"Theo, wir fahr'n nach Lodz" is the title of a hit by Vicky Leandros from 1974.
It became an evergreen and was based on the older song "Rosa, wir fahr'n nach Lodz" by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Artur Marcell Werau from 1914, which was a satirical hymn at start of the First World War.
But the origin of the song even goes back to a peasant song "Rózsi Lodczba Megyünk" from the Thirty Years' War. The historical background of the song is the Polish city of Łódź. In the 19th century, a text was written that referred to the industrial boom in the city, which led to large parts of the rural population leaving the villages and moving to the city ("Ich Habe Diese Landluft Satt...") (="I'm Fed Up With This Country Air...").
The Jews of the city of Łódź mockingly sang "Itzek, Komm Mit Nach Lodz..." (=Itzek, Come With Me To Lodz...") and ironically equated the city, which was then developing into an industrial metropolis, with the promised land.
But there were also numerous other versions such as "Leo, Wir Geh’n Nach Lodz, Wir Bau’n Ein Haus Und Eine Fabrik…" (="Leo, We're Going To Lodz, We're Going To Build A House And A Factory..." Even today, the city is considered an exceptional example of 19th-century industrial architecture.
In 1915 the two Austrians Fritz Löhner-Beda, an operetta librettist, and Artur Marcell Werau published their title "Rosa, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz". It was a soldier's song ("march couplet"), because their "Rosa" was the Austro-Hungarian Army's 30.5 cm mortar manufactured by the Bohemian armaments company Skoda, the counterpart to Krupp's "Dicke Bertha" in Germany. In the original Austrian text, Franzl's difficult bride is nothing other than the "Rosa" mortar, with which he embarks on his honeymoon to Lodz at the beginning of the war. The song was a satirical "hymn about our 30.5 ctm. mortar, called Rosa”.
(o) Favorite Brass Band (1914) (as "Rózsi Lodczba Megyünk")
Recorded 1914 in Budapest
Matrix 15584 (198)
Released on Favorite 1-23658
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Listen here:
Or here:
(c) Újváry Károly (=Karl Ujvári) (1915) (as "Rosa wir fahr'n nach Lodz")
Karl Ujvári (vocals) and Choir with Favorite-Streich Orchester Wien
Recorded 1915 in Budapest
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In 1972 the song "Rosa Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz" appeared in the Austrian TV series Die Abenteuer des Braven Soldaten Schwejk.
Listen here at 43 minutes in the next Youtube link: Schwejk 6/13 - YouTube
This is how the pop composer Leo Leandros (=Leandros Papathanasiou) got to know the text and melody. Leandros commissioned the Hamburg lyricist and music producer Klaus Munro to write a new text for the melody. Munro left it with the reference to Łódź and oriented himself again to the rural exodus scene that dominated the original text.
Leo Leandros was the father and manager of Vicky Leandros and for her he produced the first version with the adapted lyrics: "Theo, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz".
Released in 1974 Vicky's "Theo, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz" stayed in the German single-charts for 28 weeks and was the only number one hit in Germany for her.
(c) Vicky Leandros (1974) (as ("Theo, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz")
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Vicky Leandros also recorded a French version (for the French and Canadian market) and 2 different English versions (one for the US and one for the UK market)
In 2009 Marc-Marie Huijbregts sang a portion of "Theo, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz" in episode 6 of the Dutch television series "'t Vrije Schaep"
't Vrije Schaep is a sequel to the remake of the successful television series "'t Schaep met de 5 pooten"
(c) Marc-Marie Huijbregts (2009) (Duitse medley: inc "Theo, Wir Fahr'n Nach Lodz")
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