Michael Gehrke

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Michael "Mike" Gehrke (born November 6, 1943 in Hanover ; † June 3, 2004 there ) was a German jazz organizer. He was the “Stadtimagepfleger” of Hanover and in his hometown also as “Mr. Jazz "known.

Life

After completing his commercial training, Gehrke attended an advertising school and was temporarily in the USA. From 1968 Gehrke was chairman of the Jazz Club Hannover and vice-president of the European Jazz Federation. From 1969 to 1972 he was administrative director of the Kunstverein Hannover.

Gehrke is often identified with the old town flea market in Hanover, the oldest in Germany. On April 8, 1967, the action artist Reinhard Schamuhn organized a flea market in front of the Leibnizhaus, based on an idea by the Hanoverian journalist Klaus Partzsch . As a result, the flea market developed on the Hohen Ufer , which Gehrke took over.

In June 1972, Gehrke was appointed full-time image cultivator , responsible for the old town festival , the street art program , city advertising and the implementation of the flea market. From 1973 he was head of Martin Neuffer's newly created office for the promotion of communication in the city, which was also responsible for maintaining contacts with the citizens and “looking after” citizens' initiatives .

The Hanoverians remembered Gehrke, who himself led a Dixieland band in the 1960s and occasionally sang in a band he founded ( Salty Dogs ) in the 1980s , especially as the organizer of the annual Jazz Days and the Swinging Hannover Festival on Ascension Day. In 1978, New Orleans, the “cradle of jazz ”, gave Gehrke and then the Hanover Jazz Club honorary citizenship .

In 1994 he was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his decades of voluntary commitment to music and in 2000 the Cross of Merit of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit.

Mike Gehrke's grave can be found in the Engesohde city cemetery .

In the telephone queue of the city of Hanover, Gehrke's voice still greets callers and asks for patience. The piece of music played was composed by pianist Max Vax . A pedestrian path on the banks of the Leine near the Saturday flea market has been named after Gehrke as Mike-Gehrke-Promenade .

literature

Prints

  • Gerhard Evertz (Ed.): A club makes jazz. 25 years of the Hanover Jazz Club. Jazz Club Hannover, Hannover 1991.
  • All that Jazz , 2007, passim.
  • Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Gehrke, Mike (Michael). In: Hanover Art and Culture Lexicon . P. 236.
  • Hugo Thielen: Gehrke, Mike. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 207.
  • Vanessa Erstmann: "Forward to Far" - Mike Gehrke and the image politics of Hanover ; In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 65 (2011), Hannover 2011

Electronic resources

  • Gerhard Evertz: Jazz. A journey through time through Hanover from the 1940s to 1960s. Compact Disc -R (CD-R) plus supplement, Platanenhof 32, Hannover 2004
  • Music for Mike. CD, interpreter: Mike Gehrke. Ingo Schmidt, Hanover [no date] ( DNB 1000322300 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Knocke, Hugo Thielen: Gehrke, Mike (Michael). In: Hanover Art and Culture Lexicon . P. 236.
  2. ↑ Dieter Brosius among others: History of the City of Hanover II. Volume 2. Hanover 1994, p. 777.
  3. ↑ Lu Seegers: The colored city. Image and communication policy in Hanover in the early seventies. In: Adelheid von Saldern : City and communication in times of upheaval in the Federal Republic of Germany. Stuttgart 2006, p. 181 ff., Here p. 197.
  4. ^ Hugo Thielen : Gehrke, Mike (Michael) , in: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 207
personal data
SURNAME Gehrke, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gehrke, Mike; Mr. Jazz (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz singer, city image maintainer of Hanover
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 2004
Place of death Hanover