Sometimes seen sporting a colourful bowtie in Bass Coast Shire council meetings, Ronnie Bauer arguably has something of a theatrical flair.

But it was only on a recent trip to Germany – which he describes as "10 days that shook my world" – that Ronnie came to understand how deep his theatrical roots run.

The trip revealed just why his grandfather's work has been celebrated in film, and sung by the renowned Three Tenors and at the soccer World Cup when Germany hosted in 2006.

"I knew some of my family's history but not to the extent that I discovered on this trip," Ronnie says, comparing the trip to an episode of the SBS genealogy series "Who Do You Think You Are".

Ronnie says even as a boy he knew his family's history was unusual.

His grandfather Ludwig Herzer was a librettist in Germany, writing text for operas.

Ludwig's most famous piece was Yours is My Heart's Delight from The Land of Smiles, sung at the World Cup, which also featured in the 2000 war film U-571 and has been performed by the Three Tenors, while Ludwig worked with renowned composers Franz Lehar and Joseph Beer.

"In Australia few people know his songs, but in western Europe and especially in the German-speaking world he and his work are well known," Ronnie says.

"I have the piano that belonged to my grandparents, bought out from Austria after the war, on which Ludwig composed operettas and it's thanks to that piano that nearly everything I own can be traced back, because of royalties."

War

Ronnie says while Ludwig died just before the outbreak of World War II, his wife (and Ronnie's grandmother) Ella was trapped in Austria, a highly dangerous place at the time for a Jew.

"She was kept safe because her friend (Sophie, the wife of Franz Lehar) was having an affair with the brother of Hermann Goring (the powerful Nazi leader)."

Ronnie's mother Henny was 21 when the war started, at the time working as a producer/director in Vienna, and she fled to Switzerland for safety.

Henny then travelled to Shanghai, where she worked as a nurse in a refugee hospital for 11 years.

"In Shanghai my mother met my father Peter Bauer – who was also from Vienna – and in 1949 they came to Australia, where dad worked as an architect.

"My mother was even part of Steven Spielberg's Shoa Foundation project, recorded to capture stories from survivors of the Holocaust."

Discovery

Ronnie's mother passed away in 2004 and it was while he was sorting through her belongings he discovered manuscripts and memorabilia dating back to his grandfather's pre-war compositions.

"It was in German and I couldn't read it, so pointless hanging on to it. I sent six big boxes to the Franz Lehar museum in Austria."

Those big boxes opened doors that have only now come to fruition.

Through that contact, a book on the life of Ludwig Herzer was recently published, with a performance of one of his operettas having a premier in Germany in mid-December, which Ronnie travelled to attend.

"It was a big deal in Germany. I was interviewed by the media and it won a prestigious operatic prize."

Ronnie then travelled to Vienna where another performance of his grandfather's plays was being held.

It was through contacts he met then that a whole new world opened up.

"I was invited to visit a theatre museum and I walked in and a life-size cutout of my mother greeted me. I was in total shock and very emotional.

"Imagine walking into a museum and your mother greets you after 20 years.

"It turns out mum was the first female to graduate from a major theatre school in Vienna as a producer and director and she is now revered as the pioneer of Austrian theatre like Amelia Earhart in aviation.

"She never spoke about it so I didn't realise how highly she was regarded.

"But the story gets better."

New relatives

Ronnie says he had always believed he was the only child of an only child (his mother), of an only child (his grandfather).

But on his December trip to Germany, he discovered Ludwig had a sister who was a piano child prodigy and married a man esteemed in theatre.

"I found out I had all these relations I'd never heard of but then I discovered my great uncle died in a concentration camp and my great auntie fled to America where she died without having children.

"The whole trip felt surreal because of all the unexpected twists that popped up."

Ronnie says he'll hopefully return to Austria for the reopening of the refurbished Lehar museum that celebrates his family's musical legacy.

"Nothing would make me prouder than to have one of Ludwig's operettas performed at Berninneit one day."