contest in Sopot. She was invited to perform in Italy in the prestigious Sanremo Music Festival in 1967. In Italy Anna German survived a bad car crash, and fully came back to the stage only in 1972, after a long rehabilitation period.

On 23 March 1972 she married Zbigniew Tucholski. Their son, Zbigniew, was born on 27 November 1975. Anna performed in the Marché international de l'édition musicale in Cannes, as well as on the stages of Belgium, Germany, USA, Canada and Australia. In the last years of her life she composed some church songs. She died of osteosarcoma in 1982, and was buried at Warsaw evangelical cemetery.

She also sang in Russian, English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German and Mongolian. In 2001 six of her Polish albums were reissued on CDs. In recent years many compilation albums of her songs have also been released in both Russia and Poland.

Discography

Albums  

• Na tamten brzeg (1964) [Onto that shore]
• Tańczące Eurydyki (1965) [Dancing Eurydices]
• Recital piosenek (1967) [A recital of songs]
• I classici della musica napoletana (1967)
• Człowieczy los (1970) [Fate of Man]
• Domenico Scarlatti - Arie z opery Tetida in Sciro (1971)
• Wiatr mieszka w dzikich topolach (1972) [Wind lives in wild poplars]
• To chyba maj (1974) [It has to be May]
• Anna German (1977)
• Anna German (1979)
• Pomyśl o mnie (1979) [Think about me]
• Tylko w tangu/Dookoła kipi lato (1979) [Only in tango/Summer is all around]
• Śpiewa Anna German (1979) [Anna German is singing]
• Надежда (Nadezhda, 1980) [Hope]
• Последняя встреча (Poslednyaya vstrecha, 1982)[Last meeting]

Singles

• "The Man I Love" (1964)

Later reprints and compilation albums

• 1984 Jesteś moja miłością LP
• 1987 Эхо любви (Echo lubvi) - live '79 LP
• 1989 Anna German LP
• 1989 Znaki zapytania LP
• 1990 Powracające słowa vol. 1 LP
• 1990 Powracające słowa vol. 2 LP
• 1991 Zakwitnę różą CD
• 1991 Recital piosenek CD
• 1994 Nasza ścieżka CD
• 1994 Złote przeboje neapolitanskie MC
• 1995 Planeta Anna part 1 MC
• 1995 Planeta Anna part 2 MC
• 1996 Незабытый мотив (Nezabitiy motiv) CD
• 1996 Лучшие песни (Luchshie pesni) CD
• 1998 Когда цвели сады (Kogda tsveli sadi) CD
• 1998 Wiatr mieszka w dzikich topolach CD
• 1999 Tańczące Eurydyki CD
• 1999 Platynowa kolekcja CD
• 1999 Złote przeboje CD
• 1999 Bal u Posejdona (Złota kolekcja) CD
• 1999 Антология советского шлягера (Antologia sovetskogo shlagera) MC
• 2000 Анна Герман. Российская эстрадная музыкальная энциклопедия (Rossiyskaya estradnaya muzikalnaya encyclopaedia) CD
• 2000 Последняя встреча (Poslednyaya vstrecha) CD
• 2001 Quiet words of love (Russian) (Любви негромкие слова) CD
• 2001 Ваши любимые песни (Vashi lyubimie pesni) CD
• 2001 Tańczące Eurydyki CD
• 2001 Recital piosenek CD
• 2001 Człowieczy los CD
• 2001 Wiatr mieszka w dzikich topolach CD
• 2001 Domenico Scarlatti - Arie z opery "Tetida in Sciro" CD
• 2001 To chyba maj CD
• 2001 Pomyśl o mnie CD
• 2001 Luchshee - Zvyozdi sovetskoy estradi CD
• 2002 Najlepsze piosenki CD
• 2003 Наши лучшие песни (Nashi lyubimie pesni) CD
• 2003 Człowiecy los collection CD
• 2003 Золотой век русской эстрады (Zolotoy vek russkoy estrady) CD
• 2003 Посидим, помолчим. Полное собрание песен (Posidim, pomolchim) vol.1 CD
• 2003 Спасибо тебе мое сердце. Полное собрание песен (Spasibo tebe moyo serdtse) vol.2 CD
• 2004 Złote przeboje CD
• 2004 Самое лучшее (Samoe luchshee) CD
• 2007 MP3 collection

Filmography

• 1966: Marynarka to męska przygoda (Documentary) – ensemble Cast
• 1970: Landscape After the Battle (Polish: Krajobraz po bitwie)
• 1970: Prom – singing
• 1970: Balladyna (TV show) – singing
• 1970: Wyspy szczęśliwe. Śpiewa Anna German (short film)
• 1977: Sudba (film) – singing Echo Miłości
• 2012: Anna German (Russian TV series) – singing (her songs have been used in the series)