_____________________________________________________________________________ _ _ __ __ _ ___ \\\\\___| |_| | \ \ / / / \ | __|___\"-._ /////~~~| _ | \ / / _ \ __ ~~~/.-' |_| |_| \/\/ /_/ \_\ |___| _____________________________________________________________________________ THE HANK WILIAMS APPRECIATION SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL 1978 _____________________________________________________________________________ "MANFRED ALBERT REINHARDT - GERMANY'S NUMBER ONE HANK FAN" _____________________________________________________________________________ Submitted by: Robert Ackerman, Palmer, Alaska _____________________________________________________________________________ * Please Scroll Down for February 2006 UPDATE: "MY FASCINATION FOR HANK WILLIAMS - BY MANFRED ALBERT REINHARDT" -or- Simply copy and paste the following URL into your Browser's location Box: http://www.angelfire.com/me2/kulacoco/myfascinationforhank.gif _____________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE Sept. 27, 2018 R.I.P. Manfred Albert Reinhardt Sept. 27, 1937 - March 4, 2018 _____________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE - May 4, 2013 Copy and paste the following URL into your Browser's location Box to view a photo of Manfred Albert Reinhardt receiving a certificate in honour of his fifty year membership in the Social Democratic Party of Germany: http://www.angelfire.com/me2/kulacoco/manfred3.jpg _____________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE - April 5, 2011 Hank williams Annual Festival in Georgiana, Alabama View Photos HERE: https://www.google.ca/search?q=hank+williams+festival+in+Georgiana&source=lnms&tbm=isch& sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1pNjDhLvWAhXC1CYKHWRcCMAQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1067&bih=473 ____________________________________________________________________________ Update July 27, 2010 From: reimanxl@gmx.de Subject: Re: "MY FASCINATION FOR HANK WILLIAMS" To: internetaction@yahoo.com, Hank1@mtaonline.net Received: Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 4:51 AM Hi Robert, hi Tom, Yes, it was me who wrote that bio about seven or eight years ago, when I was bestowed the honor of lifetime membership with HWASI The photo showing Reinhold Gerstner and myself was even taken at our first visit to Georgiana in June 2000. Robert had circulated both among he fans years ago, if I remember well. Many things have happened since then. I started writing for publishers in Germany, such as Rockin' Fifties and Country Ideals and contributed "The Opry Tour to Europe in November 1949" (with Hank participating) for Brian Turpen's book "Ramblin' Man - Short Stories from the Life of Hank Williams". I see no need for mailing my bio and the old pic to the fans again, but would appreciate it, if both would remain on the internet for future reference (please always use on the internet my full name Manfred Albert Reinhardt). Robert, Vol. # 37 of Country Ideals has just appeared with "Hank in Gernany" as a main feature. A complimentary copy of the book is on the way to you. Regards to you both with all good wishes, Manfred _____________________________________________________________________________ June 8, 2004 Hank Williams Museum, fans celebrate CD release Manfred Reinhardt and Becky Westmoreland were present when Andy Norman talked about his CD, which he is selling to benefit the Hank Williams Museum, during an open house and CD release party Sunday at the museum in Montgomery. Hank Williams Sr. fans from across the country and the world came to an open house and CD release party at the Hank Williams Museum in downtown Montgomery. They came from Texas, New Jersey and even Germany. Most of them stopped by after attending the annual Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana, held annually the first weekend in June. Manfred Reinhardt came all the way from Kempten, Germany, in the South of Bavaria. He comes every year to the festival and the museum. "I'm a regular here," he said. "Alabama's almost my second home." He became a Hank Williams fan at an early age. "I started quite early in the '50s in high school," he said. "There's a spiritual message in his music. It fascinates me -- the message that comes through. His music is unique." Bob Bien and Tac Tew also attend the Hank Williams Museum open house Sunday in Montgomery. Reinhardt said he has every album Williams produced and is in contact with fans from around the world. He also writes articles about Williams in German magazines, such as Rockin' Fifties, and said there are a lot of Hank Williams fans in Germany. The CD release party was held for Andy Norman, who sang on a tribute album, named "Lonesome Highways Songs of Hank," with songs written by area artists and friends of Norman -- Clint Dennis and Shawn Stokes. Stokes wrote "A Fallen Star" and Dennis wrote "The Drifting Angel." Norman sings on