Germany 1956

Freddy Quinn (born as Franz Eugen Helmut Manfred Nidl, September 27 1931, Niederfladnitz, Austria) is an Austrian singer and actor whose popularity within the German-speaking world soared in the late 1950s and 1960s. Similar to Hans Albers two generations before him, Quinn adopted the persona of the rootless wanderer who goes to sea but longs for a home, family and friends. Quinn's Irish-sounding name comes from his Irish born salesman father, Johann Quinn. His mother, Edith Henriette Nidl, was an Austrian journalist. He is often associated with the Schlager scene.

Freddy Quinn was born in Lower Austria and grew up in Vienna. As a child he lived in Morgantown, West Virginia (USA) with his father but moved back to live with his mother in Europe. Through his mother's second marriage to Rudolf Anatol Freiherr von Petz, Quinn adopted the name Nidl-Petz. However, having left the landlocked country of Austria for Germany, he was discovered in St. Pauli, Hamburg, and was offered his first recording contract in 1954. He represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland with the atypical song, So geht das jede Nacht. His other songs are mostly about the endless sea and the solitary life in faraway lands. His first hit record was Heimweh, Dort wo die Blumen blüh'n and Schön war die Zeit, a German version of Dean Martin's Memories Are Made of This. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

Other hits, often with him simply billed as Freddy, followed: Die Gitarre und das Meer, Unter fremden Sternen, Irgendwann gibt's ein Wiedersehn, La Paloma, Junge, komm bald wieder and Vergangen, vergessen, voruber was another million selling release.

His popularity petered out in the 1970s, but Quinn continued performing. Junge, komm bald wieder was sung by Alpay on 7 Dilde Alpay album, which was released in 1973.

Starting in the late 1950s, Quinn also acted in several movies, again frequently cast as the seafaring loner.

Quinn was also an accomplished circus performer who stunned television audiences as a tightrope walker performing live and without a safety net. On another occasion, which was also televised, he rode a lion inside a circus cage while the lion was balancing atop a moving surface.

Quinn still lives in Hamburg.

 Walter Andreas Schwarz (June 2 1913 - April 1 1992) was a German singer, songwriter, novelist, Kabarettist, author of radio dramas and translator.

Walter Andreas Schwarz was born in Aschersleben. In 1956, he competed with his own composition Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück in the German national final for the Eurovision Song Contest and won. Along with Freddy Quinn, he therefore became the first German entrant in the competition. His placing is not known, but it is rumoured that he finished second. The song was released as a single but commercially, it was not very successful. Other notable records were not released. He went on to become a successful author of novels and especially radio dramas. One of his last contributions was an adaption of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1990 and 1991, which included 17 episodes. In 1985, he appeared - along with many other former German representatives - in the interval act of the German national final, which was a medley of all German entries until that year. For many years, he has lived in London before he moved back to Germany. He died in April 1992 in Heidelberg.