Helmut Roloff
Helmut Roloff (born October 9, 1912 in Gießen ; † September 29, 2001 in Berlin ) was a pianist , university professor and, between 1970 and 1978, managing director at the Hochschule für Musik (HfM) Berlin (since 1975 Berlin University of the Arts , Faculty 3) .
Life
His father was the contemporary historian Gustav Roloff . Helmut did his Abitur at the Landgraf-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Giessen . He then studied law in Leipzig and Gießen and in 1935 got a position as a court trainee in Butzbach . However, he then decided to turn his hobby into a profession and began studying at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin (HfM) with Richard Rössler as a concert pianist . In 1938 he took private lessons with the pianist Wladimir Horbowski in Berlin.
Through his friends John Graudenz and Helmut Himpel , the cooperation with the resistance group Rote Kapelle came about . Roloff received a suitcase with a short-wave transmitter from Himpel, which he hid behind a piano in his parents' apartment in Berlin. On September 17, 1942, the house was searched and the Gestapo found the suitcase. Although Roloff was able to clearly state that he thought the contents of the case was a musical instrument, he was arrested. The Gestapo people took him to their headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse for interrogation , where he remained in the basement for two weeks with his hands tied behind his back. During his interrogations he insisted that he did not know what was in the suitcase and the Gestapo could not prove that he was complicit, participated in sticky notes or that he was an active member of the Red Orchestra. He was transferred to the military prison in Spandau and surprisingly released from prison on January 26, 1943.
In 1945, after the end of the war, Roloff received an appointment to the re-established HfM, where he was appointed professor in 1950 and full professor in 1953.
From 1969 he was initially deputy director of the HfM and since 1970 managing director. He retired on April 1, 1978.
Roloff recorded a number of records for Deutsche Grammophon . He worked as a concert pianist and piano teacher throughout his life.
His son Stefan Roloff began in 1999 with an intensive examination of his father's history of resistance. His son Johannes Roloff is also a pianist, his son Ulrich Roloff a flutist.
literature
- Christine Fischer-Defoy : ART MAKES POLITICS. The Nazification of the art and music colleges in Berlin. (P. 298), University of the Arts, Press and Information Center, Berlin 1996 (license from Elefanten-Press-Verlag), ISBN 3-89462-048-X .
- Gert Rosiejka: The Red Orchestra , "treason" as an anti-fascist resistance. results-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0 .
- Stefan Roloff : The Red Chapel. The resistance group in the Third Reich and the history of Helmut Roloff. Ullstein-Verlag, Berlin 2004 ISBN 3-548-36669-4 .
Web links
- zdf.de on the last interview with Helmut Roloff ( Memento from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- place of birth
Individual evidence
- ↑ See obituaries in the Berliner Morgenpost and Der Tagesspiegel of October 14, 2001.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Roloff, Helmut |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German musician, pianist, resistance fighter of the Red Orchestra |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 9, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | to water |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 29, 2001 |
| Place of death | Berlin |