Hermann Hoffmann (radio presenter)

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Hermann Hoffmann (born February 22, 1928 in Heilbronn as Johann Heinrich Hoffmann ; † April 8, 1997 ) was a German radio presenter , musician and comedian . Some call him the "forefather of German radio comedy ".

Life

Hoffmann made his first attempts as a "radio operator " at the age of 16 as a naval helper . As a radio operator of an anti-aircraft battery, he misappropriated frequencies to send greetings to his buddies. After the war he began studying music in Detmold . Two years later he was Kapellmeister and répétiteur at the State Theater in Oldenburg . In the mid-1950s, Hoffmann founded a pirate station called Sender Lemon , after an attempt to start at Norddeutscher Rundfunk had failed . From his attic in Cellehe sent in 1955 for months black his radio program until he finally from the post pinpointed was and covered with ban and a fine.

After the police shut down the pirate station , Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) broadcast Hoffmann's first official broadcast: On December 29, 1962, the first episode of the Dachkammer-Musik was broadcast. The program remained an integral part of the WDR program until the early 1980s. After moving to Burgdorf near Hanover in 1967 , Hoffmann set up a recording studio in which, in addition to attic music , programs such as weekend entertainment , lemon channels and various records were recorded.

Hoffmann embodied several speaking roles in his attic music : The easily irritable East Frisian Otto de Vries, the good-natured Swabian Pankratius Schräuble, the East Prussian landlord Caesar Schlotterbeck and many other characters as well as Hoffmann himself as boss played "together" every 14 days on Saturdays at 5 p.m. 45 o'clock in the WDR program. At the same time, Hoffmann exposed himself in the intro, where he presented all the tasks at a speed that increased until it was incomprehensible - done by Hermann Hoffmann. In total, Hoffmann's Dachkammer-Musik had almost 600 episodes of 15 minutes each. Everything was spoken, composed, played and edited by himself in painstaking detail - without computers , which were not used in audio production at the time.

Similar sound tricks were used in the lemon broadcast station . Illustrious guests from politics, show and television were “invited” by tape recordings and many a word was twisted in their mouths using trick technology. Whether Erich Honecker , Franz Josef Strauss or Karl-Heinz Köpcke - they were all allowed to tell nonsense, stutter or even “sing” in this program. The program was garnished with pieces of music (mostly jazz or hit songs ), small sections and numerous jokes. Hoffmann's son Thomas and his wife Renate helped in small speaking roles. Every month on Tuesdays at 9:15 p.m. he broadcast such a 45-minute show.

Hermann Hoffmann also created a number of parodies of well-known pieces of music. Contemporary hits have been repackaged, sawn up and reassembled or re-recorded. Georg Bungter , then WDR editor, sketched many of the text interpretations, Hoffmann put everything together. Since it has been from the dance Samba with me Fry eggs with me , and as the largest hit proved the textualization the wind hits The Floral Dance to Schwups Papa hand is back .

Due to the various upheavals in the radio landscape, the broadcasts were initially repeated on WDR in the early 1980s and then canceled entirely; it grew quieter around Hoffmann. Since October 1983, he has been producing the program Polit-Klimbim for the satirical broadcasting shredder of the NDR , which broadcast 649 episodes. In 1990 he also produced for television for Extra Drei . He was a permanent employee of the radio trade fair journal of the NDR Hanover. He was also active as a record producer, in the video sector and in advertising. In the mid-1990s, he tried to get himself talking again with a promotional CD with short sketches from his well-known attic room, which was sent to all radio stations in Germany ; Despite positive feedback, there were no long-term commitments. In Hoffmann's opinion, the days of sophisticated switch-on radio with long verbal contributions were over: “In the fifties and sixties, the radio was still the focus. We turned it on to hear radio plays . Then we sat in a circle and listened intently. Television has long since taken over this function. Nowadays, nobody turns on the radio for a particular program. ”His prognosis should come true:“ At some point there will only be car radio. People just don't want to concentrate on listening to the radio anymore. That is probably a question of generations. "( Freundeskreis Hermann Hoffmanns" Sender Lemon "eV )

A large part of the recordings and the studio technology was loaned to the company Voxx Gesellschaft für Marketing und Beratung mbH after Hoffmann's death in Hamburg . Hoffmann fans have also viewed and edited their old radio recordings for years. Cataloging and processing of the estate using digitally recorded and processed original tapes was about to be completed in 2008.

From May 6 to June 17, 2007 there was an extensive exhibition in the Burgdorf City Museum about the life and work of Hermann Hoffmann (title: “You dare to do something - from the wave strollers from the attic”). The visitors were also presented with various types of audio samples. The exhibition was completed by an extensive booklet (called “Chronicle”) and a first double CD with selected titles.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death, from April 8 to June 5, 2017, the Burgdorf City Museum once again presented an exhibition on Hoffmann's life and work (“Attention, recording - from the life of a wave traveler”). On this date, the author Rüdiger Borrmann had further revised the former chronicle and brought out a book entitled Radio Comedy from the Attic . It contains a detailed discography, detailed considerations of various programs and parodies as well as other sections of Hermann Hoffmann's life's work.

Overview of programs and parodies

broadcasts

  • Here transmitter lemon
  • A little attic music
  • The WDR Shit Parade
  • Political clutter

Parodies (selection)

Discography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CV
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Johann Heinrich (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German radio presenter, musician and comedian
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1997