Wolfgang Sauer born 2 January 1928

Wolfgang Sauer (born 2nd January 1928 in Wuppertal, Germany)is a legendary blind singer and pianist.

Wolfgang Sauer was born in 1928 and grew up in Wuppertal. At the age of seven months he began to go blind because of a glaucoma. During his first years in school he nearly lost his sight completely and started to wear dark sunglasses that should become his trademark. Aged twelve he went to a home for the blind in Marburg where he studied music theory and took extensive piano lessons. Immediately After World War II the man graduated from high school and already played jazz music with various combos in American clubs. Two years later he was heard on German radio for the first time. Because of his former career wish of being a political journalist or translator he started to study English and German Literature in 1949 at the university of Cologne. At the same time Sauer founded his first own jazz ensemble under the name of “No Name Band” and even started to tour in 1951.

Because of financial turbulences Sauer was forced to cancel his studies in 1952. That was when he started to concentrate entirely on his music activities. Now Wolfgang Sauer became employed by the “Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR-Radio)” in Cologne for a programme entitled “Teemusik (Tea Music)” and recorded with the well known orchestras of Kurt Edelhagen and Erwin Lehn.

In 1953 the artist received an award as “Germany`s jazz singer No. 1”. He signed his first record deal but had to perform flat German pop music (“German Schlager”) instead of his beloved jazz songs. His most successful tunes were entitled “Eine Melodie geht um die Welt” (A Melody goes around the world), “Ein kleiner Hund” (“A little dog”)  or “Du hast ja Tränen in den Augen” (But you have tears in your eyes).  He was the original singer of Frankie Laine's hit 'Answer me' in German. His version 'Glaube mir' was in Germany in 1953 a millionseller.  

 

Nevertheless he continued to sing jazz tunes and toured the GDR in 1964 with Kurt Edelhagen to present a jazz programme, that was recorded by the former East German record company “Amiga”. 

 Wolfgang Sauer received numerous awards, among many others the order of the Federal Republic of Germany.
(Info from www.sonorama.de)