Klaus Hoffmann (singer-songwriter)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Klaus Hoffmann, 2007
Klaus Hoffmann, 2007
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Klaus Hoffmann sings Brel
  DE 94 04/14/1997 (2 weeks)
Hoffmann - Berlin
  DE 90 11/16/1998 (1 week)
Melancholia
  DE 42 October 23, 2000 (3 weeks)
Island songs
  DE 33 09/30/2002 (6 weeks)
From this world
  DE 67 06/13/2005 (2 weeks)
Spirit
  DE 29 04/11/2008 (2 weeks)
The sweet life
  DE 34 10/22/2010 (2 weeks)
Berlin Sunday
  DE 54 October 19, 2012 (1 week)
nostalgia
  DE 34 10/31/2014 (1 week)
Quiet signs
  DE 37 10/21/2016 (1 week)
Believe dear Hoffmann
  DE 83 October 20, 2017 (1 week)
Aquamarine
  DE 43 October 19, 2018 (1 week)

Klaus Hoffmann (actually: Klaus-Dieter Hoffmann , born March 26, 1951 in Berlin ) is a German singer , actor , author and songwriter .

Life

Klaus Hoffmann was born as the only child of the tax officer Erich and the factory worker Waldtraud Hoffmann and grew up on Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The decisive experience of his lonely childhood was the early death of his father in 1961. Suffering from diabetes and a heart defect, he was unable to realize his musical talent and artistic ambitions and suffered from the narrowness of his work in the tax office.

After completing secondary school in 1967, Hoffmann completed an apprenticeship as a wholesale merchant for steel and iron at Klöckner-Eisenhandel GmbH & Co. KG. During this time Hoffmann began his career as a singer-songwriter with first appearances in Berlin scene bars. After completing his training, he went on a trip to Afghanistan in 1969 , which repeatedly put him in life-threatening situations. In 1970 he began acting training at the Max Reinhardt School in West Berlin . In addition to his acting training, he worked intensively on his career as a singer-songwriter.

From 1974 Hoffmann received engagements at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin under director Kurt Hübner and at the Hamburg Thalia Theater under director Boy Gobert . He played in several film and television productions, for example in Ingmar Bergman's The Snake Egg or Tom Toelle's The Lady of the Camellias . Hoffmann became known to a wide audience through the title role in the film adaptation of Ulrich Plenzdorf's Die neue Leiden des Junge W. For this role he was awarded the " Bambi " and the " Golden Camera " of the TV magazine Hörzu .

His first album, Klaus Hoffmann , was released in 1975. The songs on the 1978 album What am I starting in this city? mainly revolved around his - then divided - hometown Berlin. In 1978 Hoffmann received the German Cabaret Prize in the chanson category for his songs . His first major, sold-out tour of Germany followed in 1979, as well as the German Record Prize in 1980 for the Westend LP . Hoffmann has recorded more than 40 albums to date.

In 2006, Hoffmann received the culture award from the tabloid BZ and, in his acceptance speech, demanded that the promotion of art and culture should not be left to the banks.

On March 27, 2011, one day after his 60th birthday, Klaus Hoffmann celebrated his milestone birthday in Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast with numerous companions, above all Reinhard Mey . Other guests at the four-hour concert, which had already sold out months before, were Hannes Wader , Herman van Veen , Lydie Auvray , Romy Haag , Rolf Kühn and Robert Kreis . In the same year he performed on songs on a summer evening , as well as in 2014 and 2016 .

Hoffmann has a close friendship with the songwriter Reinhard Mey, whom he describes as his "brother" in his autobiography. Mey wrote his song Für Klaus on the occasion of Klaus Hoffmann's 60th birthday ; Both artists have recorded various songs such as All soldiers want to go home , Give me this night and my time together.

Klaus Hoffmann has been married to his long-term partner Malene Staeger since August 2001; Hella and Reinhard Mey acted as witnesses. Klaus Hoffmann lives in his hometown Berlin and regularly goes on an extensive tour of Germany after each new album.