both songs. The CD is $7 and is only sold at the museum. The proceeds go to the museum. "I've always loved Hank, since I was about 4, and the museum. I'm always trying to raise money for the museum," Norman said. "We'd like folks to buy them to help support the museum. It's good for Montgomery." FOR MORE INFO: Beth J. Birtley Museum Manager Email: hankwilliamsmuse@bellsouth.net _____________________________________________________________________________ HANK WILLIAMS 50TH ANNIVESARY MEMORIAL CONCERT IN MUNICH, HERMANY _____________________________________________________________________________ We had a great concert in Munich last Thursday with the Swedish group "Handsome Hank and his Lonesome Boys" (named after Samuel "Handsome Hank" Hill, who founded a group with the same name in 1945. In the late forties the original group "Handsome Hank and his Lonesome Boys" performed at the Louisiana Hayride Jamboree in Baton Rouge and played seven radio shoes and nine concert weekly). The Swedish Group not only adopted the name of Samuel Hill's original band, but also stepped into their tradition and style of music.They rate among the best and most successful Country groups in Europe. The Hank Williams memorial concert in Munich (photo attached) attracted at least 500 Fans. The audience in the small theatre was packed to the last square inch (most spectators stood). People who could not sqeeze in any more had to be turned away. The show lasted from 8 p.m. until 3 o'clock in the morning. During the concert, the TRIKONT record label from Munich sold Hank Williams CD's from their own production and T-Shirts. There was also a poem recital by the German writer Franz Dobler paying homage to Hank. A day earlier there were two shows of the 1992 German Hank Williams film documentary I'll never get out of this world alive" in a Munich movie theatre. Also there ticket sales were beyond expectation and I was told that due to the enormous rush not even everybody succeeded to grab a ticket. To summarize events, I was impressed to see how many young Germans (and not only people from my own generation who still remember Hank from the early fifties) came to pay tribute to Hank on the 50th anniverary of his death. It showed again how much his message and music is timeless Similar memorial events took place this month in Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Dresden. _____________________________________________________________________________ Best regards to all _____________________________________________________________________________ Manfred _____________________________________________________________________________ Email: reimanxl@gmx.de _____________________________________________________________________________ To View Scan of the Above-Mentioned Event, Simply copy and paste the following URL into your Browser's location Box: http://www.angelfire.com/me2/kulacoco/manfred.jpg _____________________________________________________________________________ Over 5,000 miles to come and "Hank" _____________________________________________________________________________ News _____________________________________________________________________________ Compliments of The Greenville Advocate, Greenville, Ala. By George Wacha Staff Writer Photo by George Wacha _____________________________________________________________________________ When people native to Butler County think about travel distances to the Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana, they could not even imagine traveling a world away to get there. But two well-versed fans of Hank Williams Sr. traveled over 5,000 miles to be at the gala event to share with others their stories of how the Lonesome Highway traveler impacted their lives. Meet Manfred A. Reinhardt and Dr. Reinhold Gerstner. After flying from Germany to Atlanta, and then driving another 250 miles, Reinhardt and Gerstner landed at the 2001 Hank Williams Festival, and said they would not have missed it for anything. Reinhardt, first secretary, head of administration at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Den Haag (The Hague, Holland), and a member of the Lions Club International in his hometown of Bavaria, said he grew up listening to the music of Hank Sr. "I can remember when I was a small child in school, the ArmedForces Radio Service, with a transmitter in Stuttgart, played Hank Williams' music every morning on the 'Hillybilly Guesthouse' from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. ' we would get up early so we could listen to it every morning before we went to school,' said Reinhardt of his boyhood days in the early 50s. 'We would send postcards to the radio stations in Stuttgart and Nuremberg, requesting songs ' the radio people always complied. 'I have built an archive of information over the past 50 years on Hank Williams.' Reinhardt said he has been able to swap much information with others through the Hank Williams International Fan Club. 