Bedřich Nikodém (also Friedrich Nikodem and Fritz Nikodem; 12 August 1909 – 19 July 1970) was a male

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

international

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player, later active as a composer, lyricist and musician. He appeared in the 1930s under the pseudonym Niki Němec.

Life

Nikodém was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

the son of an engineer. In 1921, the family moved to

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. According to his paternal wish, Friedrich Nikodem continued the family tradition and completed his engineering studies in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. His main interest, however, was sports and music. At the end of the 1920s, Fritz Nikodem was one of the best table tennis players in the country and from 1929 to 1933 belonged to the Czech national team. He won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

1930 World Table Tennis Championships The 4th World Table Tennis Championships were held in Berlin from January 21 to 26, 1930. Medalists Team Individual References External linksITTF Museum {{World Table Tennis Championships World Table Tennis Championships World Table Te ...

and a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the

1931 World Table Tennis Championships The 5th World Table Tennis Championships were held in Budapest from February 10 to February 15, 1931. Medalists Team Individual References External linksITTF Museum {{World Table Tennis Championships World Table Tennis Championships Wo ...

in the team event. The following year in 1932 he won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in the team event at the

1932 World Table Tennis Championships The 6th World Table Tennis Championships were held in Prague from 25 to 30 January 1932. Medalists Team Individual References External linksITTF Museum {{World Table Tennis Championships World Table Tennis Championships World Table Ten ...

for Czechoslovakia. Afterwards Nikodém devoted himself entirely to music. During the Great Depression, he earned a living as a bar pianist. Under the pseudonym Niki Němec, he participated in recordings with various Dixieland dance orchestras. During this time, the first songs of his own gained popularity. In 1935, he began collaborating with the music publisher Mojmír Urbánek, who continued under the successor companies Orbis, Státní hudební vydavatelství and Supraphon. In the 1940s, Nikodém dedicated himself primarily to

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. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

, and some of his songs from the 1950s became classics. In the 1960s, Nikodém's compositional work shifted to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

. During this time he also worked as a scribe and editor, and promoted Karel Svoboda and the brothers and

Ladislav Štaidl Ladislav Štaidl (10 March 1945 in Stříbrná Skalice – 31 January 2021 in Prague) was a Czech musician, guitarist, pianist, conductor, bandleader, composer, lyricist, music arranger, singer, and businessman. His older, prematurely deceased ...

. Nikodém succumbed to a heart attack in 1970. The city of

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

honored Bedřich Nikodém in 1983 with the designation of a 2.3-kilometer-long road in the district of

Poruba Poruba may refer to: ;Czech Republic * Poruba (Orlová), a village, now administratively a part of the town of Orlová *Poruba (Ostrava), a district of the city of Ostrava ;Slovakia * Dolná Poruba, a village in Trenčín District * Kamenná Porub ...

Compositions and songs (selection)

* as Niki Němec: Music for the film ''Sňatková kancelář'', 1932 * ''Mám malý stan'' * ''Jen kytara a já'' * ''Náš táborák'' * ''Houpy, hou'' * ''Dva modré balónky'' * ''Je po dešti'' * ''Nedělní vláček'' * ''Flašinetář'' * ''Znamínko na ramínku'' * ''Barborka'' * ''Start gemini'' * ''Sedmikráska'' * ''Poustevník''

References

External links

Biography at fdb.cz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikodem, Bedrich Czech male table tennis players World Table Tennis Championships medalists Czech composers Czech film score composers Czech male film score composers 1909 births 1970 deaths Sportspeople from Vienna Musicians from Vienna 20th-century Czech male musicians

Life

Compositions and songs (selection)

See also

References

External links