On October 1, 2019, Klaus Hoffmann was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin .

Song content

Musically influenced by American singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan as well as by the French chanson and the specific Berlin chanson in the tradition of Harald Juhnke and Hildegard Knef , Hoffmann's lyrics are determined by the examination of his childhood in petty-bourgeois post-war Berlin ( Berlin , Was fang I on in this city? , Brett vorm Kopp , the Boxer , Kreuzberg waltz , One forgets nothing , the streets of Berlin , the king of the children , Hoffmann-Berlin ) and the optimism of the '68 generation, against the narrowness and anxiety the parents' generation revolted ( Estaminet , The Mediocrity , The Old Song , A New Beginning , Six and a Half in the Morning ). The continuous motif in Hoffmann's songs is the conflict between the warmth and the childlike security of the familiar on the one hand, as well as the rebellion in the face of the possibilities and challenges of the unknown, which can only be resolved through reconciliation with the contradictions of one's own history and that of Berlin ( See , silence , When you love , When I sing , Morjen Berlin , Berlin Sunday , When I see you again , I still believe in it , Here I am at home ).

Brel interpreter

Hoffmann is considered the leading German interpreter of the Belgian chansoner Jacques Brel , whose music he described as the spark of his liberation from his parents and the petty bourgeoisie. Hoffmann's first album (1975) already contained versions of the Brel titles Ces gens-là (This is how the people are here) , Amsterdam and Adieu Emile , in which case he took over German text adaptations from Heinz Riedel in two cases . The follow-up album What remains? from 1976 contained two songs written by Brel, Marieke and Do not go away from me ( Ne me quitte pas ) . The live double album I want singing, wanting to play and dance followed in 1977 with all these pieces and the two Brel songs Mein Flanderland ( Le plat pays ) and Alone .

Thanks to the contact with Therèse Brel, Jacques Brel's widow, Hoffmann began working on the musical Brel in 1996 - the last performance . In it, the terminally ill Brel looks back on his life by letting it pass through his chansons - sung in German translation. On June 12, 1997 the premiere of the musical took place in the Schillertheater in Berlin. In the same year Hoffmann received the “ Golden Europe ” for the “Stage Event of the Year”.

With his program “Klaus Hoffmann sings Jacques Brel. If only love remains for us ”Hoffmann went on tour in 2006 and 2007, only accompanied by pianist Hawo Bleich. On October 9, 2008, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Jacques Brel's death, he performed his program at the “ Maison Heinrich Heine ” in Paris.

With the program “Klaus Hoffmann singt Brel”, Klaus Hoffmann is going on tour through Germany and Luxembourg with his pianist Hawo Bleich in 2020. The program premiered on February 17, 2020 in the Osnabrück Theater am Domhof.

author

In 2000 Klaus Hoffmann's first novel was published under the title Afghana , which describes the departure and journey of the protagonist through the Afghanistan of the late 1960s. In 2004 his second novel The Man Who Wanted to Fly was published, which Klaus Hoffmann, accompanied on the piano by Hawo Bleich, presented on a major reading tour with music throughout Germany. In February 2011, Klaus Hoffmann's third novel Phillip und die Frauen was published , which like the previous novels shows strong autobiographical traits. His autobiography, As if It Were Nothing, was released in October 2012.

