Friedrich Hollaender

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Friedrich Hollaender (in exile also Frederick Hollander; 18 October 1896 – 18 January 1976) was a German film composer and author.

He was born in London, where his father, operetta composer Victor Hollaender, worked as a musical director at the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Young Hollaender had a solid music and theatre family background: his uncle Gustav was director of the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, his uncle Felix Hollaender was a well-known novelist and drama critic, who later worked with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater.

In 1899 Hollaender's family returned to Berlin, his father began teaching at the Stern Conservatory, where his son became a student in Engelbert Humperdinck's master class. In the evening he played the piano at silent film performances in local cinemas, developing the art of musical improvisation. By the age of 18 he was employed as a répétiteur at the New German Theatre in Prague and also was put in charge of troop entertainment at the Western Front of World War I.

Having finished his studies, he composed music for productions by Max Reinhardt and became involved in Berlin's Kabarett scene. Together with Kurt Tucholsky, Klabund, Walter Mehring, Mischa Spoliansky and Joachim Ringelnatz he worked in venues like Reinhardt's Schall und Rauch ensemble at the Großes Schauspielhaus or the Wilde Bühne led by Trude Hesterberg at the Theater des Westens in Charlottenburg, where he established the Tingel-Tangel-Theater cabaret in 1931.