Helga Hahnemann

Last updated
Helga Hahnemann
Helga Hahnemann 1988.jpg
1988
BornSeptember 8, 1937
Berlin-Pankow (Wilhelmsruh), Germany
DiedNovember 20, 1991(1991-11-20) (aged 54)
Berlin-Pankow, Germany
Alma mater Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, Berlin-Niederschöneweide
Occupation(s)Cabaret artiste
Stage performer
Actress
Singer
Voice-over artiste
Television/radio presenter/moderator
SpouseMaria Johanna Caroline Bladt

Helga "Big Helga" Hahnemann (8 September 1937 - 20 November 1991) was an East German multi-faceted stage performer and entertainer. She came to wider prominence through her television and radio appearances after 1962. By the time reunification arrived in 1990 she had become a leading star of the small screen in East Germany. She fell terminally ill and then died shortly afterwards, possibly because of the extent of her addiction to cigarettes: she was 54. Her death left unanswered the question of how successfully her performances might have captivated pan-German television audiences post unification. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

The annual "Goldene Henne" (literally "Golden Hen") prize was inaugurated in 1995 to celebrate and commemorate her. (One of Helga Hahnemann's informal soubriquets among fans was "Henne".) [2] [4]

Life and career

Helga "Henne" Hahnemann was born in Berlin-Wilhelmsruh, the youngest of her parents' four children, a couple of years before war broke out. [5] Wilhelmsruh was a central quarter of Berlin which after 1945 would find itself administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone. [6] The zone was rebranded and relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). She later told an interviewer that she discovered her talent for comedy while still at school. [4] Passing her Abitur (school final exams) opened the way for a university-level education: between 1956 and 1959 Hahnemann studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin-Niederschöneweide. [7] In 1959 she made her stage debut with Die Pfeffermühle (literally, "The Pepper Mill"), a mildly edgy cabaret ensemble established five years earlier in Leipzig. [2]

She found Leipzig did not suit her, however, and returned in 1961 or 1962 to Berlin, [1] where she concentrated on cabaret and comedy genres, working on a freelance basis, primarily with one-woman programmes. [5] Increasingly, however, she found herself undertaking work for DFF, East Germany's party-controlled monopoly broadcaster. Her work covered television and radio work as well as voice-acting assignments. [1] Some of her best remembered appearances from this time were on the regular satirical comedy show, "Tele-BZ". [8] Her appearances as the main attraction on "Tele-BZ", which soon won a nationwide audience of several million for the shows in which she appeared, continued for three decades, earning her the prestigious arts prize of the East German Trades Union Federation. [9] Eventually, in 1969, Hahnemann joined the broadcaster's payroll as a member of the "DFF Drama Ensemble" ("Schauspielerensemble des DFF"). She remained on the payroll for the next 21 years, despite an annual salary of 1,500 Ostmarks, which even then was a relatively modest amount: by 1990 it had increased to 2,100 Ostmarks. [3]

1974 marked the start of a productive seventeen partnership with the scriptwriter Angela Gentzmer who worked with her on song lyrics and sketches. At least one source describes the two women as a "dream team". Where the dream team needed a new tune, the composer Arndt Bause would produce another from his apparently endless stream of new dance music melodies. The material Hahnemann was now using made her "the voice of the little man". There are suggestions that she was allowed a certain measure of license that a more overtly political performer would have been denied. [3] [9] At the end of the 1970s she began working with the Berliner Rundfunk ("East Berlin Radio") as a moderator-presenter on her programme "Helgas Top(p)-Musike", which also formed the basis for three television programmes. [3] Success as a singer continued with "Schlager" numbers - many employing local Berlin dialect - such as "Wo ist mein Jeld bloß geblieben", " Jetzt kommt dein Süße", "U-Bahn-Beat", "100 mal Berlin", "Clärchens Ballhaus" (sung as a duet with Hartmut Schulze-Gerlach), and "Een kleenet Menschenkind". [10]

