Joachim Schäfer (musician, 1952)
Joachim Schäfer (born April 13, 1952 in Flöha ; † June 28, 1997 in Leipzig ) was a German chansonnier , composer and guitarist .
Life
Joachim Schäfer's mother worked as a primary school teacher, his father was an accountant. Joachim Schäfer attended the Polytechnische Oberschule in Frankenstein , Saxony, from 1958 to 1962 , from 1962 to 1968 the children's and youth sports school (KJS) in Karl-Marx-Stadt (3) and became an Olympic gymnast. He had to leave school for disciplinary reasons. After completing the 10th grade, he became a cattle breeder. At the same time, he graduated from high school in 1971 and studied classical guitar and singing from 1971 to 1977 at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music in Leipzig. His guitar lecturer was Professor Roland Zimmer , his singing lecturer was Ruth Bischoff . In 1977 he completed his studies with a state examination as a singer, guitarist and music teacher. Until 1980 he studied methodology for concert guitar at the Liszt School of Music Weimar . He then worked as a freelance concert guitar teacher at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and at the “Hans Otto” theater school in Leipzig. Joachim Schäfer took part in the GDR open chanson days in the Michaelsstein monastery and in the illegal songwriters' meeting Ringelfolk in the Ringelnatzklause Wurzen and is part of the Leipzig song scene .
Start of career and professional ban
In 1978 his first song program "Wünsche" was created. This also resulted in artistic collaboration with the flautist Cornelia Erben, who provided Schäfer with musical support in various programs.
In 1985, Schäfer created his chanson program “Leben bis zu den Rand”. This made him a widely acclaimed interpreter of his own songs. Texts by his poet friend Andreas Reimann can be found in all of his projects . The best-known song in Schäfer's interpretation was the song "Kirschenklauen" by the author duo Schäfer / Reimann, which he wrote in 1984.
In 1987 he was banned from practicing because he had hung up a picture of Erich Honecker in a club where he was performing . After that he only appeared in churches.
Post-turnaround time
His career stalled considerably from 1993/94, and Schäfer did what he had previously only smiled at: He works as an entertainer and lent his fine art to "experience gastronomy", performed at street music festivals and worked more as a guitar teacher than a chanson singer.
In 1996/97, Schäfer started his last attempt to maintain his seriousness and at the same time be entertaining with the program “Art is crazy”. He used texts by Georg Herwegh, songs by George Moustaki, Eric Clapton, Cat Stevens and others. This last program by Schäfer contains only two compositions by him. He saw appearances at vernissages of the painter Johannes Heisig , with whom he is friends, as his only serious activities. On February 3, 1995, Schäfer presented his first and only CD "Liebetrauerangstundtod" at a CD release party in the Nikolai School in Leipzig. The CD includes texts by Ingeborg Bachmann, Gottfried Benn, Wolfgang Borchert, Andreas Reimann, Eva Strittmatter, a text by his brother Hermann Schäfer and a text by himself.
Performances abroad
The general committee for entertainment art delegated him in 1977 to the festival “Red Poppy” in Blagoewgrad / Bulgaria . The Europa-Institut Luxembourg organized the “First European Cabaret Days” at Münsbach Castle in May 1992, during which Achim Schäfer appeared in the Esch-sur-Alzette theater. The organizers then appointed him a member of the "Letzebuerger Kabarets-Entente".
Sickness and death
Joachim Schäfer suffered from a manic-depressive illness ( bipolar disorder ), which was diagnosed for the first time at the time of the birth of his first son Robert in 1972. Constant relapses into this disease repeatedly forced him to seek hospitalization. On December 1, 1988 he was awarded a disability pension by the FDGB district executive. The decline of his career and the pressures he felt from his illness led him to commit suicide on June 28, 1997.
Joachim Schäfer's grave is in a cemetery in Frankenstein / Erzgebirge near Freiberg.
Prices
- Diploma for the 4th GDR Chansontage in Frankfurt / Oder 1977
- Prize of the Chanson / Songwriter Working Group for the 6th GDR Chansontage in Frankfurt / Oder 1981
Works
Song programs
- "Wishes" (with Cornelia Erben (fl)), 1978
- "Living to the Edge", 1985
- “Art is crazy”, 1996
CD
- "Liebetrauerangstundtod", 1994
Other voices
“He was a guitar virtuoso and mastered a wide range of emotions with his voice. So with his songs he found the way into the innermost depths of his listeners. Often gently, often with intense intimacy, which probably masked the need of a battered being. His compositions, along with the art of his guitar playing, brought the songs to a high level. To the point. He lived like hardly anyone with his songs and for his songs. Unfortunately far too short. ” Werner Bernreuther
“Joachim Schäfer was a master of form, obsessed with perfection and depth. Apparently he had an aversion to the banal. That made his chanson difficult and difficult to digest. But when it began to sing into one's hearts, it left deep barbs. And he was sure to receive warm applause. ” Dieter Kalka
“With Achim it was always a whole or not at all. That was his art, that was how he was as a person. He demanded emotional sincerity, often to an extent that would not relegate me to the noncommittal everyday life. He was able to pull me completely under his spell, so much so that I sometimes thought I had to flee from him. You can hear that in his songs, I think. It is the ingredient that makes them timeless, but also what has and still does not allow them to gain broad popularity. Joachim Schäfer's art demands nothing less from his audience than direct feedback to their own being. Who wants that in this stressful world? ” Johannes Heisig
“Achim Schäfer, like nobody else in the Leipzig song scene , steadfastly upheld the people, their attitudes, their feelings and their longings with everything he did. If you look back on it every thirty years, it seems as if something as small as GDR reality, which every songwriter wrote about and sang about, didn't even exist for him. I admire that. I think you have to love each other very much to live such an attitude. “ Hubertus Schmidt
“For a good time Achim and I were like brothers: none of our songs that were not based on a real shared experience. I do not know how many of these signs of our unifying, defiance-of-all attitude have been lost and lost. But I am convinced that the few surviving pieces have not only been able to assert themselves over the decades because of their documentary value. " Andreas Reimann
Web links
credentials
- ↑ University certificate from the University of Music "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy", Leipzig, dated July 1, 1977
- ^ Program leaflet "Art is crazy" for the concert May 31, 1997
- ↑ Letzebuerger Journal of May 14 and 15, 1992 and: Luxemburger Wort of May 14, 1992
- ^ Letter from the FDGB district board of November 3, 1988
- ↑ Death certificate No. 3399/1997 Leipzig registry office
- ↑ LC 5593 - SKW - 86046
- ↑ All information see website in memoriam Joachim Schäfer
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schäfer, Joachim |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chansonnier, composer and guitarist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1952 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Flea |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 28, 1997 |
| Place of death | Leipzig |