Wikipedia:
Heinrich Strecker was the son of Heinrich Georg Strecker, a native of Ljubljana and master tailor in Vienna-Margareten and his wife Theresia also from Vienna. From the age of six, Strecker grew up with his grandmother in Vienna, from where he moved to Aachen after her death to join his father, who had found a position as a master tailor there. The elder Strecker sent his son to Theux (Belgium) in 1903 to the boarding school of the ''Lazarist Order where he attended school for seven years.There his talent for music was also recognized and his interest in it was awakened. By the end of his school years, Strecker had mastered twelve instruments.
By his own admission, the violin was his favorite instrument, for which he also took the master class. In 1907, Strecker was able to make his debut with his first composition, a violin concerto in A-major. He was allowed to perform this piece to the Belgian King Leopold II in the same year, for which he was honored.
In 1910, Strecker returned to Vienna and, after taking the ''Externisten-Matura'' in Wels, began studying law at the University of Vienna. The outbreak of World War I interrupted Strecker's studies. Afterwards Strecker devoted himself exclusively to music. H studied for two years under Camillo Horn and initially composed classical works.
However, through commissioned works, such as dance and film music, he soon was attracted to Viennese songs. He became known for this kind of folk songs; likewise for his ''Singspiele''. He often collaborated with Fritz Löhner-Beda, F. Gerold, Alfred Steinberg-Frank, Joe Gribitz and Bruno Hardt-Warden, who provided him with the lyrics and libretti.
On January 20, 1932, his operetta ''Mädel aus Wien'' was premiered at the Vienna Bürgertheater. His Singspiel ''Ännchen von Tharau'' which Strecker had created together with Bruno Hardt-Warden, was premiered in Breslau on September 21, 1933. The song ''Drunt' in der Lobau''... also originated from his pen.
Strecker joined the NSDAP (German Nazi Party) on February 1, 1933 (membership number 1,389,862), and in 1934 he was ''Gauobmann and Landeskulturleiter'' of the party, which had been banned under Austrofascism, and of the National Socialist Cultural Community of Austria.[3] In this capacity he was briefly imprisoned in 1936. His operetta ''Der ewige Walzer'' premiered at the ''Staatstheater Bremen'' on February 5, 1938. It was not until after the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich that the Austrian premiere of the operetta took place at the ''Vienna Volksoper'' on May 18, 1938.
After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, Strecker composed a song with piano accompaniment titled: ''Deutsch-Österreich ist frei!'' and the song for choir and orchestra ''Wach auf, deutsche Wachau!''[3] In the same year, he became vice president of the Austrian copyright society AKM.[3] In addition to the Viennese Excelsior-Verlag'' (publishing house), which he had founded in 1926, and the Wiener Bühnenverlag, he was also able to acquire the music publishers ''Edition Bristol'' (1941), ''Sirius und Europaton'' through "Aryanization" after 1938.
Heinrich Strecker lived in Baden from 1940 (with the exception of the immediate post-war period) and as of September 5, 1942, owned a villa built in 1846 at Marchetstrasse 76, where today (2014) the Heinrich Strecker Society and the music publisher ''Heinrich Strecker, Notenantiquariat'' arer domiciled. Strecker's third marriage, to (the 45 years younger) Erika Eszler, daughter of a Baden shoemaker, dated back to their acquaintance in 1956 and could not be legitimized until 1978 because of Strecker's ongoing divorce proceedings. The widow holds an annual concert in the park of the Villa Strecker in memory of her husband.
One of the last tributes to Strecker by the city of Baden was the establishment of a ''Heinrich Strecker Stüberl'' integrated into the Kaiser Franz Josef Museum (Hochstraße 51) which continued to exist under this name until March 2013.
Heinrich Strecker's gravesite is located in the ''Helenenfriedhof'' (cemetery) in Baden.
Note: Translated from the German version of Wikipedia into English.
