Günter Discher (20 March 1925 – 9 September 2012) was a

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

lover and

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

- collector, and was called "the oldest

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-DJ in Germany".

Life

Discher was born on 20 March 1925 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. The Nazi " Reichskulturkammer ("Reich Chamber of Culture") proscribed swing music as "un-German" and "degenerate". After the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the music was even declared "enemy music". Even though often claimed otherwise, swing music was not officially made illegal, but the members of the

Swing Kids The Swing Youth (german: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany formed in Hamburg in 1939. Primarily active in Hamburg and Berlin, they were composed of 14- to 21-year-old Germans, mostly middle or upper-class students, ...

were observed and persecuted by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. "Undesirable" records disappeared from the shelves of the record shops, but Discher still got hold of what are rare collectibles today: a friend of his was a soldier stationed in Denmark. In comparison, there the range of records was heavenly. The soldier sent the sought-after records to Germany, labelled as "Heerespost" (army mail), and therefore could cross the border without being opened by customs. Discher distributed the records among clubs and acquaintances in Hamburg –

St. Pauli St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...

. Even then, his collection was already about 400 records. In 1942, he was denounced to the Gestapo and arrested. Until the end of the war, he was sent to the Moringen concentration camp for young people. The reason given was that he "endangers, according to the evidence of the state police, proven by his behavior, the existence and security of the people and state, in that he brings substantial unrest into the population by his subversive and harmful activities". As a result of the detention, his health was affected and he had to undergo several operations. After the war Discher stayed in Hamburg and became a well-known swing music expert. He owned a huge archive of about 10.000 CDs and 25.000 LPs of swing music. He had his own CD edition at the label Ceraton. For the "Günter Discher Edition", many well-known, but also lesser-known and rare pieces of music from his collection were sound restored and published. In his eyewitness interviews he talks about the specialties of the different artists. He also talked about his love of swing music and his youth, in lectures at memorial sites and (music) universities. In addition, Discher was believed to be the oldest DJ in Germany. He played a great variety of swing and jazz, appealing to all audiences, and also appeared together with the second great swing DJ Swingin' Swanee all over Germany. In 2000, he was awarded the

Biermann-Ratjen-Medaille The Biermann-Ratjen-Medaille (Biermann Ratjen Medal) is an award of the City of Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1978 by the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to commemorate the achievements of the previous senator of culture Hans ...

by the City of Hamburg for his outstanding contributions to the culture of Hamburg. In 2006, he established his own podcast on his website "Hotkoffer", where he presented swing music of the 1930s and 40s. Discher died on 9 September 2012 in Hamburg at the age of 87.

Quotes

"For us kids back then swing music was a certain way of life, swing music meant unlimited freedom. We were looking for a rockin' thing"Index
uenterdischer.de "You may start dancing now, but please refrain from destroying the furniture"

References

External links

Biographie Günter Dischers
in the ''

Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit The ''Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit'' (LexM) is an Online encyclopedia of the University of Hamburg, which has been developed as a work in progress since 2005. Publication/contents The editors today are Sophie Fetthau ...

''
Interview with Discher in German on YouTube

Swingjugend the real swing kids

Obituary

The real swing kids part 2

G. Discher mentioned in The Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity, Change
by Jonathan Huener and

Francis R. Nicosia Francis R. Nicosia (born October 29, 1944 in Philadelphia) works as a historian at the University of Vermont with a focus on modern history and Holocaust research. Life Francis R. Nicosia worked for the Peace Corps in Libya in 1968/69. In Germ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Discher, Gunter German male musicians German editors German podcasters 1925 births 2012 deaths Moringen concentration camp survivors German electronic dance music DJs Musicians from Hamburg People from Eimsbüttel