Weintraub’s Syncopaters in Exile

A Berlin Jazz Band on the Run

Music historian Albrecht Dümling has now released the English edition of his book on the jazz band Weintraub’s Syncopaters, My Gorilla Has a Villa in the Zoo. From Berlin to Sydney tells the story of the jazz band founded and led by Stefan Weintraub (*1897) in 1924, its beginnings and rise to fame through concerts, 20 film scores (including for “The Blue Angel”), and collaborations with composers such as Friedrich Hollaender and Peter Kreuder in 1920s Berlin. Max Oppenheimer painted them; a detail from the painting was used for the book cover. Since most of the band members were Jewish and the Nazis condemned jazz anyway, the “golden” 1920s were followed by the “brown” 1930s, and they were forced to flee.

Their journey took them through the Soviet Union and Japan, among other places, until they reached Australia in 1937. Even before the start of World War II, the xenophobic musicians’ union prevented further performances following their initial successes. Weintraub and his colleagues, as well as his brother Max (who came to Australia on the Queen Mary), were interned as “enemy aliens.” After his release from 14 months of internment, Stefan Weintraub was forced to work in his old profession as a mechanic and could only perform publicly on the side. He became an Australian citizen and died in Sydney in 1981.

Thanks to his extensive research, Albrecht Dümling tells the story of the band and its members in great detail and with great excitement. It becomes clear, not least, that this narrative brings together chapters of jazz history, the persecution of Jewish citizens by the Nazis, and the contradictory treatment of refugees in countries of exile.