'I have belonged to the Hank Williams Fan Club for three years ' I found out about the event on the Internet,' he said. 'This is actually my second visit to Georgiana.' Reinhardt, along with his 60-year-old friend Gerstner, arrived in Atlanta after a nine-hour flight. 'When we arrived, we drove to Montgomery ' there we saw the Hank Museum they have. We then traveled to Selma, and Meridian, Miss. before coming to Butler County.' The pair stayed at the Day's Inn in Greenville, and were very much impressed with the local people and surroundings here. 'I have been very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness of the people here,' Reinhardt said. 'And the terrain is beautiful ' there are so many green forests here, and life is so relaxed ' I have been to the United States 15 or 20 times now, and this is the most beautiful area I have seen.' Gerstner, also an avid Hank fan, has been a lifelong friend of Reinhardt's. 'We have been buddies since the schooldays,' Gerstner said. 'I have always liked Hank Williams' music, but I am also a very avid fan of Loretta Lynn, and I can't wait to see her perform.' Gerstner, 60 years old, lives with his first child, Hanna, who is now five years old, in Germany, but spends a great deal of time in the south of France. 'My daughter would like to have been here, but she is getting ready to start kindergarten next month,' he said. 'I would very much like to have her go to school here, though ' I think the schools are better in America.' Gerstner said he too travels to the states frequently. 'I have a condominium in Naples, Florida,' he said. As Loretta Lynn sang her final, signature song 'Coal Miner's Daughter', Reinhardt and Gerstner bid their farewell, having made many new friends, and promising to correspond, and return to the event again each year, for they would be off for the airport bright and early Sunday morning to fly back to Germany. _____________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE: AUGUST 28. 2003 ATTENTION HANK FANS - Ken Campanile was nice to take the time to send us a picture....(that the Mae Garrett poster picture came from).... and the photo is of Hank and a military member....which was believed to be taken on Hank's 1949 trip to Germany (Thanks much Ken)... Robert A. P.S. And sorry to say that no picture of Hank and Tee-Tot has been found............... Simply copy and paste the following URL into your browser's location box: _____________________________________________________________________________ http://www3.sympatico.ca/tomlipscombe/manfred2.jpg _____________________________________________________________________________ Robert A. _____________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE: FEBRUARY 20, 2006 _____________________________________________________________________________ * MY FASCINATION FOR HANK WILLIAMS - BY MANFRED ALBERT REINHARDT _____________________________________________________________________________ M.R. - 02.21.06 I was a few months short of the age of eight when World War II ended. My memories of the horrors of war and the collapse of Nazi rule in spring 1945 are still vivid. My father commanded an armoured unit inside Russia. He was killed in action in July 1942. I was brought up as the only child by my mother and grandmother. During the war we lived two years in France where my mother's family had their ancestral roots. After the war we moved first to a small village in the Black Forest where my father has been born. Later we lived in the city of Karlsruhe in the southwest of Germany. The town was located in the American occupied Zone of divided post-war Germany. It had about the size and population of Montgomery and hosted some US Army garrisons. We lived in the neighbourhood of American families who came to Germany as dependants. My friends and I admired the American kids of our age, for the casual clothing they wore, for the different kind of sports they exercised, for the music they listened to. The American way of life seemed in many ways so much easier than our own, and we found it very attractive. America generously assisted reconstruction of Germany after the war. During the Soviet blockade of Berlin, America supplied the population of the sealed off town in a massive airlift, thus ensuring their survival. Germans made use of facilities offered by the US Government to learn more about America and her people. Guiding the Germans upon the path towards democracy was a subtle but highly effective and process. We had an "America House" in town. One would rather call it today "American Cultural and Information Centre". They organized lectures, exhibitions, movie nights, language courses and offered access to a public library, where Germans could borrow American books or read American newspapers and magazines. There was also a number of German/American Clubs organizing activities, like square dance nights, women gatherings etc. to foster friendship and understanding between people of our two nations. I became secretary of one of those clubs, while still attending High School Another highlight of American presence after the war, fondly remembered by my generation, was the American radio station AFN (American Forces Network). They entertained American servicemen and the German public alike with Jazz, Pop and Hillbilly Music all day long. It was a most welcome alternative to the only German radio station we had at the time. The kind of music from German radio broadcast was mainly aimed to listeners belonging to the generation of our parents or even the age group before. Their music did not appeal to us youngsters at all. We found it more fashionable and rewarding to listen to AFN. It must have been in 1950 when I listened for the first time to a Hank Williams song on AFN, and I clearly remember that it was "Move it on over". Its fast and sharp rhythm, almost like that of Rock n' Roll years later, was something we never have heard before. Hank Williams had been on tour to Germany around Thanksgiving 1949 to perform for US military personnel, and it most likely was the version recorded live in Berlin before an audience of nearly 2500, that AFN played over and over again. Hank Williams could be heard singing, whenever the radio was turned on. Of great popularity in Germany was his 1950 hit "Hey Good Looking", and all the other Hank Williams songs that later hit the charts like "Jambalaya", "Kaw Liga" and "Your Cheating Heart". There was an early morning program on AFN called "Hillbilly Guest House". It started at 6 a.m. and my friends and I used to listen to it before we left the house for school. AFN also played songs that were requested by German listeners, and we frequently wrote postcards to AFN with our favourite song title on it. AFN always complied und played the songs we asked for. Hank Williams records were sold in all German record stores and his songs could be selected from Juke Boxes in Pubs, Beer Halls and Ice Cream Parlours. I became particularly interested in Hank Williams and his music about a year before his death, and started to collect whatever I could find of his recordings, song texts, newspaper clippings, photos etc. I still own some of the old fragile MGM 78 rpm records bought from my small pocket money in the early fifties. Out of this stock of old Hank records, a few produced in Germany and Switzerland, went as a donation to the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery two years ago. The Museum puts on display old Hank Williams records produced in various countries. After Hank had died I wrote a letter to Georgiana High School in order to get in touch with some kids of my age. I had the idea that young people from Hank's home town must know all about Hank Williams and particularly about the circumstances of his death, not knowing at that point in time that Hank had spent only a few years of his childhood in Georgiana. Two kids, namely Evelyn Hanks and Gail Hester responded and we continued exchanging letters as "pen-friends" for about two years, starting in 1954. They both were familiar with Hank as a famous country music star, even though they were not necessarily his fans. One of them sent me the newspaper that covered Hank's funeral. Through corresponding with the two High School students, I learned much about Alabama, its people and their way of coping with every day's life. My dream of visiting 'Hank's country' finally materialized in summer of 1995 when I travelled to Montgomery with my wife and son. And since 2000 I'm a regular visitor to the Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana. Through all my life, Hank Williams' songs were a steady companion. In good or bad times there was always a song from old Hank that matched with my prevailing mood and situation, giving me strength and inspiration A big breakthrough, as far as access to information about Hank Williams was concerned, came with the internet. A treasure chest opened up with the availability of "what do you want to know" from so many sources. Exchange of information with other fans set in, Amazon.com offered books, CDs und DVDs. Events worldwide could be monitored and radio programs recorded. For me and the many others with keen interest in Hank's biography, the last 10 years offered more in research and new discoveries than what had been brought to light in all the 40 years following Hank's death. Manfred A. Reinhardt born 22 September, 1937 Married, three sons, BA in Public Administration, retired since 2002 Home in Kempten (Germany) e-mail: reimanxl@gmx.de _____________________________________________________________________________ Note: Join Robert Ackerman's Hank Fan Mailing list. _____________________________________________________________________________ Email: Hank1@mtaonline.net _____________________________________________________________________________