Peter Kraus
Peter Kraus was born on March 18th 1939 in Munich as Peter Siegfried Krausenecker. In school he took singing lessons, acting and step dance courses, and started his movie career in 1954 as Johnny in “Das fliegende Klassenzimmer”, based on the book of the same title by Erich Kästner. It was the time of rock & roll, and when the record industry realized they could sell lots of records with this good-looking man they turned him into a German Elvis-variation that was a little smarter and more son-in-law-suitable than his colleague and competitor Ted Herold. Within a very short time Peter Kraus became the most popular German-speaking rock singer and also an idol for many teenagers. His first album, released in late 1956, was a German rendition of Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti”. In the next four years he released 36 radio hits and sold approximately 12 million copies. His biggest hits during that time were songs like “Susi Rock” from 1957, “Wenn Teenager Träumen”, “Hula Baby” and the legendary “Sugar Baby” from 1958, and “Tiger” from 1959.
Framus built the legendary Peter Kraus guitar, a thinline instrument with small body and only 4 strings, for the new German superstar in 1957. Peter’s father, director and cabaret artist Fred Kraus, wrote the corresponding course: “Learn to play the Framus Peter Kraus guitar in 7 days”. A total of 3 Peter Kraus instruments were made by Framus: The acoustic model 5/139 (Peter Kraus Party), the more costly and in modern color combinations lacquered model 5/140 (Peter Kraus Solist), and model 5/141 (Peter Kraus-de-Luxe-Electra) with cutaway, pickup plate and two pickups.
Peter Kraus was mainly working as an actor from the mid sixties on but still continued his career successfully until today: in 2002 he released his CD entitled “Ich mach weiter” and he still performs live. Peter also works as a painter. In 2006 he received his Echo award for lifetime achievement.
You can download the Peter Kraus guitar course here.