Stolz was born of musical parents in
Graz. His father was conductor and composer
Jakob Stolz, his mother was concert pianist
Ida Bondy, and he was the great-nephew of the soprano
Teresa Stolz. At the age of seven, he toured Europe as a pianist, playing Mozart. He studied at the
Vienna Conservatory with
Robert Fuchs and
Engelbert Humperdinck. From 1899 he held successive conducting posts at
Maribor (then called Marburg),
Salzburg and
Brno before succeeding
Artur Bodanzky at the
Theater an der Wien in 1907. There he conducted, among other pieces, the first performance of
Oscar Straus's
Der tapfere Soldat (
The Chocolate Soldier) in 1908, before leaving in 1910 to become a freelance composer and conductor. Meanwhile, he had begun to compose operettas and individual songs and had a number of successes in these fields. After serving in the
Austrian Army in
World War I, Stolz devoted himself mainly to
cabaret, and moved to
Berlin in 1925. Around 1930, he started to compose music for
films, such as the first German sound film
Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt (
Two Hearts in Waltz Time), of which the title-waltz rapidly became a popular favourite. Some earlier Stolz compositions, such as "Adieu, mein kleiner Gardeoffizier" from his operetta
Die lustigen Weiber von Wien, became known to wider audiences through the medium of film, after it was interpolated into
Im weißen Rößl (
The White Horse Inn). The rise of
Nazi Germany led Stolz to return to Vienna, where his title-song for the film
Ungeküsst soll man nicht schlafen gehn was a hit. He remained active in Berlin as well. He used to travel by car between the two cities, so he smuggled Jews and political refugees across the German–Austrian border in the trunk of his limousine. He managed to do so 21 times. Then came the
Anschluss, and he moved again, first to
Zürich and then to
Paris, where in 1939 he was
interned as an
enemy alien. With the help of friends he was released and in 1940 made his way to
New York. In America, Stolz achieved fame with his concerts of Viennese music, starting with "A Night in Vienna" at
Carnegie Hall. As a result, he received many invitations to compose music for shows and films, and he received two
Academy Awards nominations: "Waltzing in the Clouds" for
Spring Parade was nominated for
Best Original Song in 1941, and his score for
It Happened Tomorrow was nominated for
Best Dramatic or Comedy Picture Score in 1945. In 1946 Stolz returned to Vienna, where he lived for the rest of his life. In the 1960s and 1970s he made numerous
recordings of operettas by composers such as
Johann Strauss,
Franz Lehár,
Emmerich Kálmán, and
Leo Fall, whom he had known previously. In 1952, he began to compose for the
Vienna Ice Revue. He dedicated his first of 19 ice operettas ("Eternal Eve") to European Champion
Eva Pawlik. In 1970, to mark his 90th birthday, he was made an
Honorary Citizen of Vienna. He was also awarded Vienna's Grand Medal of Honour, being only the second musician ever to be so honoured (after
Richard Strauss). In later years he used a baton inherited from
Franz Lehár, which had been originally owned by
Johann Strauss and contained Strauss's initials engraved in silver. After his death in Berlin in 1975, Robert Stolz received the honour of a lying-in-state in the foyer of the
Vienna State Opera House. He was buried near
Johannes Brahms and
Johann Strauss II in Vienna's
Zentralfriedhof, and statues to him were erected in the
Wiener Stadtpark, the
Prater,
Berlin-Grunewald, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, and other places across Germany and Austria. A place is named after him -
Robert-Stolz Platz, where he lived until his death - just off the Opernring in Vienna, close to the State Opera. There are further streets named after him throughout Germany (Düsseldorf, Ulm, Wiesbaden, Aalen, Bremen) and Austria (Linz, Graz, Villach). He also appeared on a series of commemorative
postage stamps in
Austria and
Germany, as well as in
Hungary,
Uruguay,
Paraguay,
North Korea and
San Marino. ==Marriages==