15 Facts About Paul Dessau

Paul Dessau collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.

Paul Dessau's grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau, was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.

Paul Dessau's uncle, Bernhard Dessau, was Konzertmeister at the Staatskapelle Berlin; his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas; and his second cousin, Robert Gerson Muller-Hartmann, was a composer and collaborator with Ralph Vaughan Williams.

From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin.

Paul Dessau studied the work of the conductors Felix Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard.

Paul Dessau was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915.

In 1933 Paul Dessau emigrated to France, and in 1939, he moved further to the United States, where initially he lived in New York City before moving to Hollywood in 1943.

Paul Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.

Paul Dessau became a member of the GDR Akademie der Kunste in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962.

Paul Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch, with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann, Antje Ruge, and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus, with whom he had a son, Maxim Paul Dessau was born on 1954 and who became a film director.

Paul Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Konigs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.

Paul Dessau composed operas, scenic plays, incidental music, ballets, symphonies and other works for orchestra, and pieces for solo instruments as well as vocal music.

Paul Dessau composed music for early movies of Walt Disney, as well as background music for silent pictures and early German films.

Paul Dessau wrote for the propaganda of the German Democratic Republic.

All operas by Paul Dessau were premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin.