On the death of dialect songwriter Fredl Fesl

He was a veteran, a Bavarian through and through: the songwriter and dialect bard Fredl Fesl died on Tuesday after years of serious illness, as his wife Monika announced. Fesl was 76 years old. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, so his wife described his death as a “relief” for her husband.

The musician comes from a family of innkeepers from Grafenau in the Bavarian Forest and became famous beyond the state with his laconic wordplay. “I’m Fredl, I don’t know why. I play Bavarian folklore in D major and to the highest perfection,” he said to the audience. As a young man, he wore a kind of boyish hairstyle and styled himself as a nerd, a little slow, supposedly slow on the uptake, but still brilliant and with political quibbles. He actually mastered the philosophy of understatement “to the highest perfection.”

One of his most famous songs is the “King’s Jodel”. In it, the king meets a yodeler on a trip in the forest who has no mastery of his art – which pleases the king. Fredl Fesl, who could yodel very well himself, made his audience laugh with his virtuoso off-key singing.

His hits also included „Taxi-Lied“ about a nighttime odyssey through Munich and the “Football Song”: “44 legs race back and forth because the playing field is limited, and that makes it particularly difficult.” He speaks about football with the detachment of a philistine.

© IMAGO/Sven Simon

Fredl Fesl played guitar, tuba and horn – and above all with his vocal cords, in the tradition of Karl Valentin. His transitions between songs, which were interspersed with extremely dry humor, were legendary. He often started on the guitar and then interrupted himself for a long, associative monologue with rhythmic pauses. In their own words, his style of Bavarian musical cabaret was also Biermösl Blosn to inspire.

Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder reacted with great sadness to the news of the songwriter’s death. “He was a Bavarian original with subtle humor and made people laugh and think in equal measure,” wrote the CSU politician on X (formerly Twitter). “As a versatile artist in word and music, he was one of the pioneers of Bavarian music cabaret, as we know and love it today.”

„Creative, eloquent and Bavarian in the very best sense – We will remember Fredl Fesl with gratitude,” Söder continued. Fesl bore his serious illness, which he had to fight for a long time, with admirable patience, dignity and his own composure. In this way, he was also a role model.

Fesl had Learned guitar in the Bundeswehr was considered a joker among the mountain troops and kept himself afloat with various jobs, including, according to his own account, as a furrier, costume jewelry salesman and beer driver. His career is said to have begun when he got free entry to the Munich Liederbühne Song Parnass with his guitar – and then actually performed. Due to his illness, which he made public early on, he had had to forego his live performances since 2006. (liM, with dpa)