Discography

LPs / CDs

  • 1975: Klaus Hoffmann
  • 1976: what remains?
  • 1977: I want singing, play and dance - live
  • 1978: What am I doing in this city?
  • 1979: Westend
  • 1980: a concert
  • 1982: changes
  • 1983: Ciao Bella
  • 1984: Concert '84 * (PROMO EP)
  • 1985: Morjen Berlin
  • 1986: When I Sing - Live
  • 1987: Klaus Hoffmann
  • 1989: It has to be for love
  • 1990: Live 90
  • 1991: time to live
  • 1993: singer
  • 1994: Singer Live
  • 1995: short stories
  • 1996: Friedrichstadtpalast 8 p.m.
  • 1997: Klaus Hoffmann sings Brel
  • 1997: Brel - The Last Performance - Live
  • 1998: Hoffmann-Berlin
  • 1998: Hoffmann-Berlin - Unplugged (studio demos / limited)
  • 1999: Hoffmann-Berlin - Live
  • 1999: Mein Weg - 12 classics (new recordings)
  • 2000: Melancholia
  • 2001: Melancholia Live
  • 2001: Afghana - A Literary Journey - Live
  • 2002: Island songs
  • 2003: There will be an island - Live
  • 2004: The man who wanted to fly - Live
  • 2005: From this world
  • 2006: From this world - concert recording
  • 2007: If we only have love left - Klaus Hoffmann sings Jacques Brel - Live
  • 2008: Spirit
  • 2008: Klaus Hoffmann sings Jacques Brel - in Paris
  • 2009: Spirit - Live in Düsseldorf
  • 2010: The sweet life
  • 2011: Das süße Leben - Live in Stuttgart (not available separately, only in the boxed edition of Mit Freunde )
  • 2011: With friends - The 60th birthday concert in the Friedrichstadtpalast
  • 2012: Berlin Sunday
  • 2013: As if it were nothing - live recording from the Thalia Theater Hamburg
  • 2013: As if it were nothing - a musical reading from the Renaissance theater - Klaus Hoffmann reads from his autobiography
  • 2014: longing
  • 2015: Longing - live in Berlin
  • 2016: Quiet signs
  • 2017: Glaube Liebe Hoffmann - 3 CD and 1 DVD - recording of the “Leisezeichen” concert in Friedrichstadt-Palast on December 12th, 2016
  • 2018: aquamarine
  • 2019 In the Philharmonie - Aquamarine - recording from November 15, 2018

Video albums

  • 1994: Singer - Live (VHS)
  • 1999: Hoffmann - Berlin - Live (VHS), concert recording from the Hamburg Music Hall
  • 2003: Island songs - Live (DVD), live recording of the "3satfestival 2003" in September 2003 in Mainz including "Stories" and the "Klaus-Cam"
  • 2006: From this world - concert recording (DVD), recorded on the occasion of the concert on January 16, 2006 in Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast
  • 2009: Spirit - Live from the Berlin Admiralspalast (DVD), recorded on two days in November 2008 as part of the “Spirit” tour
  • 2011: With friends - The 60th birthday concert in the Friedrichstadtpalast (DVD)
  • 2014: My heart is a child , on the CD Sehnsucht (based on the song Orphelin de toi by Charles Aznavour )

literature

  • Klaus Hoffmann: Afghana Roman. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-89834-019-9 , new edition self-published 2014.
  • Klaus Hoffmann: The man who wanted to fly Roman. List Taschenbuch, 2005, ISBN 978-3-548-60605-7 , new edition 2014.
  • Klaus Hoffmann: Philip and the women Roman. Rütten & Loening, 2011, ISBN 978-3-352-00808-5 , new edition 2014.
  • Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing. Out of my life. Ullstein, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-550-08851-3 .

Web links

Commons : Klaus Hoffmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chart sources: DE
  2. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 35.
  3. ↑ a b Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 17.
  4. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 31.
  5. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 16.
  6. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 18.
  7. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 64.
  8. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 34.
  9. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 139.
  10. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 189.
  11. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 215.
  12. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 227.
  13. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 253.
  14. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 206.
  15. ↑ Klaus Hoffmann: As if it were nothing . Ullstein, Berlin, p. 347.
  16. ^ Berliner Kurier , August 29, 2001
  17. ↑ See the press release of the Senate Chancellery of the Governing Mayor of Berlin from September 27, 2019: Michael Müller awards the Berlin State Order , accessed on October 11, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Well, I don't play so much in the East", Andreas Hähle and Patti Heidrich for deutsche-mugge.de, September 30, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Klaus-Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer, actor and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin