Hanns Eisler

Hanns Eisler (; 6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian and German composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin is named after him. Family background Johannes Eisler was born in Leipzig, Saxony, on 6 July 1898 – the third child of Rudolf Eisler and Marie Ida Fischer. His father was a philosophy professor and an atheist of Jewish descent, and his mother was Lutheran of Swabian descent. In 1901, the family moved to Vienna. His older brother Gerhart was a communist journalist, At age 14, Eisler joined a socialist youth group. In 1917, one year after Eisler graduated high school, the 18-year-old Eisler was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army to fight during World War I, where he served as a front-line soldier. He found this time physically demanding, due to his poor health and small stature, and was injured several times in combat. Returning to Vienna after Austria’s defeat, he studied from 1919 to 1923 under Arnold Schoenberg. Eisler was the first of Schoenberg’s disciples to compose in the twelve-tone or