Helmut Calgéer

Grave of Helmut Calgéer, Tübingen, Bergfriedhof

Helmut Calgéer (born July 5, 1922 in Hindenburg in Upper Silesia , † April 17, 2010 in Tübingen ) was a German musician , music teacher and conductor .

Live and act

After serving as a fighter pilot in World War II, Helmut Calgéer completed an apprenticeship at the University of Education in Weilburg , and received his teacher's exam. He then studied school music in Trossingen and German studies in Tübingen . In 1951, he founded the cultural department of the General Student Committee ( AStA ) in Tübingen , which in the 1970s became a joint institution for the university, city and museum society and which headed Calgéer for more than 50 years.

Calgéer took great care of the musical promotion of young people: As a study assessor in Horb am Neckar , he founded the youth music school there, as well as a salon orchestra as part of the music association. In 1955 he became a German and music teacher at the Kepler grammar school in Tübingen . After a few years, many of the then almost 600 students learned one or more instruments. The school had a symphony and two wind orchestras alongside other ensembles.

In the same year he founded the youth education center within the adult education center in Tübingen. That was considered to be the decisive impetus for the establishment of the Tübingen music school. For more than five decades, Calgéer was the honorary director of this institution, which had only been officially called the Music School since 1976 and was converted into the Tübingen Music School eV in 1978.

In 1957 he founded the Tübingen Chamber Orchestra with the intention of establishing friendly relationships with foreign universities and youth organizations and maintaining and deepening them in mutual exchange. Calgéer was considered to be a bridge builder between countries and cultures. Above all, he was a pioneer of Franco-German reconciliation, musical mediator between countries that were once hostile to one another. He was one of the leading personalities in the cultural exchange with Tübingen's twin city Aix-en-Provence .

Merits

He was President of the State Music Council of Baden-Württemberg , which he co-founded and which he also represented at the federal level for a long time. In addition, he chaired 17 boards of trustees and committees and oversaw ten national musical ensembles, for which he organized countless tours: including "his" Tübingen Chamber Orchestra, with which he traveled as leader and conductor for decades through over 90 countries on 5 continents. He was considered an outstanding cultural ambassador for Tübingen.

Awards

Calgéer received numerous honors for his services to the promotion of youth music and youth music education:

• Tübingen Citizen Medal (1974)
• Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (1975)
• Federal Cross of Merit, First Class (1982)
• University medal in silver from the University of Tübingen (1992)
• Large Gold Staufer Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg (2005)
• Honorary Citizen of Tübingen (2007)

He found his final resting place in the Tübingen mountain cemetery . Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer said in his obituary that Helmut Calgéer shaped Tübingen's cultural life for over 50 years like no other personality. According to Palmer, the Tübingen music school remains his great legacy to be nurtured.

Web links

• Awarded honorary citizenship to Professor Helmut Calgéer ( Memento from November 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) University City of Tübingen.
• Large Staufer Medal in Gold "for Helmut Calgéer Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg, administrative reform department.
• Kepi-Ade, honorary citizen for Helmut Calgeer , Kepler-Gymnasium Tübingen.