"All of this I was able to do using only my voice. It was the highlight of my life!"

Ari Leschnikoff, 1975

Perhaps the saddest story of all is that of Ari Leschnikoff.

July 16, 1897
he was born in Haskovo, Bulgaria, near Sofia.

1916
he joined the army and at the end of World War I he became lieutenant.

1922
he went to Berlin to study music. Since he got no financial support by his family, he had to work as a waiter during the studies.

1926
Ari Leschnikoff - as Roman Cycowski and Robert Biberti - was employed by the Großes Schauspielhaus.

1928
"One day I came home where I found a message from Biberti saying that someone wants to found a quartett looking for good voices. The next day we went to Harry Frommermann. Cycowksi was also there. This day we founded the Comedian Harmonists." (Ari Leschnikoff 1975)

1935
after the separation of the Comedian Harmonists, Ari remained in Germany and founded, together with Erwin Bootz and Robert Biberti the Meistersextett.

1939
because of a dispute with Biberti (and also the military service), Leschnikoff left the group (Erwin Bootz already left the group in 1938 starting his own career.).

1939-1965 (see remark below!)
After he fled Germany, he returned to Sofia with his wife Delphine and their son Simeon. Using his entire fortune from The Comedian Harmonists, Leschnikoff bought a large apartment building and generated his income from that while he served as a captain in World War II. During the war, the building he owned was destroyed by a bomb, and the Leschnikoffs were left destitute. Ari made some concert appearances as a soloist, and recorded Bulgaria?s first LP album, but he was never able to find steady work as a singer. 1947 his wife Delphine took their son to London for a funeral and never returned, thus deserting Ari with no steady income or home. He eventually remarried, but continued to live in poverty.

1965
he was discovered again and brought to East Germany for a successful concert tour, but then returned to Sofia, where he worked as a gardener's assistant. As he grew older, he lost not only his magnificent voice but also his hearing. He wrote pleading letters to Robert Biberti asking for help, but Biberti, remembering that Leschnikoff had betrayed him in the last days of The Comedian Harmonists, never replied.

July 31, 1978
Ari Leschnikoff died in abject poverty in Sofia.

Some remarks concerning 1939-1965
It is important to note that another version of Leschnikoff's story exists. The Web's Resources for the Comedian Harmonists has learned that the Leschnikoff descendants in England tell a version of the story in which Ari was removed from The Comedian Harmonists by the Reichsmusikkammer for his staunch anti-Hitler beliefs, and that he had never turned on Biberti. The version presented above was captured in interviews with Robert Biberti by his biographers Peter Czada and Eberhard Fechner. According to the Leschnikoff family members, Ari returned to Bulgaria to care for his sick mother, and as soon as he arrived on Bulgarian soil, he was drafted into the military. Once in Bulgaria, his wife Delphine was in danger because she was an Englishwoman in a country supporting Germany. According to this version of the story, the entire family tried to escape to England, but Ari was held back by the Bulgarian government. Only Delphine and Simeon escaped. They wrote many letters to each other, in hopes of reuniting in England. But one day Delphine got a letter from Ari requesting a divorce. Delphine was heartbroken. The family claims that Ari had the marriage annulled by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church so that he could remarry. Like most stories, this one has two sides to it. It is no longer possible to definitively discern what really happened. Ample evidence exists in favor of both sides of this confusing story. We thought it best to present both sides, without opinion. -ed.