Wilhelm Hanke

Wilhelm (Willi) Hanke (born February 23, 1902 in Münster ; † November 23, 1954 in Bremen ) was an actor , director and theater manager .

Life

Willi Hanke was the son of a government messenger who died early. He attended school in Münster and worked as an extra at the theater. Since 1921 he moved around with touring stages. In 1926 he got an engagement as a lover and youthful hero at the Bremen City Theater . In 1931 he became senior director at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven . During the National Socialist era he became a member of the NSDAP and from 1933 worked on various German theaters, including in Dortmund , Münster and Graz . In the "City of the Reich Party Rallies" in Nuremberg he was appointed artistic director of the Nuremberg Opera by Gauleiter Julius Streicher in 1939 and was promoted to general manager in 1943 at the instigation of the Reich Propaganda Ministry . Here he worked closely with the conductor Max Loy , from 1941 to 1945 he also worked with Loy in the Reich Office for Music Processing, where he undertook a whole series of opera adaptations. After the end of the Second World War , Hanke was removed from office by the US occupation authorities; nothing is known about his denazification .

In 1949 Hanke became director of the newly founded theater of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . He shaped the reconstruction of the theater, which was completed in 1950. He had a strong relationship with musical theater and hired numerous famous conductors for sophisticated opera performances. In doing so, he was guided by the artistic mindset and less by illusions and rule-based principles. The performance of the opera Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith was a highlight. Works by Richard Wagner were also on the program. He also worked at the Kammerspiele in Bremen . Hanke died early shortly after his contract had been extended for three more years and he had already planned the 1954/1955 season. His successor as director was Albert Lippert from the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg .

literature

Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X , p.?.
Clemens Wachter: Hanke, Willi . In: Manfred H. Grieb (Ed.): Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon . Visual artists, artisans, scholars, collectors, cultural workers and patrons from the 12th to the middle of the 20th century. KG Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-091296-8 , p. 571.

Individual evidence

^ Clemens Wachter: Culture in Nuremberg 1945–1950. Cultural policy, cultural life and image of the city between the end of the Nazi dictatorship and the prosperity of the fifties . Series of publications by the Nuremberg City Archives, 1999
↑ Max Gnugesser-Mair: Critique of the embellished and abridged presentation of numerous artist biographies from the Nazi era in the Nuremberg Artist Lexicon , 2016 (Review by Manfred H. Grieb (Ed.): Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon. 2007)

personal data
SURNAME	Hanke, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hanke, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German actor, director and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH	February 23, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	Muenster
DATE OF DEATH	November 23, 1954
Place of death	Bremen

[1] Clemens Wachter: Culture in Nuremberg 1945–1950. Cultural policy, cultural life and image of the city between the end of the Nazi dictatorship and the prosperity of the fifties . Series of publications by the Nuremberg City Archives, 1999

[2] Max Gnugesser-Mair: Critique of the embellished and abridged presentation of numerous artist biographies from the Nazi era in the Nuremberg Artist Lexicon , 2016 (Review by Manfred H. Grieb (Ed.): Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon. 2007)