In 1931 Karl Oriwohl began playing the bandonion at the age of fourteen on an bisonoric instrument.

Although he was already a member of a bandonion club, after 3 years of learning, he decided in favour of an unisonoric Zademack/Micklitz bandonion and started all over again.

A little later, this type of bandonion was further developed into the Kusserow, which meant that the left hand had to be relearned again.

He then studied with a Kusserow at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin until the outbreak of war in 1939.

Soldiers of communications troops playing street music in occupied Poland.

The bandonion invites you to dance, even when there is an obvious lack of women.

"The Blitzbuben" - the prisoner of war band.

Named after the so-called "Blitzmädels" - female telephone operators in the military who wore a "Blitz" symbol on their uniforms.

After persuasion the British guards, music can be played again, mostly for their entertainment and pleasure.

The chapel master's ear pain...

Plain clothes instead of uniforms - a sign of a new era. Hungarian fellow prisoners tailored the musicians trousers made from darkening fabric, which was originally used to darken windows against air raids. As it contained a high proportion of paper, the artists always entered the stage with a loud hiss.

In Klagenfurt the prisoner band even recorded four songs for the radio on disc.