Ludwig Schmidseder

Who was Ludwig Schmidseder?

Ludwig Schmidseder was a German composer and pianist of the "Light Muse". Several of his Schlager compositions are still popular tunes today.

The young Schmidseder followed his father's wishes and trained as a banker, whilst taking piano lessons in secret. He furthered his musical education at the Munich Conservatorium, then left for South America in 1926, ending up in Rio de Janeiro. Starting out as a dishwasher, he went on to become an entertainer and play in a trio on ocean cruises. Schmidseder composed music for the trio, and developed into a virtuoso piano player.

From 1930 he worked in Berlin, composing film music, creating operettas and writing more than 500 songs, some of which became much-loved hits. He moved from being a bar pianist to being the house composer at the old Berlin Metropol-Theatre. His operetta Die Oder Keine was performed more than 600 times.

Schmidseder joind the NSDAP on 1st May 1933.

After World War II, Schmidseder continued to compose film music and appear in films. The corpulent cook would later became famous as a TV cook and produced a book of recipes.