William Roettger

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Wilhelm Christian "William" Röttger (* 1948 ; † February 28, 2015 in Münster ) was a German music manager , label owner and gallery owner . Röttger was a co-founder of the Low Spirit record label and managing director of Mayday GmbH.

Life

William Röttger came from the Westphalian village of Lippborg . In the 1970s he demonstrated against the Vietnam War , sympathized with the hippie movement , loosely with the RAF and later the anti-nuclear movement . Röttger worked as an educator in an anti-authoritarian kindergarten . In the 1970s he was the research assistant of the art teacher Otto Lenz , the father of Seraphina , Maximilian (WestBam) and Fabian Lenz (DJ Dick) at the University of Education in Münster . In addition, he worked as a photographer and author for publications such as the Frankfurt information service for the distribution of missed news , the Munich magazine Blatt and the daily newspaper .

As an organizer and promoter, he brought bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten , Killing Joke , Gang of Four , Fad Gadget , Hans-A-Plast and German-American Friendship to Münster. In 1983 Röttger organized WestBam's first appearance as a DJ in Club Odeon in Münster and in 1984 in Club Metropol in Berlin.

In the early 1980s he went to West Berlin , where he initially worked as a photographer and dealer. After trying unsuccessfully to offer WestBams demos to other labels, Röttger founded Low Spirit Recordings GmbH in 1985 together with Maximilian and Fabian Lenz as well as Klaus Jankuhn and Sandra Molzahn, which developed into one of the "germ cells of techno ". Röttger promoted the careers of artists such as WestBam, DJ Dick, Marusha , RMB , Hardsequencer and Raver's Nature . He was also managing director of the event company Mayday GmbH and was involved in the Loveparade as a co-organizer .

In 2006, Röttger and his partners closed the Low Spirit label and sold the rights to Mayday to i-Motion. After that, Röttger devoted himself primarily to the fine arts and organized exhibitions in his Eclectic Window Gallery in Berlin .

On February 28, 2015, William Röttger died with his family of cancer caused by liver cirrhosis .

Discography

  • 1990: Mr. President, Sir! - Alligators Have Fun (Low Spirit)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rainer Schmidt : On the death of William Röttger: The driving force of techno at spiegel.de, accessed on March 3, 2015
  2. ↑ a b c Gerrit Bartels: Obituary for William Röttger: One of the forefathers of techno died at tagesspiegel.de, accessed on March 3, 2015
  3. ↑ a b Daniel Fersch: Obituary: Low Spirit founder William Röttger has died ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at spex.de, accessed on March 3, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spex.de
  4. ↑ taz : Westbam as a DJ for over 30 years. “Even great shops have to die” May 12, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Rottger, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Röttger, Wilhelm Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music manager, label owner and gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH 1948
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 2015
Place of death Muenster