Frank Schöbel (born 11 December 1942,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

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Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) is a German musician. He was one of the most successful pop singers in socialist

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(GDR), and has continued to perform even after

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

Career

As the second son of an opera singer, his musical talent was discovered early. He started his career in the GDR as a musician, but also appeared as a presenter and entertainer in TV shows and played in

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...

(GDR-state film production company) films. In 1971, he recorded "Wie ein Stern" (Like a Star), which appeared in the acclaimed 2007 film ''

The Lives of Others ''The Lives of Others'' (, ) is a 2006 German drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck marking his feature film directorial debut. The plot is about the monitoring of East Berlin residents by agents of the Stasi, Ea ...

''. This single was a smash hit in East Germany, selling 400,000 records from East Germany's

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

, and 150,000 from the West German record company

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. Schöbel was invited as the first East German pop singer to appear in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. He also had a hit in 1975 his children's Communist-sympathizing album ''We Paint a Sun'', with, among other things, a song about Tokei-ihto. He sang the album's title song in 2005 with Lars Dietrich. Schöbel joined at the opening ceremony of the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

in West Germany as a representative of the GDR in the Frankfurter Waldstadion. Frank Schöbel was married to the actress and singer Chris Doerk, with whom he often performed in the 1960s and 1970s, and later to Aurora Lacasa. From the first marriage, he had a son, Alexander, and from the second marriage daughters Dominique (who is today a successful singer) and Odette. Together with his former wife Aurora and the two daughters, he took the LP family ''Weihnachten in Familie'' in one of the most important and best-selling albums of Christmas music of the GDR. Schöbel continues to perform live, often with his ex-wife Chris Doerk.

Films

* '' Reise ins Ehebett'' (1966) * '' Hochzeitsnacht im Regen'' (1967) * '' Hot Summer'' (1968) * ''Nicht schummeln, Liebling!'' (1972) * '' Drei reizende Schwestern: Familienfest mit Folgen'' (1984, TV series) * '' In aller Freundschaft'' (2007, TV series guest star)

External links

Official Website
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schobel, Frank 1942 births Living people Musicians from Leipzig East German musicians 20th-century German musicians German-language singers German male singers German pop singers Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany 20th-century German male musicians