Another much loved programme which Hahnemann regularly presented was Ein Kessel Buntes, a Saturday evening television variety show. She performed with actor-comedians such as Alfred Müller, Herbert Köfer, Dagmar Gelbke and Ingeborg Naß in a wide variety of television comedy sketches. [3] She appeared regularly alongside Rolf Herricht, Gerd E. Schäfer, Margot Ebert, Traute Sense and Heinz Behrens in her role as "Erna Mischke" in the long-running light-hearted television drama series Maxe Baumann. [11] She teamed up with Ingeborg Naß to head up workers' cabaret in Berlin. [7] Hahnemann also progressed her career as a voice-over artist. Of particular note in this context was the use of her voice for Yvonne Jensen, the main female protagonist in the popular German-language versions for 3 of the 14 (filmed in Danish) Olsen Gang movies. [12]

The changes which led the German Democratic Republic to democracy were followed, formally in October 1990, by German reunification. Hahnemann set about trying to win over audiences in a very different kind of Germany, in which western social and economic norms tended to trump those that had emerged in the east under Soviet socialism. [8] However, she was already terminally ill. There were well advanced plans for a New Year's Eve "television spectacular" on 31 December 1990 / 1 January 1991 with Helga Hahnemann presenting it. In the event she was too ill to participate. It remains unclear when she realised the seriousness of her physical problems. Sources indicate that "Big Helga" had long been noted as a big eater, and she was a heavy smoker. [13] There are indications that for several months she held off visiting a doctor in pursuit of a diagnosis. She was keen that "the public should say she was 100% fit when she died". [9] According to at least one source the late-stage lung cancer diagnosis came through in November 1991, when only a couple of weeks of life were left to her. [2]

Selected honors

Helga-Hahnemann-Haus, Schoneiche opened, 2000, photograph date: 2005 Helga-Hahnemann-Haus in Schoneiche bei Berlin.jpg
Helga-Hahnemann-Haus, Schöneiche
opened, 2000,
photograph date: 2005

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of East Germany</span> Historic cultural expression in the DDR

    The culture of East Germany varied throughout the years due to the political and historical events that took place in the 20th century, especially as a result of Nazism and Communism. A reflection on the history of arts and culture in East Germany reveals complex relationships between artists and the state, between oppositional and conformist art. In four decades, East Germany developed a distinct culture and produced works of literature, film, visual arts, music, and theatre of international acclaim. Popular culture specialities included among others a high popularity of nudism in Eastern Germany.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Interflug</span> Defunct airline of East Germany (1958–1991)

    Interflug GmbH was the national airline of East Germany from 1963 to 1990. Based in East Berlin, it operated scheduled and chartered flights to European and intercontinental destinations out of its hub at Berlin Schönefeld Airport, focusing on Comecon countries. Interflug also had significant crop dusting operations. Following German reunification, the company was liquidated.

    <i>Aktuelle Kamera</i> East German flagship state television newscast (1952–1990)

    Aktuelle Kamera was the flagship television newscast of Deutscher Fernsehfunk, the state broadcaster of the German Democratic Republic. It was on air from 21 December 1952 to 14 December 1990.

    Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, shortened to MDR, is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, with regional studios in Dresden, Erfurt and Magdeburg. MDR is a member of the ARD consortium of public broadcasters in Germany.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio DDR 1</span> Radio station

    Radio DDR 1 was a radio channel produced and transmitted by Rundfunk der DDR, the radio broadcasting organization of East Germany (GDR). It had a mixed of news and light entertainment schedule, with an emphasis on events in the GDR, and also included regional programming.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Berliner FC Dynamo</span> German association football club

    Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e. V., commonly abbreviated to BFC Dynamo or BFC, alternatively sometimes called Dynamo Berlin, is a German football club based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg of Berlin. The team competes in the Regionalliga Nordost, the fourth tier of German football

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Rundfunk der DDR</span> Radio broadcasting organisation of the German Democratic Republic

    Rundfunk der DDR was the collective designation for radio broadcasting organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) until German reunification in 1990.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Deutscher Fernsehfunk</span> State television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic

    Deutscher Fernsehfunk was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic from 1952 to 1991.

