- The film business too used the music of Paul Lincke. Already in 1908 sounded his music for "Donnerwetter, tadellos" (1908).
- Paul Lincke belonged at the beginning of the 20th century to the most popular composers and he got the nickname "Father of the operetta".
- He was trained in the Wittenberg City Band under Rudolf Kleinow as a bassoonist. He also learned to play the tenor horn, the drums, the piano and the violin.
- Instead of pursuing a career as a military musician, Lincke secured employment as a bassoonist at Berlin's Central Theatre, under Adolf Ernst. After one year, he joined the orchestra of the Ostend Theatre.
- In 1941 Paul Lincke became an honorary citizen of Berlin.
- In entertainment and dance music Lincke gained valuable experience at the Königsstädtischen Theater, the Belle-Alliance-Theater and the Parodie-Theater. He accompanied the musical vaudeville programs and provided his own compositions for popular singers. His Venus auf Erden ("Venus on Earth"), a revue-like one-act play was created in 1897 at the Apollo Theater in Friedrichstraße.
- He had a long standing affair with the actress Ellen Sousa and had a son with her but they never got married because Ellen Sousa refused.
- To his well-known songs belong "Glühwürmchen" from Lysistrata and "Berliner Luft" from Frau Luna.
- With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Lincke maintained his position and was feted by the Nazi regime. In 1937 he was awarded the Silver Medal of Honour of his native city, on his 75th birthday he was made an honorary citizen of Berlin.
- In 1885, while in the orchestra of the Grand Theatre, Lincke fell in love with the 16-year-old soubrette Anna Mueller, whom he married a year later. His wife later celebrated triumphs with the Berlin audience under the name Anna Müller-Lincke.
- After an education at the Wittenberger Stadtkapelle, where he learned to play several instruments, he began his professional career as a bandmaster at the theater.
- He went to Paris where he was very successful at the Folies Bergère for the next two years. After his return to Germany his operetta "Frau Luna" was released in 1899 for the first time and became his greatest triumph. Other musical works came into being with "Im Reich des Indra" (1899) and "Lysistrata" (1902).
- In 1901 Lincke divorced his first wife, Anna. That same year he met a young actress who was known under the stage name Ellen Sousa. She played in the Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtischen Theater, and enchanted Lincke from the first moment. Sousa at first rejected his advances but Lincke was persistent. Within a few weeks she had visited his home, and they developed a deeply affectionate relationship, leading to her request to be cast to sing Frau Luna at the Apollo Theater. Sousa had hoped the connection would boost her career, but it did not. She became pregnant and left the stage before giving birth to a son. Lincke now demanded that Sousa fulfill her maternal duties and leave stage work. However, three months later Sousa was again singing Frau Luna at the Apollo.
- In the movies "Das alte Ballhaus" (25), "Es leuchten die Sterne" (38) and "Frau Luna" (41) Paul Lincke also appeared in front of the camera.
- His passion for entertainment music grew during his time at the theater and in 1897 he wrote the one-act play "Venus auf Erden". With this piece he heralded the Berliner Operetta.
- Paul Lincke had a guardian angel during World War 2. When the bombs were falling on Berling and destroyed his apartment and publishing house he was busy as a conductor in Marienbad.
- Lincke's march "Berliner Luft" ("Berlin Air") is the unofficial anthem of Berlin. It is one of the traditional encores of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. The aria comes from the 1922 revision of Lincke's 1899 operetta Frau Luna, about a trip to the moon in a hot air balloon, where an adventurous party of prominent Berliners meet Frau Luna and her court. The march was originally from Lincke's 1904 two-act burlesque Berliner Luft.
- With the filming of his operetta "Frau Luna" (41) followed the cinematical height of his career.
- After the war ended, Lincke wanted to return to Berlin. He strove in vain to obtain the approval of the Allies, which, as a native Berliner, he was required to have at that time. With the help of one American General Pierce, he moved first to Arzberg, Bavaria, with his housekeeper Johanna Hildebrandt, who had worked for him for 35 years. Lincke's ailing health was worsened by the climate there, and he moved again to Hahnenklee. He died there shortly before his 80th birthday. His funeral was held in Hahnenklee, where his grave is still maintained today.
- In 1908 Paul Lincke became the composer and bandmaster of the Metropol theater and achieved many successes in the next years which increased his popularity.
- Lincke operettas include Im Reiche des Indra (In the Kingdom of Indra) and Lysistrata. The latter includes the song "Das Glühwürmchen," known in English as "The Glow-Worm". It was originally translated into English by Lilla Cayley Robinson in the early 20th century, but American lyricist Johnny Mercer later expanded and greatly revised her lyrics. His version was a hit for the Mills Brothers in 1952, and has been performed by many others.
- Lincke composed the wedding dance played in the 1997 movie Titanic; it is played while the ship is going down and in the dining room in earlier scenes.
- His father was a magistrate, but also played violin in numerous small orchestras.
- Lincke apparently composed more that 500 works, some of them under the pseudonym of Ted Huggens.
- Lincke offered the young actress Ellen Sousa marriage in return for her leaving the stage. She in return demanded a cooling-off period to consider her new role as wife and mother. Lincke experienced another wave of success from Paris, leading to him spending many nights out on the social scene, leaving Sousa at home to attend to her maternal commitments. Lincke now pressured Sousa to choose between him or returning to the stage, giving her ten days to think it over while he left town to make a guest appearance. When he returned after six days, Sousa and the child had moved out. Years later Ellen Sousa married a wholesale merchant, whom she followed to Dresden and who adopted her son without Lincke's objection. This was the end of his relationship with Ellen Sousa and his son. From those events came his well-known instrumental waltz "Verschmähte Liebe" ("Spurned Love").
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