Helga Hahnemann

Helga "Big Helga" Hahnemann (8 September 1937 - 20 November 1991) was an East German multi-faceted stage performer and entertainer. She came to wider prominence through her television and radio appearances after 1962. By the time reunification arrived in 1990 she had become a leading star of the small screen in East Germany. She fell terminally ill and then died shortly afterwards, possibly because of the extent of her addiction to cigarettes: she was 54. Her death left unanswered the question of how successfully her performances might have captivated pan-German television audiences post unification.[1][2][3]

Helga Hahnemann
1988
Born8 September 1937
Berlin-Pankow (Wilhelmsruh), Germany
Died20 November 1991
Berlin-Pankow, Germany
Alma materErnst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, Berlin-Niederschöneweide
OccupationCabaret artiste
Stage performer
Actress
Singer
Voice-over artiste
Television/radio presenter/moderator
Spouse(s)Maria Johanna Caroline Bladt

The annual "Goldene Henne" (literally "Golden Hen") prize was inaugurated in 1995 to celebrate and commemorate her. (One of Helga Hahnemann's informal soubriquets among fans was "Henne".)[2][4]

Life and career

Helga "Henne" Hahnemann was born in Berlin-Wilhelmsruh, the youngest of her parents' four children, a couple of years before war broke out.[5] Wilhelmsruh was a central quarter of Berlin which after 1945 would find itself administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone.[6] The zone was rebranded and relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). She later told an interviewer that she discovered her talent for comedy while still at school.[4] Passing her Abitur (school final exams) opened the way for a university-level education: between 1956 and 1959 Hahnemann studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin-Niederschöneweide.[7] In 1959 she made her stage debut with Die Pfeffermühle (literally, "The Pepper Mill"), a mildly edgy cabaret ensemble established five years earlier in Leipzig.[2]

She found Leipzig did not suit her, however, and returned in 1961 or 1962 to Berlin,[1] where she concentrated on cabaret and comedy genres, working on a freelance basis, primarily with one-woman programmes.[5] Increasingly, however, she found herself undertaking work for DFF, East Germany's party-controlled monopoly broadcaster. Her work covered television and radio work as well as voice-acting assignments.[1] Some of her best remembered appearances from this time were on the regular satirical comedy show, "Tele-BZ".[8] Her appearances as the main attraction on "Tele-BZ", which soon won a nationwide audience of several million for the shows in which she appeared, continued for three decades, earning her the prestigious arts prize of the East German Trades Union Federation.[9] Eventually, in 1969, Hahnemann joined the broadcaster's payroll as a member of the "DFF Drama Ensemble" ("Schauspielerensemble des DFF"). She remained on the payroll for the next 21 years, despite an annual salary of 1,500 Ostmarks, which even then was a relatively modest amount: by 1990 it had increased to 2,100 Ostmarks.[3]

1974 marked the start of a productive seventeen partnership with the scriptwriter Angela Gentzmer who worked with her on song lyrics and sketches. At least one source describes the two women as a "dream team". Where the dream team needed a new tune, the composer Arndt Bause would produce another from his apparently endless stream of new dance music melodies. The material Hahnemann was now using made her "the voice of the little man". There are suggestions that she was allowed a certain measure of license that a more overtly political performer would have been denied.[3][9] At the end of the 1970s she began working with the Berliner Rundfunk ("East Berlin Radio") as a moderator-presenter on her programme "Helgas Top(p)-Musike", which also formed the basis for three television programmes.[3] Success as a singer continued with "Schlager" numbers - many employing local Berlin dialect - such as "Wo ist mein Jeld bloß geblieben", " Jetzt kommt dein Süße", "U-Bahn-Beat", "100 mal Berlin", "Clärchens Ballhaus" (sung as a duet with Hartmut Schulze-Gerlach), and "Een kleenet Menschenkind".[10]

Another much loved programme which Hahnemann regularly presented was Ein Kessel Buntes, a Saturday evening television variety show. She performed with actor-comedians such as Alfred Müller, Herbert Köfer, Dagmar Gelbke and Ingeborg Naß in a wide variety of television comedy sketches.[3] She appeared regularly alongside Rolf Herricht, Gerd E. Schäfer, Margot Ebert, Traute Sense and Heinz Behrens in her role as "Erna Mischke" in the long-running light-hearted television drama series Maxe Baumann.[11] She teamed up with Ingeborg Naß to head up workers' cabaret in Berlin.[7] Hahnemann also progressed her career as a voice-over artist. Of particular note in this context was the use of her voice for Yvonne Jensen, the main female protagonist in the popular German-language versions for 3 of the 14 (filmed in Danish) Olsen Gang movies.[12]

