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. 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. 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. 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). 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. Meanwhile, he had begun to compose operettas and individual songs and had a number of successes in these fields.Īfter serving in the Austrian Army in World War I, Stolz devoted himself mainly to cabaret, and moved to Berlin in 1925. 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. 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. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Robert Fuchs and Engelbert Humperdinck. At the age of seven, he toured Europe as a pianist, playing Mozart.
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.
Stolz was born of musical parents in Graz.
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