Hellmut Stern

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Hellmut Stern shows the location of Harbin on a world map (2011)

Hellmut Stern (born May 21, 1928 in Berlin ; † March 21, 2020 there ) was a German violinist , member of the Berliner Philharmoniker and author .

Life

Hellmut Stern was born in 1928 in Berlin-Friedenau as the son of Jewish parents, father a singing teacher, mother pianist . As a child he witnessed the pogroms of November 1938 in Berlin, fled with his parents about wrong turns up to Harbin , where he the racial madness of extreme poverty Nazis survived. As a pianist and violinist, he helped keep his family afloat during the eleven years of exile in Manchuria . He played in bars, nightclubs and hotels until 1949 it was possible to travel to Israel . As a bar pianist in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem , he met his famous namesake Isaac Stern in 1951 , who paved the way for him to join the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv . Stern finally returned to Berlin in 1961 through musical stations in well-known orchestras in St. Louis and New York. Subsequently he was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for 34 years, where he worked as first violinist, orchestra director and concertmaster with all leading conductors of his time, mainly Herbert von Karajan .

During the time he was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, Stern also took part in a large number of record productions, mainly under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. He appeared as a soloist in numerous concerts, for example in 1982 at the "humorous festival concert" for the 100th birthday of the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Vicco von Bülow ( Loriot ). Because of his outstanding services as director of the orchestra and concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993 by the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker . Stern, who had both German and Israeli citizenship, experienced the high point of his career in 1990: after Karajan's death he initiated the Berlin Philharmonic 's first Israel tour under the baton of Daniel Barenboim as the orchestra director .

At the suggestion of State Opera Director a. D. Hans Pischner and President KS Heiko Reissig , Hellmut Stern was made a full honorary member of the European Cultural Workshop (EKW) Berlin-Vienna in 2008.

After his active musical career, he published his autobiography Saitensprünge , about which the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “Stern fills this framework of an adventurous résumé with dangerous, happy or touching events.” In 2007, the audio book Because I'm at home all over the world (Author David Dambitsch), in which Hellmut Stern can be heard together with his friend Daniel Barenboim. Even in his old age, Stern went on highly regarded lecture tours at home and abroad as a contemporary witness. He died in Berlin in March 2020 at the age of 91.

Works

  • String jumps - memories of a passionate cosmopolitan. Construction Verlag, Berlin 2000. ISBN 978-3-7466-1684-1 .
  • Because I am at home all over the world - David Dambitsch - audio book. Airplay-Entertainment, 2007. ISBN 978-3-935168-64-9 .

literature

  • Berliner Philharmoniker: Variations with Orchestra - 125 Years of the Berliner Philharmoniker , Volume 2, biographies and concerts. Verlag Henschel, May 2007, ISBN 978-3-89487-568-8
  • Wolfgang Benz : German Jews in the 20th Century: A History in Portraits . Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62292-2 , therein: Philharmonic and contemporary witness: Hellmut Stern , pp. 290-298

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christiane Peitz: The music-making world citizen. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 22, 2020, accessed March 22, 2020 .
  2. ↑ The dates of life come largely from Stern's autobiography: Saitensprünge - memories of a passionate cosmopolitan , passim.
  3. ↑ Photo with Isaac and Hellmut Stern: Saitensprünge - memories of a passionate cosmopolitan , p. 153.
  4. ↑ On the sometimes problematic collaboration between Stern and Karajan see: "You pay for Mr. von Karajan ..." In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1988, pp. 204-221 ( Online - Mar. 28, 1988 ).
  5. ↑ Note: Because of Karajan's controversial role in National Socialism, traveling with him as chief conductor would have been impossible. Karsten Kammholz: The man who entered the NSDAP twice. In: The world . January 26, 2008, accessed April 18, 2019 .
  6. ↑ On the occasion of 125 years of the Berlin Philharmonic, Hellmut Stern spoke on December 17, 2007 about the orchestra's historic trip to Israel in April 1990. In: digberlin.de . December 2, 2007, accessed March 22, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Because I am at home all over the world - David Dambitsch - audio book. Airplay entertainment, 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Stern, Hellmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German violinist and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 2020
Place of death Berlin