Hartmut Geerken (15 January 1939 – 21 October 2021) was a German musician, composer, writer, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker.

Life

Geerken was born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, read

oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

, philosophy, German studies and

comparative religion Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including human migration, migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study ...

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, and produced a dissertation on

Hellmut Ritter Hellmut Ritter (27 February 1892 – 19 May 1971) was a leading German Orientalist specializing in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and an authority on Sufi ritual and mystical beliefs. Biography The son of a Protestant minister, his brothers were ...

. He gave German language courses in Turkey for the first Turkish

guest workers Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

planning to go to Germany. As an employee at the

Goethe Institute The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

, he lived in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

from 1966 to 1972, in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

from 1972 to 1979, and in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

from 1979 to 1983. Geerken later lived in the village of Wartaweil, a subdivision of

Herrsching am Ammersee Herrsching am Ammersee is a municipality in Upper Bavaria, Germany, on the east shore of the Ammersee, southwest of Munich. The population is around 8,000 in winter, increasing to 13,000 in summer. Situated at one terminus of the Munich S-Bahn li ...

, where he died on 21 October 2021, at the age of 82.

Achievements

Geerken was an artist and arts organizer. As a percussionist, he has collaborated with a variety of

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

musicians such as

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

John Tchicai John Martin Tchicai ( ; 28 April 1936 – 8 October 2012) was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer. Biography Tchicai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father. The family moved to Aarhus, where he s ...

Sainkho Namtchylak Sainkho Namtchylak (, , born 1957) is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She has been resident in Vienna, Austria since 1991. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing (khöö ...

. As a poet, he was a practitioner of

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

and organized events such as the annual

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

New Poetry Colloquium. As an actor, he appeared in six films by

Herbert Achternbusch Herbert Achternbusch ( Schild; 23 November 1938 – 10 January 2022) was a German film director, writer and painter. He began as a writer of avant-garde prose, such as the novel ''Die Alexanderschlacht'', before turning to low-budget films. He h ...

and appeared in two of Achternbusch's plays at the

Munich Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstraße (Munich), Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three ...

. From 1991 to 1992, he held the Chair of Poetics at the

Folkwang Hochschule The Folkwang University of the Arts is a university for music, theater, dance, design, and academic studies, located in four German cities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 1927, its traditional main location has been in the former Werden Abbey in ...

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

. Geerken was also dedicated to the memory of the German literati Anselm Ruest. When he was on the trail of the estate of Victor Hadwiger, Geerken investigated an uninhabited house in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he instead found parts of the estate of Ruest, who had died in 1943. Ruest was, along with Mynona, editor of the Stirnerite journal ''Der Einzige'', which was published in a small edition from 1919 to 1925. From the funds of the estate, Geerken found it was possible to reprint a complete set of ''Der Einzige'', which was published in 1980. In 1979, while living in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, Geerken made a study of the

ethnomycology Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology. Although in theory the term includes fungi used for such purposes as tinder, medicine ( medicinal ...

of the areas of the country which he visited, co-authoring two papers on the topic. In the second paper, he describes his discovery of a tradition involving the recreational use of the psychoactive mushroom ''

Amanita muscaria ''Amanita muscaria'', commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete fungus of the genus ''Amanita''. It is a large white-lamella (mycology), gilled, white-spotted mushroom typically featuring a bright red cap covered with ...

'' among the Parachi-speaking people of the Shutul Valley. In the short paper, Geerken's Shutuli informants describe to him how they find solace from the tedium of the long and bitter winters of the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central Asia, Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the wester ...

in the bizarre visions caused by the mushroom, one man believing himself transformed into a tree.Original publication: Mochtar G. Said & Hartmut Geerken, 1979, Die halluzinogene Muscarin un Ibotensäure im Mittleren Hindukusch: ein Beitrag zur volkheilpraktischen Mykologie, ''Afghanistan Journal'', 6: 62-65.

Awards

Munich Literature Year (1984), Schubart Literary Prize (1986), Karl Sczuka Prize for Works of Radio Art: "südwärts, südwärts" (BR 1989) and "hexenring" (BR 1994).

Major works

* Book publications include "murmel gedichte" (1965), "verschiebungen" (1972), "sprünge nach rosa hin" (1981), "poststempel jerusalem" (1993), "kant" (1998), "ogygia: vom ende des südens" (2004), "phos" (2005), "forschungen etc.'" (2006), "klafti" (2007), "kyrill" (2007), "soyd" (2008), "moos" (2008). * Co-editor of the series "Frühe Texte der Moderne". Editor of the works of

Salomo Friedlaender Salomo Friedlaender (4 May 1871 – 9 September 1946) was a German-Jewish philosopher, poet, satirist and author of grotesque and fantastic literature. He published his literary work under the pseudonym Mynona, which is "''anonym''", the German wo ...

, of various articles from

expressionists Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

dadaists Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had ...

, and

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

from the first half of the 20th century, and the German biographer of

on "Omniverse Sun Ra", with Chris Trent (1994). * Compositions, installations, albums, films, and

radio plays Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

References

Hartmut Geerken: Bio
''HartmutGeerken.de''. (German)

External links

*

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Geerken, Hartmut 1939 births 2021 deaths Musicians from Stuttgart People from Starnberg (district) German poets German radio writers German travel writers German orientalists German jazz musicians German percussionists Free jazz percussionists 20th-century German classical composers 21st-century German classical composers German film score composers German male film score composers German male film actors German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 21st-century German dramatists and playwrights German male non-fiction writers 20th-century German male musicians 21st-century German male musicians German male jazz musicians Writers from Stuttgart