In the 1920s and 30s, there were not only bands in the metropolis of Berlin that played through hot nights in the variety theaters and dance halls, but also in Hanover. But little is known about them today because these bands did not record.
But in the case of band leader Charles Hugo (officially: Karl Hugo Oppenheim), a search for traces in Hanover has actually been successful. Thanks to the development of his estate and the memories of his son Werner, his career can be traced in minute detail: his training, his performances in Hanover and elsewhere, his exclusion by the Nazis because of his Jewish father, his internment in a forced labor camp during the underground relocation of the production of the V1 flying bomb and his work as a bandleader in the British Officer’s Clubs in early post-war Hanover.
In his lecture, Bernd Felbermair traces this search for clues and illustrates it with unpublished photos, documents from the estate and contemporary shellac records.