Franz-Josef Degenhardt (born December 3, 1931 in Schwelm, Westphalia) is a German poet, satirist, novelist, and -- first and foremost -- folksinger/songwriter with decidedly left-wing politics. He is also a lawyer, bearing the academic title of Doctor of Law. December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Schwelm is a municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr. ... Westphalia (German: Westfalen) is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Dortmund, Münster, Bielefeld, and Osnabrück and included in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... List of satirists below - writers, cartoonists and others known for their involvement in satire - humourous social criticism. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... The term singer-songwriter refers to performers who both write and sing their own material. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... A lawyer is a person licensed by the state to advise clients in legal matters and represent them in courts of law (and in other forms of dispute resolution). ... J.D. redirects here; for alternate uses, see J.D. (disambiguation) J.D. is an abbreviation for the Latin Juris Doctor, also called a Doctor of Law or Doctorate of Jurisprudence, and is the law degree typically awarded by an accredited U.S. law school after successfully completing three years...

Degenhardt with his son Kai in 2003

After studying law from 1952 to 1956 in Köln (Cologne) and Freiburg, he passed the first German state bar examination in 1956 and the second in 1960. From 1961 he worked for the Institute for European Law of the University at Saarbrücken, where he obtained his doctorate in 1966. Degenhardt joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1961, but was forced out in 1971 because of his support for the German Communist Party. 1952 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cologne skyline at night. ... This article is about Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... A bar examination is an series of tests conducted at regular intervals to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map of Germany showing Saarbrücken Saarbrücken [ˈzaːɐ̯ˈbrʏknÌ©] is the capital of the Saarland Bundesland in Germany. ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD – Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) is the oldest political party of Germany still in existence and also one of the oldest and largest in the world, celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2003. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Advertisement of the German Communist Party, Those who take nothing from the rich can give nothing to the poor. ...

From the early 1960s onward, in addition to practicing law, Degenhardt was also performing and releasing recordings. He is perhaps most famous for his song (and the album of the same name) Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern ("Don't Play With the Grubby Children," 1965), but has released close to 50 albums, starting with Zwischen Null Uhr Null und Mitternacht ("Between 00:00 and Midnight," 1963), renamed Rumpelstilzchen ("Rumpelstiltskin"); his most recent album Krieg gegen den Krieg ("War against the War") came out in 2003. In 1968 Degenhardt was involved in trials of members of the German student movement, principally defending social democrats and communists. At the same time, he was -- in his capacity as a singer-songwriter -- one of the major voices of the 1968 student movement. On his 1977 album Wildledermantelmann he criticized many of his former comrades from that era for what he saw as their betrayal of socialist ideals and shift towards a social-liberal orientation. The album's title (roughly, "man with velour coat") mocks the style of clothing they had supposedly adopted. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The German student movement was a protest movement that took place during the late 1960s in Germany. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... This article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... (See also List of types of clothing and Clothing terminology) Humans often wear articles of clothing (also known as dress, garments or attire) on the body (for the alternative, see nudity). ...

Notably, the songs on Degenhardt's 1986 album Junge Paare Auf Den Bänken ("Young Couples on the Benches"), along with the song Vorsicht Gorilla ("Beware of Gorilla") on the 1985 album of the same name, are his translations into German of chansons by the French singer-songwriter Georges Brassens, spiritually perhaps one of his closest musical allies. 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chanson is a French word for song, and in English-language contexts is often applied to any song with French words, particularly a cabaret song. ... Georges Brassens (October 22, 1921 - October 29, 1981) was a French singer and songwriter. ...

Degenhardt has also written several novels, most in a rather autobiographical vein, among others: "Brandstellen" ("Scenes of Fires"), "Für ewig und drei Tage" ("For Ever and Three Days") and "Zwischen Null Uhr Null und Mitternacht". A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ...

He was a cousin of the very conservative Catholic Archbishop of Paderborn, the late Johannes Joachim Degenhardt, who died in 2002. He is also the brother-in-law of the American-born illustrator Gertrude Degenhardt, who has designed many of his album covers for him. Degenhardt today lives in Quickborn, Kreis Pinneberg. In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop heading a diocese of particular importance due to either its size, history, or both, called an archdiocese. ... Categories: Stub | Cities in Germany ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the German Wikipedia, retrieved August 8, 2005.

Further Information

• Official site of Franz-Josef Degenhardt (in German, with discography and most song lyrics): http://www.franz-josef-degenhardt.de/
• Biography (in German): http://www.bards.de/deutsch/degenhardt.htm
• CDs available from: http://www.contraermusik.de/index.htm

• Home page of his elder son Jan Degenhardt, also a singer-songwriter: http://www.j-degenhardt.de/
• Home page of his younger son Kai Degenhardt, also a singer-songwriter: http://www.kai-degenhardt.de

Weblinks

• Works of and about Franz Josef Degenhardt in the DDB catalogue