The changes which led the German Democratic Republic to democracy were followed, formally in October 1990, by German reunification. Hahnemann set about trying to win over audiences in a very different kind of Germany, in which western social and economic norms tended to trump those that had emerged in the east under Soviet socialism.[8] However, she was already terminally ill. There were well advanced plans for a New Year's Eve "television spectacular" on 31 December 1990 / 1 January 1991 with Helga Hahnemann presenting it. In the event she was too ill to participate. It remains unclear when she realised the seriousness of her physical problems. Sources indicate that "Big Helga" had long been noted as a big eater, and she was a heavy smoker.[13] There are indications that for several months she held off visiting a doctor in pursuit of a diagnosis. She was keen that "the public should say she was 100% fit when she died".[9] According to at least one source the late-stage lung cancer diagnosis came through in November 1991, when only a couple of weeks of life were left to her.[2]

Celebration (selection)
Helga-Hahnemann-Haus, Schöneiche
opened, 2000,
photograph date: 2005

Notes

    References
    1. Bernhard Hönig. "Hahnemann, Helga, 8.9.1937 - 20.11.1991, Sängerin, Entertainerin". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    2. "Ganz Privat: Entertainerin Helga Hahnemann". Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Leipzig. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    3. Angelika Wehbeck (author-compiler). "Gedenkseite für Helga Hahnemann". Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    4. "Von A-Z: Was Sie über die "Henne" wissen sollten (Quelle Zitat: Das dicke Helga Hahnemann Buch, Verlag: Eulenspiegel - Das Neue Berlin)". Goldene Henne 2019. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), Berlin. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    5. Michael Bürklin (author-compiler), Altensteig. "Helga Hahnemann Lebenslauf". Was war wann? .... Geschichte von 000 bis Gestern. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    6. Andreas Zimmer (10 September 2018). Konterrevolutionäre Umtriebe?: Der Kulturbund im Krisenjahr 1956. Der Kulturbund in der SBZ und in der DDR: Eine ostdeutsche Kulturvereinigung im Wandel der Zeit zwischen 1945 und 1990. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 238–252. ISBN 978-3-658-23553-6.
    7. Frank-Burkhard Habel; Volker Wachter (1999). "Helga Hahnemann". Lexikon der DDR-Stars. "Steffi-line", Düsseldorf. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    8. "Helga Hahnemann: Eine Legende des DDR-Showbiz". Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Leipzig. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    9. Marcel Piethe (12 January 2012). "Zu Helga Hahnemann im Schnelldurchlauf". ‘ne dicke Henne, die mit Eierpampe wirft. Matthias Vorbau, Berlin i.A. Der Maulbär. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    10. "Fotos: Die größten Sängerinnen und Sänger des Ostens .... Helga Hahnemann (hier bei einem Auftritt während der IFA im September 1991)". Ostsee-Zeitung, Rostock. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    11. "Maxe Baumann". imfernsehen GmbH & Co. KG, Köln. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    12. "Helga Hahnemann". Deutsche Synchronkartei, Germering. 1 September 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    13. "Helga Hahnemann DDR-Ulknudel mit dem großen Herzen starb vor 26 Jahren". Mediengruppe Mitteldeutsche Zeitung GmbH, Halle (Saale). 20 November 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    14. Michael Gabel (22 May 2014). "Mehrheit will Hahnemann-Haus behalten". The article is topped by a photograph from the same angle as that accompanying this article, but taken nine years later. Märkisches Medienhaus GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt (Oder). Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    15. "Eine Straße für Helga Hahnemann". Ab 24. September soll ein Weg am Tacheles nach der Entertainerin benannt werden. Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH, Berlin. 4 August 2003. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    16. "Helga-Hahnemann-Straße in Schönefeld". Die Straße Helga-Hahnemann-Straße liegt in Schönefeld (Brandenburg). Das Straßenverzeichnis für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
    17. "Heinz Walliser" (author-compiler), Veltheim. "Helga Hahnemann, 8.9.1937-20.11.1991". Retrieved 12 September 2020.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.