Karl Gerhard

Karl Emil Georg Johnson (1891-1964) made his scenic debut as an actor in 1908. In the beginning he worked mostly in Göteborg and in different touring theatre groups.

From 1919 Karl Gerhard, a name he took first on stage and later on changed in daily life as well, performed his own revues, primarily in Stockholm and Gothenburg. During the years 1935-1942, he was theatre manager of Folkan (a well-known scene in Stockholm) and from 1952 he was manager of another theatre - Vasateatern - together with his son Per Gerhard.

Karl Gerhard's engagement in political questions and in particular his standpoint against Nazism and barbarity during World War II ha placed him in the centre among other Swedish opinion-makers during the 20th century. Already in 1932, Karl Gerhard spoke about how he feared Nazism and what the ideology was able to do. When Denmark and Norway were occupied by German troops and "permittenttågen" (trains with German soldiers who were permitted travelling through Sweden) were on the Swedish railways, Karl Gerhard wrote his most disputed - and perhaps most popular - song: "Den ökända hästen från Troja". It is a song with a Russian melody in which the Nazism is pictured as a Trojan Horse which has become part of Swedish and European politics. The critic against the neutral Swedish government and the traiting Norwegian Quisling Government are obvious. Karl Gerhard's courage to critizice persons and ideologies in this couplet got much attention in the national media.

The day after the performance of the song in the revue "Gullregn", Karl Gerhard got a phone call from the Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson. Hansson explained that the German legation had protested against the song. Gerhard was told to stop performing the song because he was interfering the Swedish bye-law. After this controverse, instead of performing his song, Karl Gerhard read the police report infront of the audience who were laughing even more about how the government and police handled the situation.

Karl Gerhard wrote more than 4000 couplets and 60 revues. He was a close friend to the Swedish king Gustaf V, he knew many politicians and he met all the big European artists like Maurice Chevallier and Marlene Dietrich. A side of his engagement in important questions, Karl Gerhard was primarily an entertainer. He is without doubt one of the biggest show-men Sweden ever had. He had the ability to both entertain and worry the audience and different institutions.