Quinn was born in Lower Austria and grew up in Vienna . As a child he lived in Morgantown , West Virginia ( USA ) with his father , but moved back to live with his mother in Vienna . Through his mother 's second marriage to Rudolf Anatol Freiherr von Petz , Quinn adopted the name '' Nidl-Petz '' . At the end of World War II , as part of a refugee group , Freddy encountered American troops in Bohemia . Due to his fluent English , the 14-year-old succeeded in pretending to be of American nationality . He was subsequently sent to the US in May 1945 with a military transport . On Ellis Island , he learned that his father had already died in 1943 in a car accident . The boy was immediately sent back to Europe and , before returning to his mother in Vienna , was stranded for a whole year in Antwerp in a children 's home , where he learned to speak French and Dutch . However , having left the landlocked country of Austria in favor of adventurous journeys through Southern Europe and Northern Africa , he eventually headed for Germany . He was " discovered " in St. Pauli , Hamburg , and was offered his first recording contract in 1954 . He represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 in Lugano , Switzerland with the atypical song , " So geht das jede Nacht " , about an unfaithful girlfriend who dates many men . He did not win , and the full results of the contest were never released so his placement is not known . Most of his other songs are about Hamburg , the endless sea and the solitary life in faraway lands . His first hit record was " Heimweh " ( " Homesickness " , a.k.a. " Brennend heißer Wüstensand " , " Dort wo die Blumen blüh ' n " and " Schön war die Zeit " , ( 1956 ) , a German version of Dean Martin 's " Memories Are Made of This " . It sold over one million copies , and was awarded a gold disc
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
Eurovision Song Contest 1956
Freddy Quinn