Hans Reimer Steffen

Hans Reimer Steffen (born April 25, 1897 in Hamburg ; † December 29, 1950 there ) was a German newspaper editor and author of humorous Hamburg dialect stories . In northern Germany known to elders and dialect friends under the pseudonym Hans ut Hamm . He derived the alias from his later place of residence Hamburg-Hamm .

life and work

After the First World War , where he fought as a soldier at the front in Romania , he worked as a sports journalist for the Hamburg tourist paper . He became known and loved by readers for his column in Hamburgisch ( Low German , Missingsch ) with funny and hearty anecdotes , glosses and chats ( Döntjes ), which he often rounded off with an original poem. The popular chats soon became popular beyond the borders of Hamburg, and Steffen had them published in book form through Broschek-Verlag , illustrated by Heinrich von Medvey :

Hans ut Hamm vertellt (1934), Hummel Hummel (1934), Hamborg laughs (1935), St. Pauli ahoi (1936), Hummels op Reisen (1938).

In May 1933 Steffen joined the NSDAP . His staunch Nazi sentiments are expressed in frequent, casual praise of party organizations and “the Führer ” in many of his apparently apolitical, humorous contributions. His book “Here the front laughs. Funny things from the front and from home ” from 1940, which was also published as a field post edition, tells stories and anecdotes from the First World War in Hamburger Platt. In 1943 Steffen was bombed out and moved into accommodation in Hamburg-Blankenese. From 1944 until the end of the war, he misused his popularity for perseverance slogans written in Low German for the Hamburger Zeitung .

After the war, Steffen worked again as a newspaper man and, like many of his Nazi colleagues, showed little shame and restraint. In October 1946 an article by Hans ut Hamm appeared in the Free Press . He said he had to use the formerly good sound of his name to shake up Hamburgers in the old jargon, not to complain, but to hope for better times again. But this time there was criticism from the newspaper competition, which was reminded of Steffen's inglorious Nazi propaganda . Steffen withdrew and published no more journalistic than Hans ut Hamm .

Works

• “Around the Jungfernstieg. A water-edged book with Hummel-Hummel and humor ” , Richard Hermes Verlag, 1946
• Hilarious critters , poems and verses. Richard Hermes Verlag, 1953

literature

• Christian Sonntag, media careers. Biographical studies on post-war journalists from Hamburg 1946-1949 , Munich (Meidenbauer) 2006

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Reimer Steffen in the catalog of the German National Library