{{Short description|German composer and poet (1931–2021)}} {{Infobox person | name = Gerda Herrmann | image = GerdaHerrmannOktober2019.jpg | caption = Gerda Herrmann in October 2019 | birth_name = Gerda Herrmann | honorific_suffix = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|06|30}} | birth_place = Cannstatt, Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|04|15|1931|06|30}} | alma_mater = | occupation = Composer, poet | years_active = 1984–2021 | networth = | spouse = | children = | mother = | father = | relations = | signature = }} '''Gerda Herrmann''' (June 30, 1931<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019">{{cite web | url=https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.stuttgart-botnang-liedermacherin-mit-mut-und-humor.fa74d192-cf75-45cf-ac43-96c0e48e8e59.html | title=Liedermacherin mit Mut und Humor | accessdate=2019-06-30 | last=Mostbacher-Dix | first=Petra | date=2019-06-21 | publisher=Stuttgarter Zeitung}} The article mentions that the premiere of the film "The Songwriter of Botnang" on June 29, 2019 was held the day before Gerda Herrmann's 88th birthday</ref> in Cannstatt – April 15, 2021<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.stuttgart-gedenkt.de/traueranzeige/gerda-herrmann-1931 | title=Stuttgart Gedenkt - Todesanzeige Gerda Herrmann | accessdate=2021-05-23}}</ref>) was a German composer and poet. She had been living in Botnang since the 1960s and wrote more than 400 songs,<ref name="postmondaen">{{Cite web | url=https://postmondaen.net/2020/05/10/gerda-herrmann-interview/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611000702/https://postmondaen.net/2020/05/10/gerda-herrmann-interview/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 11, 2020 | title=Von Botnang nach Hollywood – Gerda Herrmann im Interview | accessdate=2020-05-10 | last=Tuschinski | first=Alexander | date=2020-05-10 | publisher=postmondän }}</ref> setting to music both her own and other authors' lyrics.<ref name="stuttgarterwochenblatt2019">{{Cite web | url=http://www.stuttgarter-wochenblatt.de/inhalt.portraet-der-woche-gerda-herrmann-lebenslinien.3aaa990f-8a2b-45e8-a082-3efed68596fd.html | title=Gerda Herrmann: Lebenslinien | accessdate=2019-08-23 | last=Sass-Baitis | first=Marisa | date=2019-08-21 | publisher=Stuttgarter Wochenblatt | archive-date=2019-08-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822101638/http://www.stuttgarter-wochenblatt.de/inhalt.portraet-der-woche-gerda-herrmann-lebenslinien.3aaa990f-8a2b-45e8-a082-3efed68596fd.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" /> Many of her songs have been performed at 12 benefit concerts (as of 2019).<ref name="kinoprogramm">{{cite web | url=https://www.arthaus-kino.de/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629232400/https://www.arthaus-kino.de/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=2019-06-29 | title=Programming announcement about the documentary film "The Songwriter of Botnang" on the website of Delphi Arthaus Kino Stuttgart, archived on archive.org | accessdate=2019-06-30}}</ref>
== Life and work == Gerda Herrmann received piano lessons for almost three years from 1941 to 1943, until her school was evacuated to Metzingen due to aerial bombings. From then on, she played the piano without receiving further lessons.<ref name="postmondaen" /> Her father was an association auditor. After he was denounced to authorities, he was drafted into the German army and fell in 1944 as a soldier.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" /> In July 1944, Herrmann was in Stuttgart and at 13 years old witnessed the heavy bombings of the city and their aftermath.<ref name="landesschau">{{cite web | url=https://www.swrfernsehen.de/landesschau-bw/landesschau-baden-wuerttemberg-vom-852020-100.html | title=Landesschau Baden-Württemberg: Clip about Gerda Herrmann and the film "The Songwriter of Botnang" (from 17:40 min on) | accessdate=2019-05-10 | last=Auch | first=Joachim | date=2020-05-08 | publisher=Südwestrundfunk | archive-date=2020-05-10 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510110515/https://www.swrfernsehen.de/landesschau-bw/landesschau-baden-wuerttemberg-vom-852020-100.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 1972, Herrmann wrote her first poem, when she was asked to write one for a service held at Friendenskirche Stuttgart in support of Amnesty International.<ref name="postmondaen" /> In 1984, Gerda Herrmann wrote her first composition titled "Elegie".<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" /> Since then, she set texts by many authors to music, among them Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Joachim Ringelnatz, Arthur Schnitzler and Walther von der Vogelweide. In 2013, Herrmann set to music a love poem that her father had written into his diary in 1923.<ref name="postmondaen" /> She remained active until the end, and in her last press interview published one week before her death in April 2021, Herrmann talked about the most recent song she was working on.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2021">{{Cite web | url=https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.liedermacherin-aus-stuttgart-botnang-anbetung-aus-hollywood.58069a64-ffdb-43d7-8d0d-e39ea5b3331c.html?reduced=true | title=Anbetung aus Hollywood | accessdate=2021-09-01 | last=Mostbacher-Dix | first=Petra | date=2021-04-08 | publisher=Stuttgarter Zeitung}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text="Composing" is too high a level, I put texts to music.|sign=Gerda Herrmann<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" />}}
