Jan Kiepura (1902–1966)
![Jan Kiepura, Singer Jan Kiepura, Singer. A portrait in stage costume. 1935](/sites/default/files/styles/width_100_tiles/public/jan_kiepura_bild_1_0.jpg?itok=dySwg04b)
Table of his career:
16.05.1902 Born in Sosnowiec
1912 - 1916 Business school (His education was interrupted by the First World War)
1916 Member of the secret Polish Military Organisation (Polska Organisacja Wojskowa)
1916 Member of the Free School for Officer Cadets (Wolna Szkoła Podchorążych)
1919 Member of the I. Beuthen Artillery Battalion (I pułk Strzelców Bytomskich)
1919 Takes part in the First Silesian uprising (He was wounded and returned home)
1920 Takes part in the Second Silesian uprising
1920 Returns from the front
1921 A-levels in Sosnowiec
1921 Starts a course of law at Warsaw University
1921 Begins singing lessons under Prof. Wacław Brzeziński
1924 Engaged in the choir of the Warsaw Opera
1924 Exmatriculated from his course of law at Warsaw University
1925 First public appearances in Lemberg, Poznan and Warsaw
1926 Engagements in Vienna, later Paris and Milan
1927 Recitals in Kraków, Warsaw and Breslau
1930 - 1937 Various films in Germany
1936 Marries the actress and singer, Marta Eggerth
1938 Engaged by the Metropolitan Opera in New York
1940 Emigrates to America
1953 American citizenship
1948 - 1954 Lives in Paris, appearances all over Europe
1965 Guest appearances in Cologne and West Berlin (The Merry Widow)
1966 15th August. Jan Kiepura dies as a result of a heart attack in Harrison (New York)
Additional information:
In 1935 Jan Kiepura gave a recital at the opening of the German-Polish Institute at the Lessing College in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels applauded him from the first row of the audience and directly after the performance he was given a hearty handshake by the Reichsminister Hermann Göring. In the 1930s there were no limits to Germans’ enthusiasm for Jan Kiepura, both amongst the folk and those in power. This changed dramatically shortly before the start of the Second World War.
The Viennese were always enthusiastic fans of Jan Kiepura, and have remembered him with gratitude in their own particular way. One of the streets in the 14th district of Vienna (Hütteldorf) was named “Jan-Kiepura-Gasse” on 12th May 1975
One of the European night express trains run by Polish Railways from Warsaw to Amsterdam via Germany, is called “Jan Kiepura”.