    Brigitte Ahrens is a German schlager-singer, who was well known in East Germany.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Inka Bause</span> German singer and television presenter

    Inka Bause, also !nka or INKA, is a German schlager singer, TV presenter and actress. Her father was Arndt Bause.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Inge Keller</span> German actress (1923–2017)

    Inge Keller was a German stage and film actress whose career on stage and screen spanned seventy years. She was one of the most prominent performers in the former German Democratic Republic. Thomas Langhoff described her as "perhaps the most famous actress of the German Democratic Republic—a star." Deutschlandradio Kultur reporter Dieter Kranz called her "a theater legend".

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Günter Rössler</span> German photographer (1926–2012)

    Günter Rössler was a German photographer who made a name for himself especially in the field of nude art photography. A pioneer of nude photography in East Germany and notable fashion photographer, Rössler was often referred to by the media as the Helmut Newton of East Germany, stylized since Playboy published in 1984 a photo-gallery titled: Mädchen der DDR. Rössler however, never liked this comparison with Newton, saying: "with Newton the pose dominates, with me it is about the highest possible authenticity of the girls". Rössler significantly contributed to the history of German photography in the second half of the twentieth century, earning him recognition not only as a great photographer, but also as the "old master of German nude photography".

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Neutsch</span> German writer

    Erik Neutsch was one of the most successful writers in East Germany.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Shame penalty of Leipzig</span> Controversial referee decision in a 1986 football match

    The shame penalty of Leipzig was a controversial penalty decision by referee Bernd Stumpf during a match in the 1985–86 season of the DDR-Oberliga between 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo, which took place on 22 March 1986 at the Bruno-Plache-Stadion in Leipzig. Following the match, the Deutscher Fußball-Verband (DFV), the umbrella organization for football in East Germany, for the first time permanently banned a referee.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Arndt Bause</span> German composer

    Arndt Bause was a German composer of popular songs.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Dagmar Enkelmann</span> German politician (born 1956)

    Dagmar Enkelmann is a German politician of Die Linke party.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulrike Krumbiegel</span> German actress

    Ulrike Krumbiegel is a German actress. She has performed in more than 100 film and TV productions. In her early career, she performed in East German cinema and theatre. After the re-unification of Germany, her career continued with appearances in crime series such as Tatort, and the ZDF series SOKO München. She has also continued to appear in the theatre, featuring in plays by Berthold Brecht, Henrik Ibsen and William Shakespeare.

    Wolf-Dieter Hauschild was a German conductor, choirmaster, artistic director, composer, harpsichordist and university lecturer.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Uschi Brüning</span> Musical artist

    Uschi Brüning is a German jazz and soul singer and songwriter. She made her career in East Germany and was 42 when the Berlin wall was breached. She has transitioned and sustained her career more successfully than other former East German performance artists post-reunification, though her fan base remains concentrated principally in the east.

    Irina Liebmann is a German journalist-author and sinologist of Russo-German provenance. She has won a number of important literary prizes: the most significant of these, probably, was the 2008 Leipzig Book Fair non-fiction Prize, awarded for "Wäre es schön? Es wäre schön!", a biography of her father, a noted anti-Nazi activist and political exile in Warsaw and Moscow who, after 1945, returned to what became, in 1949, the German Democratic Republic and in 1953, despite his longstanding record of communist activism, emerged as an uncompromising critic of the East German leader Walter Ulbricht: he was expelled from the party and suffered various other government mandated public indignities. She grew up and lived the first part of her adult life in the German Democratic Republic, but succeeded in moving to West Berlin during 1988, thereby anticipating reunification by more than a year.

