Hermann Schittenhelm

German accordionist and composer (born September 10, 1893 in Boll [today part of Oberndorf am Neckar] – died February 20, 1979 in St. Ingbert) The son of an innkeeper, Schittenhelm studied the violin in school and taught himself to play accordion as a child. He and his brothers formed a schrammel trio that performed in his father's pub. After serving in World War I, Schittenhelm, a trained precision mechanic, impressed Dr. Ernst Hohner, owner of the Matth. Hohner AG accordion factory in Trossingen, so much with his playing and his ideas for improving the instrument that Hohner hired him both as an instrument maker and as an accordion teacher. Schittenhelm became a successful concert soloist. From 1924, he regularly performed on Zurich radio. In 1925, he and some of his accordion students formed the Schittenhelm Quintet, which soon became widely known through its concerts. In 1930, sponsored by Dr. Hohner, Schittenhelm founded Das Hohner Akkordeonorchester Trossingen, recruiting other Hohner employees as members. He led this orchestra, which inspired numerous other accordion orchestras, for almost 40 years. Apart from performing on the radio, Schittenhelm's ensemble cut many records. They made their first recordings in 1932 for the Gloria label. The Nazis at first rejected the accordion as a jazz instrument, but then adopted it as part of folk music. Accordingly, Schittenhelm's Hohner Orchestra provided the music for the 1934 short film "Liebe zur Harmonika" ("Accordion Love") and toured widely in Germany, Austria, and even the UK. Since the name Schittenhelm sounds bad to English ears, the group appeared in Britain as Alan Helm and his Accordion-Orchestra. In 1939, Schittenhelm's accordion orchestra recorded a number of titles for Electrola, but when the war started, Schittenhelm lost many of his musicians to the draft and had to suspend the orchestra. As early as August 1945, however, he reformed the group, which then profited from the accordion boom of the 1950s. Schittenhelm resigned as the band's director in 1968, spending his retirement in St. Ingbert.