Editing Hans Zimmer (section)

== Early life ==
Zimmer was born in [[Frankfurt]], [[West Germany]]. As a young child, he lived in [[Königstein im Taunus|Königstein-Falkenstein]], where he played the piano at home but had piano lessons only briefly, as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons.<ref name="mtv.de">{{cite web |title=MTV biography – Hans Zimmer (in German) |url=http://www.mtv.de/music/20224928/bio-Hans%20Zimmer.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130211144922/http://www.mtv.de/music/20224928/bio-Hans%20Zimmer.html |archive-date=11 February 2013 |access-date=27 September 2011 |website=MTV Germany }}</ref> In one of his [[R/IAmA|Reddit AMAs]], he said: "My formal training was two weeks of piano lessons. I was thrown out of eight schools. But I joined a band. I am self-taught. But I've always heard music in my head. And I'm a child of the 20th century; computers came in very handy."<ref name="reddit">{{cite web|title=I am Hans Zimmer – Ask Me Anything!|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1g4wkt/i_am_hans_zimmer_ask_me_anything/cagscgt/|last=Zimmer|first=Hans|date=11 June 2013|website=[[Reddit]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104220130/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1g4wkt/i_am_hans_zimmer_ask_me_anything/cagscgt/|archive-date=4 November 2020|access-date=28 June 2017}}</ref> Zimmer attended the [[Ecole d'Humanité]], an international boarding school in the [[Canton of Bern]], Switzerland.<ref>{{cite web|title=International Boarding School {{!}} Ecole Alumnus Hans Zimmer is on Tour {{!}} Ecole d'Humanité|url=https://www.ecole.ch/en/news/detail/140/ecole-alumnus-hans-zimmer-is-on-tour/|website=www.ecole.ch|access-date=22 May 2020|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801123344/https://www.ecole.ch/en/news/detail/140/ecole-alumnus-hans-zimmer-is-on-tour/|url-status=live}}</ref>

He moved to London as a teenager and attended [[Hurtwood House]] school.<ref name="Hurtwood">{{cite web | url=http://www.hurtwoodhouseperformingarts.co.uk/#/hans-zimmer/4533716266 | title=Hurtwood House Performing Arts – Hans Zimmer | access-date=27 September 2010 | archive-date=21 February 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221214533/http://www.hurtwoodhouseperformingarts.co.uk/#/hans-zimmer/4533716266 | df=dmy-all | url-status=dead}}</ref> During his childhood, he was strongly influenced by the film scores of [[Ennio Morricone]] and has cited ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West#Music|Once Upon a Time in the West]]'' as the score that inspired him to become a film composer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/ennio-morricone-my-inspiration-by-hans-zimmer|title=Ennio Morricone – my inspiration, by Hans Zimmer|publisher=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]|date=20 February 2017|access-date=8 November 2018|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108225003/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/ennio-morricone-my-inspiration-by-hans-zimmer|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a speech at the [[49th Berlin International Film Festival|1999 Berlin Film Festival]], Zimmer stated that he is Jewish, and talked about his mother surviving [[World War II]] thanks to her escape from Germany to the UK in 1939. In an interview in May 2014, Zimmer revealed that it was difficult growing up in [[History of Germany (1945–1990)|post-War]] Germany being Jewish and said, "I think my parents were always wary of me telling the neighbors."<ref name="jewishjournal.com">{{cite web|date=28 May 2014 | title= Hans Zimmer: Proud to say 'My people' | url= https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/129526/ | work=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles|Jewish Journal]]|language= | publisher = [[JewishJournal.com]] | author= Jared Sichel | access-date = | archive-date = 17 July 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140717053221/http://www.jewishjournal.com/culture/article/hans_zimmer_proud_to_say_my_people| url-status = live }}</ref> 

In an interview with [[Mashable]] in February 2013, he said of his parents: "My mother was very musical, basically a musician and my father was an engineer and an inventor. So I grew up modifying the piano, shall we say, which made my mother gasp in horror, and my father would think it was fantastic when I would attach chainsaws and stuff like that to the piano because he thought it was an evolution in technology."<ref name="mashable">{{cite web| url = http://mashable.com/2013/02/05/hans-zimmer-vjam/| title = Hans Zimmer: The Computer Is My Instrument| website = [[Mashable]]| date = 5 February 2013| access-date = 6 March 2013| archive-date = 4 March 2013| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130304055735/http://mashable.com/2013/02/05/hans-zimmer-vjam/| url-status = live}}</ref> In an interview with the German television station [[ZDF]] in 2006, he said: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."<ref name="zdf">{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4voQPo6FUeo| title = ZDF Infokanal interview, June 2006 (in German with English subtitles)| website = YouTube| date = 27 July 2006| access-date = 13 September 2009| archive-date = 7 January 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190107061936/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4voQPo6FUeo| url-status = live}}</ref>