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“Then I'll pull out an eyelash and stab you to death with it!”

The foxtrot hit “Dann reiss’ ich mir ‘ne Wimper aus” from the stage show Gruss an alle, which was shown at the Deutsches Theater in Munich, became a popular hit in 1928. That same year, several stage stars and orchestras recorded the song on vinyl. Most of these artists, who were very famous at the time, had to emigrate in 1933 because of their Jewish descent.

“Then I'll pull out an eyelash and stab you to death with it!”

The foxtrot hit “Dann reiss’ ich mir ‘ne Wimper aus” from the stage show Gruss an alle, which was shown at the Deutsches Theater in Munich, became a popular hit in 1928. That same year, several stage stars and orchestras recorded the song on vinyl. Most of these artists, who were very famous at the time, had to emigrate in 1933 because of their Jewish descent.

The song tells the story of a professor Nicodemus who travels to Africa against the advice of his “beautiful Fräulein Meyerbeer” and falls into the hands of “man-eaters” there. At the stake, “Chief Zizi Bambula” then offers him his “Miss Grandmama” as a wife.

The main rhyme of the song – “I’ll pull out an eyelash and stab you to death with it. Then I’ll take a lipstick and paint you red. And if you’re still angry, I know only one advice: I’ll order a fried egg and splash you with spinach” – became well known. This hit is now considered the first “gay” song of this period and a forerunner of the entire movement.

ULK, vol. 57 / n. 50, 14.12.1928, p. 399
Couplet

“Then I’ll pull out an eyelash and stab you to death with it!”

As Duwidani’s caricature demonstrates, the song became so popular that even men with music boxes on the street played it.

The revue star

Max Hansen (Max Josef Haller 1897- 1961), born in Mannheim, was a music and acting star in Berlin during the Weimar period. As a cabaret artist, he made fun of Hitler in the song “War’n Sie schon einmal in mich verliebt?” (Have you ever been in love with me?) and insinuated that he had homosexual tendencies toward the Jewish “Siggi Kohn” a spokesman for the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten. When Hansen was mobbed for his Jewish ancestry, he left for Vienna in 1934 and later to Denmark in 1938. After the occupation by the Wehrmacht, he managed to obtain a forged “Aryan identity card.” While he was unable to repeat his earlier successes in Germany and Austria after the war, he gained great popularity in Scandinavia.

Autographed card, private property
The opera star

Max Kuttner (1883–1953), born in Baden near Vienna, recorded the title under the pseudonym ‘Max Steinert’ for Electrocord. Because of his Jewish descent he had to emigrate in 1938 to Shanghai and joined the theater troupe of Alfred Dreyfuß (1902–1993). Kuttner and his wife returned to Germany in 1947 and lived in Straubing/Lower Bavaria.

Deutsches Schellackplatten- und Grammophonforum e.V.
Foto: Jacob Merkelbach (1877–1942). Wikipedia Commons
the bandmaster

Marek Weber (1888–1964), born in Lemberg, performed at many famous hotels in Berlin, and was a resident of the Adlon. Because of his Jewish ancestry, he had to emigrate to the USA in 1933, where he enjoyed great success as the “Waltz King of Radio”.

Kevin Clarke: »Ich reiss’ mir eine Wimper aus und stech’ dich damit tot!« Die Entnazifizierung der NS-Operette zwischen 1945 und 2015. In: Operetta Research Center, 21 June, 2016.
Online: http://operetta-research-center.org/ich-reis-mir-eine-wimper-aus-und-stech-dich-damit-tot-die-entnazifizierung-der-ns-operette-zwischen-1945-und-2015/

Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit. Hg. von Claudia Maurer Zenck/Peter Petersen/Sophie Fetthauer/Friedrich Geiger, Hamburg: Universität Hamburg seit 2005.
Online: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de

Charles Amberg: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00005419

Max Hansen: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003107

Max Kuttner: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003188

Marek Weber: https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00002828

Josef Niesen: Gib mir den letzten Abschiedskuss. Die Lebensgeschichte des Schlagertexters Charles Amberg (1894–1946) zwischen Aufstieg und KZ-Haft. Bonn 2017.