Fritz Grasshoff

Life

Graßhoff was born and spent his youth in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, where his father, a former sailor, worked as a coal merchant and farmer. Traces of the rugged environment later appeared in his ballads and songs. He attended the "Humanistisches Gymnasium", learning Greek and Latin. After his Abitur (college entrance exam) in 1933, he began an apprenticeship as a church painter. Later, he was involved in journalism. In 1938, he was drafted into the military and fought in World War II against Russia, later falling into British captivity. He wrote his first collection of poems in captivity in 1945.

From 1946 to 1967, he lived in Celle, Lower Saxony. He traveled extensively to Greece and, from 1956, regularly to Sweden. In 1947, he published his most famous collection of ballads, songs and poems, the Halunkenpostille, which sold more than 300,000 copies. His paintings were first shown in Celle in 1947, then in 1954 in his first important art exhibit at the kestnergesellschaft in Hannover along with works by Max Beckmann and Paul Klee. His work was purchased by the Kunsthalle Hamburg and the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg. However, his income came primarily from his lyrics for pop songs. He wrote several hits for singers, such as Lale Andersen, Freddy Quinn and Hans Albers, for whom he wrote "Nimm mich mit, Kapitän, auf die Reise" ("Take me along, captain, on your trip"). In addition to his often crude songs and ballads, set to music by such composers as Heinz Gietz, James Last, Lotar Olias, Wolfgang Schulz, Norbert Schultze and Siegfried Strohbach, he translated from Greek, from Latin, including texts by the Roman Martial, and from Swedish, with works by the national poet, Carl Michael Bellman.

In 1967, Graßhoff moved to Zwingenberg. He stayed away from the literary world because he felt that his reputation was primarily from his hit lyrics. When his biographical novel, Der blaue Heinrich, was published in 1980, it received little attention.

In 1983, he and his family left Germany for Canada, where he spent the last 13 years of his life at his home on the Ottawa River. He died in Hudson, Quebec. His late poetry brought him a respected place in the literary world, reflected in numerous essays. His paintings are held by museums, such as the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. In Celle, an archive is kept at the Bomann Museum, his atelier in the garden of his home still exists, and the street Fritz-Grasshoff-Gasse is named after him.

Literary works

Picture books, exhibition catalogs

Recordings and music books

Selected exhibitions

Literature