Evelin Forster

Evelin Förster (* 1955 in Altenburg ) is a German chanson interpreter and author. The main focus of her work is on the connection between art and science in exile, genealogy and provenance research, with a particular focus on composers and authors in the field of entertainment art of the early 20th century (1901–1938).

In her artistic work, she combines her presentation of songs, chansons and texts with contemporary images (illustrations, title pages and preferably photographs) and, if necessary, recordings with original sounds to create multimedia collages.

Förster lives and works in Berlin, and has been married to the photo historian Enno Kaufhold since 2015 .

Life

As a child, Evelin Förster took professional singing, dance and ballet lessons and had her first engagements at the Altenburg State Theater . She continued her artistic training by studying at the State Ballet School in Leipzig, which included a seminar with Gret Palucca . She completed her vocal training at the Leipzig Music School. This was followed by postgraduate studies at the "Hanns Eisler" University of Music in Berlin with Ruth Hohmann .

Förster has been a freelance singer and actress since 1980. In 1988 she sat in with Frank Castorf at the Deutsches Theater Berlin . After moving from East to West Berlin, she had an engagement as a singer, dancer and actress at the Werkheater Wedding from 1989 to 1991. This was followed by radio and television appearances (e.g. Das kleine Fernsehspiel and Praxis Bülowbogen ).

The focus of her artistic activity today is on musical and literary solo programs, with which Förster is a regular guest in museums (including Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Academy of the Arts Berlin, Museum Flensburg, German Exile Archive 1933–1945 of the German National Library Frankfurt / Leipzig).

Exile, genealogy and provenance research

Since 1999 Förster has been researching mostly forgotten composers and authors in the field of entertainment art between 1901 and 1938. This includes researching the biographies of artists and authors in the field of popular music (chansons, hits, film hits, etc.), which, due to their Jewish faith had to leave Germany from 1933, were deported and murdered in the concentration camps.

One of the projects that emerged in the course of this research is The Woman in the Dark - A Search for Traces, from which, among other things, a book was published.

For her research work, Förster has received various grants and grants (including from the Else Heiliger Fund of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation). There are specialist collaborations, for example, with Alan Lareau, Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literatures, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

In the course of her research work, the multimedia collage "Land of Smiles" or "It's getting better again" was created in 2013 for the Berlin theme year Destroyed Diversity . Unwanted artists in the spotlight.

The research project The Woman in the Dark - A Search for Traces

Förster's most extensive research to date is The Woman in the Dark - A Search for Traces.

As part of her research, Förster succeeded in locating mostly forgotten female composers and authors who worked in the fields of chanson, film and entertainment between 1901 and 1935. Some had worked under male pseudonyms or had to emigrate because of their Jewish beliefs. Each of them enriched the then unparalleled cultural life in Berlin in their own way. The project Die Frau im Dunkeln is named after an operetta written in 1920, the lyrics of which were written by Eddy Beuth . For the first time information on the life and work of Eddy Beuth could be determined.

Another merit of the research work is the transfer of the estate of Henry Love from London to the exile archive of the German National Library (kuenste-im-exil.de).

The results of the project were published in various forms. The result is a book, an audio book and a sheet music collection. In addition, the results were made available to a wide audience in lectures, musical solo programs and staged readings.

Due to her years of research, Förster has her own extensive sheet music archive with titles from 1901 onwards.

Teaching

Förster held various teaching positions, including at the Humboldt University in Berlin as well as seminars and block seminars at the University of Warsaw, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Publications (selection)

• The woman in the dark: authors and composers of cabaret and entertainment from 1901 to 1935. A cultural history. With articles by Anja Köhler, Jörg Engelhardt. Edition Braus, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-86228-057-5
• together with Enno Kaufhold: Yes, yes on the beach… - bathing culture on the Baltic Sea from 1900 to 1939. Edition Braus, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86228-090-2 .
• The song of society. SchlagerChansons from 1915–1935. 1111122369
• Oh, the guys ... chansons about love from the twenties. 355448564

Web links

• Evelin Förster , website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sabrina Schleicher: Chansons in the museum. Evelin Förster sings about art. In: Kunstzeitung 185, January 2012, p. 17. PDF accessed on June 27, 2017.
2. ↑ Program in the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne (PDF, 44 kB) ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 26, 2017. 
3. ↑ Press article on the museum program
4. ↑ Evelin Förster - Venues. Evelin Förster website, accessed on July 25, 2017.
5. ↑ Dr. Alan Lareau - entry at uwosh.edu, accessed July 18, 2017.
6. ↑ German Historical Museum Berlin:Destroyed diversity. Berlin 1933-1938. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
7. ↑ Cornelia Göksu: Eddy Beuth . In: Hamburg women's biographies database. Retrieved July 25, 12017.
8. ^ Lexicon of persecuted musicians during the Nazi era: Eddy Beuth , accessed on June 27, 2017.
9. ↑ Brita Eckert: The old song. In: Dialog mit Libraries , Volume 18, 2006, No. 2, pp. 32–36. ( Available as PDF , accessed July 26, 2017)
10. ^ Henry Love in the Exile Archive , accessed July 26, 2017.
11. ^ Voices on arts in exile: Evelin Foerster. In: German National Library, published December 20, 2013, accessed June 27, 2017.
12. ↑ Ursula Daalmann: speaking time with Evelin Förster ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: WDR 5 - Curiosity is sufficient (interview, 26:46 min), published on July 29, 2016, accessed on July 24, 2017.  
13. ↑ Reinhard Hübsch: Between Eros and Hygiene. A dive through 2000 years of bathing culture. In: SWR Online, published on September 2, 2014, accessed on June 27, 2017.