Ariana Seidman

15 March 2015
Franz Lehr Biography
Franz Lehr was born on April 30, 1870 in what is now Komrno, Slovakia.
Lehr studied violin at the Prague Conservatory and was primarily a self-taught
composer. After his graduation in 1888, he joined his fathers band as assistant
bandmaster. Two years later, Lehr became bandmaster at Losoncz, East Slovakia, but
eventually left to join the navy. He then resigned in 1896 for the premiere of his first
operetta, Kukuschka, only to return to the army in 1898 after it was relatively
unsuccessful. Lehr had a difficult relationship with the Nazis, as he generally hired
Jewish librettists, and his was converted to Catholicism at marriage. Luckily, Hitler
enjoyed his music, and Lehr was able to stop his wife from being deported. However,
one of the librettists he worked with was unfortunately killed in Auschwitz. In 1948,
Lehr died at age 78 in Bad Ischl and was buried there.