From German, the English translation of this name means Pure Hate. It
is more or less a play on words i.e. Rainer (Reiner means pure) is an
actual first name and the last name Haas is transformed into Hass
(Hate) giving us the name Rainer Hass. Although it seems strange that a
young musician would want to use a name like this, it was generally
accepted as the arts in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic
were often controversial. And controversial he was – but always
indirectly. He sang most of his songs in English, which on the surface
sounded perfectly fine to the average German. However, the themes and
subjects of his songs dealt mainly with murder and death and the darker
side of humanity’s psyche. Herr Hass wanted to fuse expressionism and
jazz. This is particularly relevant during the time of the Weimar
Republic in Germany, when for example; many German film directors were
producing films that were nothing but shocking. Fritz Lang’s Film "M"
dealt with a child murderer. F. W. Murnau’s famous piece "Nosferatu"
infamized the modern vampire and the film "Die Büchse der Pandora" by
director Georg Wilhem Pabst presented all the vices and corruption of
man – subjects that were all but taboo in the arts until that time. The
list goes on and on. Herr Hass seems to have been inspired by this
movement and therefore transferred his ideas to music. The
expressionist film "Das Cabinett des Doktor Caligari" (1920) by
director Robert Wiene was used as a theme for a song by Rainer Hass
entitled "Du Mußt Caligari Werden".
Rainer Hass never enjoyed a prosperous career and his talents were
never appreciated outside of Europe until after his death. Although he
was never met with sufficient success, Herr Hass led a very prolific
musical career, performed many times on the radio and recorded
somewhere around two hundred songs, many of which have been lost or
were destroyed during the war. By the time he was twenty-six, Herr Hass
was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia which progressively worsened in
the latter years of his life. As the war in Europe raged on, Rainer
Hass took his own life and was found in his flat on Christmas day of
1943 - he had hung himself to death. He left no final testimony and the
reasons for him having committed suicide are to this day still unknown.
So, you’re probably asking yourself – How did GraveWax Records come
across Rainer Hass’s Music? Well, this is another story that is just as
interesting, if not more than Herr Hass’s Biography. The Nazi period in
Germany (1932 – 1945) has a lot to do with Rainer Hass’s music having
disappeared. Jazz, ragtime and many other styles of music during this
time were seen as degenerate by the National Socialist movement. When
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1932, many artisans whether it
be writers, musicians, playwrights etc. fled the country. This includes
many well known artists such as Fritz Lang, Berthod Brecht and Marlene
Dietrich to name a few. One of those who fled, a certain Frau Sophia
Schmitz (1908 – 1979), who worked as a cabaret dancer in Berlin, was an
acquaintance and love interest of Rainer Hass. She fled to the United
States in 1933 due to the fact that she was a member of the KPD
(Communist Party of Germany). As Hitler’s party, the NSDAP, made itself
more apparent in German society, it became dangerous for those who had
been members to stay. Rainer Hass who was already beginning to suffer
more severely from his mental illness, remained in Germany. From what
we know, he was never involved in the KPD, NSDAP or any other political
party. Before she emigrated to the United States, Herr Hass requested
that she take his records and recordings with her. This she did, and in
1933 left her homeland and never returned. They kept in contact by
letter for a few years; this dwindled and the last letter Rainer Hass
sent is dated July 17th 1935. In it, he states that he had given up on
any future musical career in Germany and decided to wait to see if the
political climate would change. Sadly for him, it never would.
In New York, Sophia met an American Frank O’Brian and was married in
1935. In 1936 they moved to Chicago where she spent the rest of her
days. Here, the story sleeps for several decades until after Sophia’s
death in 1979. Mr. O’Brian had died in 1975 and their house was left to
their children John, Karl, and Joanna. John took the house and the rest
of the property was divided amongst the children. Here, it seems that
Rainer Hass’s music was laying in the basement where it stayed for
about twenty more years until 2001 when Sophia’s grandson Andy O’Brien
rediscovered the music in the basement while cleaning it for his
father. Andy, being a big music fan, contacted us and since then has
been working with us to get Rainer Hass’s music out there again. We are
thrilled to have his music and be releasing it. We are sure that you
won’t be disappointed.
