Hugo Sieker

Hugo Sieker (born February 7, 1903 in Elmshorn ; † June 8, 1979 in Hamburg ) was a German journalist , writer and publicist . He was the chief editor of the feature pages at Hamburger Anzeiger and the Hamburger Freie Presse as well as curator of the Ernst-Barlach-Haus .

Life

Sieker was the son of a wood turner and later always confessed to his proletarian origins. At elementary school, the reform pedagogues Adolf Jensen and Wilhelm Lamszus had a formative influence on the pupil. Sieker completed an apprenticeship in shipbuilding and worked at a shipyard before a vacancy enabled him to attend the Altona School of Applied Arts for two years while he earned his living as a stoker and painter .

Sieker took his first journalistic steps in the editorial team of the magazine Junge Menschen , published by Walter Hammer , where he met Erich Lüth in 1921 . Hans W. Fischer , the head of the feature pages of the Neue Hamburger Zeitung , commissioned the two young journalists with regular reviews and criticisms in his paper until it was discontinued in 1923. Then Paul Theodor Hoffmann assigned them to the feature sections of the Hamburger Anzeiger , Sieker took over the dance criticism. In addition, he wrote journalistic articles for the Free Proletarian Youth , Hamburger Echo , Altonaer Nachrichten and NORAG .

Due to his work for left-wing media, Sieker was watched with suspicion during the Nazi regime and interrogated by the Gestapo in 1933 . Nevertheless , a “cultural work in the spirit of resistance” emerged in the feature section of the Hamburger Anzeiger , initially under Wolf Schramm, from 1939 under the direction of Sieker, as Sieker called a retrospective essay in 1958. The technique of writing between the lines was used, they kept to ostracized artists such as Ernst Barlach and Friedrich Wield , had the Jewish writer Harry Reuss-Löwenstein write articles, first under his real name, then under a pseudonym, and also Sieker's teacher Jensen and Lanszus published under a pseudonym. The tightrope walk between adaptation and resistance succeeded until September 1944, when the Hamburger Anzeiger ceased its publication. Sieker was drafted into the Second World War, where he was deployed in the Emsland and interned by the English army.

From 1946 onwards, the Hamburger Freie Presse became the successor to the Hamburger Anzeiger , in which Sieker again took over the position of head of the features section and, with the staff of the former editors of the Anzeiger, ensured continuity in terms of personnel and content compared to the liberal predecessor. Sieker wrote memorial books about his companions Hans W. Fischer, Walter Hammer and Friedrich Wield, as well as his own mainly aphoristic books. He supported Hermann F. Reemtsma in the construction of the Ernst Barlach House in Hamburg's Jenischpark and became its first curator. In addition, he was the second chairman of the Lichtwark Foundation until his death.

After 1945 Sieker sponsored numerous young Hamburg painters. For the writer Wolfgang Borchert , with whom he had an intensive correspondence from 1940 to 1947, he became both a supporter and a friend. As early as 1938 Sieker published Borchert's first poem in the Hamburger Anzeiger , followed in 1946 with Die Hundeblume, the first story in the Hamburger Freie Presse , for whose feature section he commissioned the young writer to write various reviews. Sieker described his modest attitude towards promoting young artists in a letter to Borchert after Borchert's first successes in May 1947: "I immediately feel superfluous when a talent that interests me has been successful."

Publications (selection)

• The garden without a fence . Alster, Wedel 1943.
• Cargo of life . Alster, Wedel 1944.
• The indestructible ark . Alster, Wedel 1948.
• Vacation to your best Hanseatic, Hamburg 1966 (with Ernst Fromm ).
• Notated for thought. Gift of friend for Christmas 1969. [together with Brigitte Berndts]. Self-published in 1969.
• Cultural work in the spirit of resistance . Christians, Hamburg 1973.

as editor

• Active love for nature. Otto Schröder . Hamburgische Bücherei, Hamburg 1948.
• Hans W. Fischer . A book of remembrance . Hamburgische Bücherei, Hamburg 1948.
• Early and late letters. Ernst Barlach . Claasen, Hamburg 1963 (with Paul Schurek).
• Two well-deserved hamburgers: Berthie and Rudolf Philipp . Schielzeth, Hamburg 1964.
• There is a person standing there. Letters from Gorch Fock to Aline Bussmann . Christians, Hamburg 1971.
• Sculptor Wield 1880-1940. A memorial book . Christians, Hamburg 1975.

literature

• Maike Bruhns: Art in Crisis. Volume 1: Hamburg Art in the “Third Reich” . Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-933374-94-4 , p. 604.
• Erich Lüth : The strong reverberation of a quiet voice (Hugo Sieker) . In: Stiftung Jugendburg Ludwigstein and archive of the German youth movement (ed.): Yearbook of the archive of the German youth movement 11/1979. Wochenschau, Schwalbach 1979, ISSN  0587-5277 , pp. 100-108.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hugo Sieker in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hugo Sieker in the estate and autograph catalog of the Hamburg State and University Library
• Hugo Sieker in the archive of the Hamburger Abendblatt on February 6, 1963 , February 6, 1968 , February 6, 1973 , February 6, 1978 and June 11, 1979

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Lüth: The strong reverberation of a quiet voice (Hugo Sieker) , p. 101.
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Maike Bruhns: Art in the Crisis. Volume 1: Hamburg Art in the “Third Reich” , p. 604.
3. ↑ Erich Lüth: The strong reverberation of a quiet voice (Hugo Sieker) , p. 102, 104.
4. ↑ Erich Lüth: The strong reverberation of a quiet voice (Hugo Sieker) , pp. 105-106.
5. ^ Christian Sonntag: Media careers biographical studies of post-war journalists in Hamburg 1946–1949 . M-Press, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89975-577-4 , pp. 139, 144.
6. ↑ Erich Lüth: The strong reverberation of a quiet voice (Hugo Sieker) , p. 107.
7. ↑ Guten Geist im Barlach-Haus  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   . In: Hamburger Abendblatt from February 6, 1963.
8. ↑ Hans-Gerd Winter: "I hardly care ... to be printed - I feel that my day is coming." Wolfgang Borchert's entry into the literary field 1940–1946 . In: Gordon Burgess, Hans-Gerd Winter (ed.): "Pack life by the hair". Wolfgang Borchert in a new perspective . Dölling and Gallitz, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930802-33-3 , pp. 97-99.