Surviving in spite of everything: the tragic fate of Anna German

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On February 14, 1936, the legendary singer was born, the favorite of millions of listeners around the world - Anna German … Her soulful and melodious voice did not leave anyone who heard him indifferent. But fate prepared the singer not only the boundless love of the public, but also inhuman trials that she could not completely overcome. Today Anna German would have turned 80 years old.

Anna German has always called herself a Polish singer, but her ancestors belonged to the Dutch Mennonite family. The singer's great-great-grandfather, while in Ukraine, not far from Berdyansk, founded the village of Olgino. After the onset of Soviet power in the country, the German family was dispossessed and subject to repression. After endless wanderings, they find themselves in Uzbekistan. It was there that Anna Viktoria German was born on February 14, 1936. 10 years later, thanks to the fictitious marriage of the mother of the future singer with a Pole, they manage to move to Poland. Childhood and adolescence of Anna German passed in continuous attempts to survive. She worked constantly.

The beginning of her career can be called the 4th year of the Faculty of Geology, where the singer studied. Anna German's performance at the student holiday was a little crumpled, but after that, the head of the student theater invited her to join them.

Initially, the singer's mother Irma Herman did not share Anna's enthusiasm to connect her life with the stage, but the incredible faith of her friend Yanechka in the singer's talent helped Herman to be enrolled in the Wroclaw stage state. After that, the band's countless tours of the provincial cities of Poland begin, participation in all kinds of festivals. Popularity gradually comes.

In 1966, the singer signs a contract with an Italian record company. All of Europe and the Soviet Union are already talking about Anna German. It would seem that the fruitful work and love of the audience will provide the singer with a brilliant future. But fate decided otherwise.

On August 27, 1967, after another performance, Anna German returned to Milan at night. Unfortunately, her driver fell asleep at the wheel, and at high speed the car crashed into a concrete fence. The blow was so strong that the singer was thrown through the windshield onto the stones. The ambulance arrived at the scene only in the morning. And even then they only helped the driver. While in the hospital, he asked about the fate of the passenger, and only after that, the doctors returned back to the scene of the accident and found the singer in a coma.

Only two weeks later, the singer regained consciousness. Anna German's condition was terrible: she had to spend many months in an orthopedic corset. Only two years later, the singer was able to get back on her feet and perform in front of the audience. Fractures of the spine and both legs did not go unnoticed. During concerts, special high orthopedic plates were inserted into Anna German's shoes, which supported the singer's bones.

In 1972, Anna German married the engineer Zbigniew Tucholski, who nursed the woman all this time. Anna's pregnancy was very difficult, but, fortunately, the birth was successful. The couple had a son.

Since 1972, Anna Herman's career has taken off again. The listeners simply adored the soulful voice of the singer. Touring around the world, recording records, filming in films - one could already think that all the hardships and trials of the singer were over.

Anna herself often said that after the tragedy she suffered, God would no longer mock her. But every year the singer's popularity grew, and her health deteriorated: decreased immunity, fainting. She tried to be treated with folk remedies and stubbornly refused to go to doctors.

In 1980, during a concert at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the singer became ill. She is taken to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where Anna German is given a terrible diagnosis - sarcoma (cancer of the leg bones). Her left leg was three times the size of her right. The disease developed rapidly, the doctors were powerless. Herman's husband recalls that Anna's pains were such that the ambulance did not have time to return to the hospital, as they called her again. The legendary singer died on August 25, 1982.

The songs performed by Anna German have become beloved for several generations. Very an unexpected reading of the song "Echo of Love" was suggested by the performer Aslan Akhmadov.