Luise Kolm-Fleck, with music by Johanna Müller-Hermann

I came into this world as Aloisia Veltée
My home was enveloped by the mountainous zone
Do not envision me within a relais

I lived in the city were Klimt’s kiss was blown
The Hofburg, the Philarmonic and Demel
Are parts of my dear hometown that are well-known

But the Stadtpanoptikum was just as well
My father was the founder of this Kohlmarkt
Where people could see living pictures and dwell

I helped as I could, at the cashier I worked
I felt the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Patriotism in my films was clear, not lurked

Three men in my life, for my craft, were the key:
My brother Claudius, Anton Kolm and Jakob Fleck
We were a fine motion pictures crew, us three

All of the steps of filmmaking I would check
With Kolm and Fleck we founded Wiener Kunstfilm
I enjoyed working also at the splicing deck

We began shooting some Dokumentarfilm
In the Prater with its hustle and bustle
The foreign competition was strong in film

But our Habsburg storytelling had muscle
Our goal was shaping highbrow entertainment
We wanted our work to make noise, not rustle

Adapting literary texts was frequent
Social drama, criminal genre, comedy
Are all the styles I used to represent

Rape, abortion, impotence, with honesty
I went from Hosenrollenfilme with trousers
To motherland propaganda policy

I was the mightiest of Österreich espousers
The aftermath of World War I was a mess
The financial crisis was breeding grousers

We dissolved the company to avoid stress
My husband Anton fell ill and passed away
My bond with Jakob led to a wedding dress

I was one through my two spouses from that day
Luise Kolm-Fleck moved to Berlin to work again
Forty films were made, but success did not stay

Something happened, it was Hitler and his men
My consort was Jewish, so trouble began
His films were signed under my son Walter’s pen

But circumstances got much worse for my man:
Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps
Friends prevented him from being a deadman

They made us flee to Shanghai with many thanks
In China our craft truly grew with Fei Mu
Yet World War II obliged us to break these ranks

Intentions of expats were a misconstrue
We left the South East with hope in our pockets
Austria’s post-war film studio had come through

We dreamt to work wonders again on film sets
The world and cinema around us had changed
However I felt blest and hold no regrets.