Herrmann herself described her style as "not modern", but "most likely to be classified as belonging to the romantic period". Additionally, her style became more simple in her old age, which she attributed to Angelus Silesius' quote "Human, focus on the essence".<ref name="postmondaen" /> Herrmann regarded her song that sets Rilke's poem "Der Panther" to music as her favorite of her own songs.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} So far, many of Herrmann's songs have been performed at 12 benefit concerts in favor of various societies and organisations. The first concert took place in 1991 at Schloss Solitude.<ref name="stuttgarterwochenblatt2019" />
{{Blockquote|text=She is delightful and charming, I love her stories and her songs (...). She is a wonderful soul, I love her and her passion for music, her optimism, her hopes for a better world and seeing the potential of music to heal and touch lives.|sign=Stephen Kalinich<ref>Botnanger Anzeiger 08/2019, pp 21-22.</ref>}}
In 2019, a documentary film ''The Songwriter of Botnang'' was made on Herrmann's life and oeuvre.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" /> It was shown in Germany and the U.S.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://hollywoodreelindependentfilmfestival.com/2020/feb_17.php#TheSongwriterof | title=Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: program guide on official website, announcing the screening of the film taking place on Feb 17, 2020 at Regal Cinema, LA Live. | accessdate=2020-02-28 }}</ref> and was additionally screened in competition at Berlin Independent Film Festival.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.berlinfest.com/ | title=Berlin Independent Film Festival: Program guide on official website, announcing the screening on Feb 29, 2020. | accessdate=2020-02-28 }}</ref>
== Encouraging creative writing by young people ==
From 2003, until her death, Gerda Herrman was a founding member<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.stimmt.de/news/webreporter/vorort/2012/februar/art3746,34299 | title=Article on stimmt.de: Schüler tragen eigene Texte vor | accessdate=2019-06-30 | date=2012-02-03 | archive-date=2019-06-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630003025/https://www.stimmt.de/news/webreporter/vorort/2012/februar/art3746,34299 | url-status=dead }}</ref> as well as deputy chairwoman of the Förderkreis Kreatives Schreiben und Musik, which publishes anthologies featuring texts by young people. The first anthology was published already before founding of the society, using parts of the proceeds from a benefit concert that showcased some of Herrmann's songs in the white hall of the New Palace in Stuttgart in 1999.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" /> The anthologies have been accepted to be recorded in the archive for children's texts of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2016">{{cite web | url=https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.foerderkreis-kreatives-schreiben-und-musik-nischen-fuer-nachwuchsautoren.1de6e129-bf49-45cb-8ecb-d9fc775f268e.html | title=Förderkreis Kreatives Schreiben und Musik - Nischen für Nachwuchsautoren | accessdate=2019-06-30 | last=Friedel | first=Georg | date=2016-09-21 | publisher=Stuttgarter Zeitung}}</ref> and contain texts of different genres and styles.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.schulepluskultur.de/2013/08/neue-anthologie-des-forderkreis-kreatives-schreiben-musik-e-v-mit-texten-unterschiedlicher-schulen/ | title=schulepluskultur.de (Blog of LKJ Baden-Württemberg e.V.): neue Anthologie des Förderkreis Kreatives Schreiben + Musik e.V. mit Texten von Schülern | accessdate=2019-06-30 | last=Klassen | first=Ellen | date=2013-08-23 | archive-date=2019-06-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630003025/https://www.schulepluskultur.de/2013/08/neue-anthologie-des-forderkreis-kreatives-schreiben-musik-e-v-mit-texten-unterschiedlicher-schulen/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2010, a poem by Ingeborg Wenger from the anthology "ÜberBrücken" was displayed as part of the program "Lyrik Unterwegs" inside metro trains in Stuttgart.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2010">{{cite web | url=http://www.dillmann-gymnasium.de/gymnasium/organisation/presse/presse-material/ingeborg-und-ihr-cooles-gedicht-fahren-u-bahn/ | title=Ingeborg und ihr cooles Gedicht fahren U-Bahn (Excerpt from the poem on the website of Dillmann-Gymnasium, Stuttgart)| accessdate=2019-06-30 | date=2010-07-09 | publisher=Stuttgarter Zeitung}}</ref> Herrmann set several poems from these anthologies to music.<ref>Anthologie "Nennenswertes" liegt frisch gedruckt vor, Botnanger Anzeiger 07/2011, p. 22.</ref>
== Further commitments ==
{{Blockquote|text=My credo is to neither lose courage nor humor!|sign=Gerda Herrmann<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" />}}
Additionally, from 1968 until the birth of her third child in 1972, Herrmann committed for Amnesty International and regards Amnesty's work as "important".<ref name="postmondaen" /> She was a founding member of Group 49.<ref name="stuttgarterzeitung2019" />
== References == <references responsive/>
== External links == * {{IMDb name|nm10675753}} * [https://www.ukfilmreview.co.uk/post/the-songwriter-of-botnang-interview UK Film Review: Interview with Gerda Herrmann and Alexander Tuschinski] * {{YouTube|r1Sk35KLETc|Gerda Herrmann and Alexander Tuschinski: Q&A after the premiere of "The Songwriter of Botnang" (in German)}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Gerda}} Category:1931 births Category:2021 deaths Category:20th-century German composers Category:20th-century German poets Category:German women composers Category:Musicians from Stuttgart Category:20th-century German women poets