The birth of the Comedian Harmonists in 1929 broadened the scope of European music. It all began when a German drama student, Harry Frommermann, traveled to work in America 1927 and heard the American groups “The Revelers” and “The Mill Brothers”, a male quartet whose style was that of the minstrel and vaudeville traditions. In late December of that year he put an in a Berlin newspaper looking for voices suitable for the ensemble he would create to sing his version of Reveler-style music. From the many applicants he chose Robert Biberti (1902-1985), the son of a Berlin opera basso and a bass in the chorus line of the Charell-Revue. Subsequently they added Ari Leschnikoff (1897-1978), a Bulgarian-born tenor, Eric Abraham Collin (1899-1961), a German second tenor, Josef Roman Cycowski (1901-1998) a Polish born baritone, and German pianist/arranger Erwin Bootz (1907-1982).

The group gave their first performance in 1928. From 1929 to 1935 they were Europe’s top selling vocal ensemble and repeatedly had sold out concert tours. During that time they recorded over 150 titles and at least 13 pioneering talkie musicals which are now unfortunately lost.

The Comedian Harmonists are charged with having been too confident in the protection of their fame during the rise of Naziism. Their music was labeled “Jewish Marxist noise” by the National Socialist regime and the group was labeled “non-Aryan”. Given that half the members - Frommermann, Cycowski, and Collin - were Jewish, it’s not surprising that the group was banned entirely in February of 1935 for not keeping with the cultural concepts of the Reich. On March 1 1935 the group met for the last time in Biberti’s apartment. They made the agreement that the Jewish members would go abroad and keep on as the Comedian Harmonists, and the other three would remain in Germany.

After the breakup the members split into two groups. The group that remained in Germany -Biberti, Leschnikoff, and Bootz - continually added new members in a employee-owner sort of relationship. As the name “Comedian Harmonists” was banned because it was not a German name, they negotiated to be allowed to call themselves “Das Meistersextett, formerly called Comedian Harmonists”. This group was fairly popular despite being just a shadow of what they once were having the limit of playing only material approved by the Nazis.

On November 24 1941 they too were also prohibited by the Reichskulturkammer.