Gero Hammer

Gero Hammer (born February 26, 1933 in Stettin ) is a German dramaturge and was director of the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam for 20 years . In addition, he was a functionary of the GDR block party NDPD and a member of the People's Chamber for them. After German reunification , he was the founding director of the Nordharzer Städtebundtheater from 1991 to 1999 .

Life

Working in the GDR

Hammer was born on April 26, 1933 in Stettin, Pomerania, the son of an engineer. After the end of the war, his family fled to the Soviet occupation zone, where he attended high school and graduated from high school in 1951. At the age of 16, Hammer joined the FDJ and in 1951 at the age of eighteen he became a member of the NDPD. After graduating from high school, Hammer was admitted to study at the HUB and studied German and theater studies until 1954. He obtained a diploma as a philologist. In 1955 he found a job as chief dramaturge at the stages of the city of Zwickau , in 1960 he followed a call to the Cottbus Theater , where he worked as chief dramaturge until 1962. In terms of party politics, Hammer first appeared in 1956 as a member of the NDPD district committee in Zwickau-Stadt, of which he remained until he moved to Cottbus. After his time in Cottbus, he returned to Berlin, where he initially worked from 1962 to 1966 in the Ministry of Culture under Minister Hans Bentzien as deputy head of the theater department. Hammer then moved to the Volksbühne Berlin for 3 years , where he replaced Eva Zapf as chief dramaturge and was deputy director under Karl Holan . During this time in Berlin, Hammer's career in the NDPD also developed. First he became a member of the main committee of his party, in 1967 the NDPD appointed the ministry employee for the Volkskammer elections. He performed both functions until the NDPD was dissolved in 1990. With the engagement of Benno Besson as director and Karl-Heinz Müller as the new chief dramaturge, Hammer's time at the Volksbühne ended on August 1, 1969. He initially moved back to the Ministry of Culture, where he worked as a research assistant until the summer of 1971. In June of the same year, Hammer was announced as the new artistic director of the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam . He replaced Peter Kupke . As a result, Hammer headed the theater for 20 years until 1991. He is the longest-serving director of the Potsdam venue to this day (2016). Hammer's directorship was shaped by new building plans throughout his life, but these were repeatedly postponed. In 1989 he was able to experience the groundbreaking for a new venue, but the shell was demolished again in 1991. During the time of political change in the GDR, Hammer briefly reappeared nationwide. At the 14th party congress of the NDPD in January 1990, he stood as one of four candidates for the chairmanship of the party for election. Hammer failed but was re-elected to the party's main committee. After the NDPD was absorbed into the Bund Free Democrats at the end of March 1990 , Hammer was a member of its party executive. In the coalition negotiations for the de Maizière government , Hammer was proposed by the BFD for the office of Minister of Culture, but not considered. In terms of cultural policy, Hammer had already distinguished himself from January 1990 by vehemently advocating the continued existence of the artistic structures of the GDR in discussions with the Ministry of Culture. These efforts resulted in the founding of the German Theater Federation of the GDR eV in March 1990 , and Hammer was elected President. At the end of May 1990, Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere appointed the theater manager Hammer to succeed the controversial Hans Bentzien as general manager of the re-established German television and radio stations in the GDR. However, on the grounds that he was alien to the industry as a theater man and his political functions, the Media Control Council rejected Hammer.

Working in the Federal Republic

In the course of the discussion about the preservation and new building of the Potsdam theater, in which Hammer got involved, he was relieved of his position as director on September 5, 1990 by the Potsdam magistrate. According to the then City Councilor for Culture Saskia Hüneke, it was a "necessary decision of a fundamentally political nature. This decision would be in connection with the recall of old professional cadres in other areas such as education, which were intertwined with the old system of rule". Hammer learned of this decision from the newspaper and protested by letter to the Lord Mayor of Potsdam. Shortly afterwards, the Potsdam city council refused to approve the resolution, so that Hammer remained artistic director in Potsdam until the end of his employment contract on July 31, 1991. In September 1991 he moved to Halberstadt , where he became director of the Nordharzer Städtebundtheater with stages in Halberstadt, Quedlinburg and Ballenstedt . In 1999 Hammer retired, he was replaced by Kay Metzger . However, Hammer continued to be politically active. He founded the "Voters' Association Citizens of Our District Without a Party Book" (BUKO) and was part of the Halberstadt City Council for this voter association.

literature

• Biographical manual of the SBZ / GDR: Hammer, Gero, p. 2. Digital library, Volume 32: Enzyklopädie der DDR, p. 12404

Web links

• Gero Hammer in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)