Gerda Herrmann (June 30, 1931 The article mentions that the premiere of the film "The Songwriter of Botnang" on June 29, 2019 was held the day before Gerda Herrmann's 88th birthday in Cannstatt – † April 15, 2021) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and poet. She had been living in

Botnang Botnang (formerly ''Bothnang'') is a borough of the City of Stuttgart and lies between Feuerbach, Stuttgart-West and Vaihingen. Geography Botnang is almost entirely surrounded by woodland and lies in the hills to the west of Stuttgart. The ce ...

since the 1960s and wrote more than 400 songs, setting to music both her own and other authors' lyrics. Many of her songs have been performed at 12 benefit concerts (as of 2019).

Life and work

Gerda Herrmann received piano lessons for almost three years from 1941-1943, until her school was evacuated to Metzingen due to aerial bombings. From then on, she played the piano without receiving further lessons. Her father was an association auditor. After he was denounced to authorities, he was drafted into the German army and fell in 1944 as a soldier. In July 1944, Herrmann was in Stuttgart and at 13 years old witnessed the heavy bombings of the city and their aftermath. In 1972, Herrmann wrote her first poem, when she was asked to write one for a service held at Friendenskirche Stuttgart in support of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. In 1984, Gerda Herrmann wrote her first composition titled "Elegie". Since then, she set texts by many authors to music, among them Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Joachim Ringelnatz, Arthur Schnitzler and Walther von der Vogelweide. In 2013, Herrmann set to music a love poem that her father had written into his diary in 1923. She remained active until the end, and in her last press interview published one week before her death in April 2021, Herrmann talked about the most recent song she was working on. Herrmann herself described her style as "not modern", but "most likely to be classified as belonging to the romantic period". Additionally, her style became more simple in her old age, which she attributed to Angelus Silesius' quote "Human, focus on the essence". Herrmann regarded her song that sets Rilke's poem "Der Panther" to music as her favorite of her own songs. So far, many of Herrmann's songs have been performed at 12 benefit concerts in favor of various societies and organisations. The first concert took place in 1991 at Schloss Solitude. On June 29, 2019, the documentary film ''

The Songwriter of Botnang ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' by Alexander Tuschinski had its world premiere at Delphi Arthaus Kino in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. It addresses Herrmann's life and oeuvre. The following year, the film had its US premiere screening in competition at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and was additionally screened in competition at Berlin Independent Film Festival. The film additionally won a "Bronze Remi Award" at WorldFest in Houston, 2020.

Encouraging creative writing by young people

From 2003, until her death, Gerda Herrman was a founding member as well as deputy chairwoman of the Förderkreis Kreatives Schreiben und Musik, which publishes anthologies featuring texts by young people. The first anthology was published already before founding of the society, using parts of the proceeds from a benefit concert that showcased some of Herrmann's songs in the white hall of the New Palace in Stuttgart in 1999. The anthologies have been accepted to be recorded in the archive for children's texts of

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

and contain texts of different genres and styles. In 2010, a poem by Ingeborg Wenger from the anthology "ÜberBrücken" was displayed as part of the program "Lyrik Unterwegs" inside metro trains in Stuttgart. Herrmann set several poems from these anthologies to music.Anthologie "Nennenswertes" liegt frisch gedruckt vor, Botnanger Anzeiger 07/2011, p. 22.

Further commitments

Additionally, from 1968 until the birth of her third child in 1972, Herrmann committed for

and regards Amnesty's work as "important". She was a founding member of

Group 49 A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

References

External links

*
UK Film Review: Interview with Gerda Herrmann and Alexander Tuschinski
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Gerda 1931 births 2021 deaths 20th-century German composers 20th-century German poets German women composers German women poets Musicians from Stuttgart