    References

    1. 1 2 3 Bernhard Hönig. "Hahnemann, Helga, 8.9.1937 - 20.11.1991, Sängerin, Entertainerin". Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    2. 1 2 3 4 "Ganz Privat: Entertainerin Helga Hahnemann" [Very private: Entertainer Helga Hahnemann] (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Leipzig. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 Angelika Wehbeck. "Gedenkseite für Helga Hahnemann" [Memorial page for Helga Hahnemann] (in German). Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    4. 1 2 3 "Von A-Z: Was Sie über die "Henne" wissen sollten (Quelle Zitat: Das dicke Helga Hahnemann Buch, Verlag: Eulenspiegel - Das Neue Berlin)" [From A-Z: What you should know about the "hen" (Source quote: The big Helga Hahnemann book, Publisher: Eulenspiegel - Das Neue Berlin)]. Goldene Henne 2019 (in German). Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), Berlin. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    5. 1 2 3 Michael Bürklin. "Helga Hahnemann Lebenslauf" [Helga Hahnemann CV]. Was war wann? (in German). Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    6. ↑ Andreas Zimmer (10 September 2018). Konterrevolutionäre Umtriebe?: Der Kulturbund im Krisenjahr 1956 [Counter-revolutionary Activities?: The Cultural League in the Crisis Year of 1956]. Der Kulturbund in der SBZ und in der DDR: Eine ostdeutsche Kulturvereinigung im Wandel der Zeit zwischen 1945 und 1990 (in German). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 238–252. ISBN   978-3-658-23553-6.
    7. 1 2 3 Frank-Burkhard Habel; Volker Wachter [in German] (1999). "Helga Hahnemann". Lexikon der DDR-Stars. "Steffi-line", Düsseldorf. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    8. 1 2 3 "Helga Hahnemann: Eine Legende des DDR-Showbiz" [Helga Hahnemann: A Legend of GDR Showbiz] (in German). Leipzig: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    9. 1 2 3 Marcel Piethe (12 January 2012). "Zu Helga Hahnemann im Schnelldurchlauf" [A quick look at Helga Hahnemann] (in German). Matthias Vorbau, Berlin i.A. Der Maulbär. Retrieved 11 September 2020. 'ne dicke Henne, die mit Eierpampe wirft
    10. ↑ "Fotos: Die größten Sängerinnen und Sänger des Ostens .... Helga Hahnemann (hier bei einem Auftritt während der IFA im September 1991)" [Photos: The greatest singers of the East .... Helga Hahnemann (here at a performance during the IFA in September 1991)] (in German). Rostock: Ostsee-Zeitung. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    11. ↑ "Maxe Baumann" (in German). Cologne: imfernsehen GmbH & Co. KG. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    12. ↑ "Helga Hahnemann". Germering: Deutsche Synchronkartei. 1 September 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    13. ↑ "Helga Hahnemann DDR-Ulknudel mit dem großen Herzen starb vor 26 Jahren" [Helga Hahnemann, East German comedian with a big heart, died 26 years ago] (in German). Halle (Saale): Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung GmbH. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    14. ↑ Michael Gabel (22 May 2014). "Mehrheit will Hahnemann-Haus behalten" [Majority wants to keep Hahnemann House] (in German). Märkisches Medienhaus GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt (Oder). Retrieved 12 September 2020. The article is topped by a photograph from the same angle as that accompanying this article, but taken nine years later.
    15. ↑ "Eine Straße für Helga Hahnemann" [A Street for Helga Hahnemann] (in German). Berlin: Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH. 4 August 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2020. Ab 24. September soll ein Weg am Tacheles nach der Entertainerin benannt werden
    16. ↑ "Helga-Hahnemann-Straße in Schönefeld" (in German). Das Straßenverzeichnis für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz. Retrieved 11 September 2020. Die Straße Helga-Hahnemann-Straße liegt in Schönefeld (Brandenburg).
    17. ↑ Heinz Walliser. "Helga Hahnemann, 8.9.1937-20.11.1991" (in German). Veltheim: Heinz Walliser. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.