Documentary about the Life and Work of Richard Gölz (1887-1975)

Documentary Film about the Life and Work of Richard Gölz, theologian and church musician, whose edition of Reformation music lastingly transformed the repertoire of German Protestant church choirs. Gölz also was a pioneer of the revival of Gregorian chant in Germany. After the war, he became an Orthodox Priest and emigrated to Milwaukee. He is remembered in Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum for hiding fugitive Jews during the Nazi Years.—Sabine I. Gölz

The story of Richard Gölz, theologian and legendary church musician.. Nicknamed "The Cantor of Swabia," Gölz brought Reformation Music back into the Protestant Church in Germany. In 1933, he started a pioneering revival of Gregorian Chant. Towards the end of WWII, he was imprisoned for hiding Jews from Nazi persecution. After the war, he found himself unable to continue working with the Protestant Church. He became a Russian Orthodox priest and emigrated to the US with a congregation of Eastern European Displaced Persons. Back in his native Germany, he was ostracized for this departure, and his legacy was allowed to slip into oblivion. Since the 1990s, efforts are being made to bring back his memory. Today, he is remembered in Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum in Washington. This film brings his story to a broader audience for the first time.