Klaus Bernbacher
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Klaus Bernbacher (born 25 January 1931) is a German conductor, music event manager, broadcasting manager and academic teacher. He co-founded the ''Tage der Neuen Musik Hannover'', a festival for contemporary music, in 1958. He was manager for the broadcaster
Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (RB), Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerhaven). With its headquarters sited in Bremen, Radio Brem ...
from 1962. In Bremen, he was also a cultural politician, a member of the Bremische Bürgerschaft, and an honorary professor at the
Hochschule für Künste Bremen The University of the Arts Bremen (German: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK Bremen) is a public university in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most successful arts institutions, and its origins date back to 1873. The University of the Arts Br ...
.


Life


Family, education and musical career

Born in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, Bernbacher was the son of a violinist who worked as a chamber musician and in the orchestra of the
Staatsoper Hannover Hanover State Opera (german: Staatsoper Hannover) is an opera company in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The company is resident in the Hanover Opera House (), and is part of a publicly-funded umbrella performing arts organ ...
. He came into early contact with music through piano lessons and concert visits, listening to music conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
,
Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...
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Hans Knappertsbusch Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ger ...
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, Hermann Scherchen, Johannes Schüler and Richard Strauss in rehearsals and performances. He studied music at the Musikhochschule Hannover to become a conductor. During his studies, he was involved in establishing the Jeunesses Musicales Internationalles festival from 1951, and the music centre at Schloss Weikersheim. In 1958, he and founded a studio for contemporary music (''Neue Musik''). It was developed to the ''Tage der Neuen Musik Hannover'', a festival held from 1958 to 1998 in collaboration with broadcasters NDR and
Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (RB), Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerhaven). With its headquarters sited in Bremen, Radio Brem ...
, the Musikhochschule and the Staatsoper. The festival featured music by
Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...
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, Hans Otte, Josef Anton Riedl, Werner Heider,
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, Hans Ulrich Engelmann,
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, Peter Ruzicka and Detlef Heusinger, among others. In 1962, he became conductor at Radio Bremen and department head at the broadcaster around 1969, especially promoting ''Neue Musik''. He was responsible for around 600 radio productions and concerts over around 40 years, including with the orchestras
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (North West German Philharmonic) is a German symphony orchestra based in Herford. It was founded in 1950 and, along with Philharmonie Südwestfalen and Landesjugendorchester NRW, is one of the 'official' orchestr ...
and the Bremer Philharmoniker. Performances included Schönberg's ''
Gurre-Lieder ' is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by ). The title means "songs of Gurre", ref ...
'' in the original version and Mahler's Second Symphony at the
Bremen Cathedral Bremen Cathedral (german: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the Protestant umbre ...
. He has been an honorary professor at the
Hochschule für Künste Bremen The University of the Arts Bremen (German: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK Bremen) is a public university in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most successful arts institutions, and its origins date back to 1873. The University of the Arts Br ...
. Bernbacher was married to , who became a politician of the
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
, from 1957 until her death in 2013. He met her in 1947 during school days. The couple had four children, two of them adopted.


Politics

Bernbacher was a member of the
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
from the 1950s until 1994, influenced by
Kurt Schumacher Curt Ernst Carl Schumacher, better known as Kurt Schumacher (13 October 1895 – 20 August 1952), was a German politician who became chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and the first Leader of the Opposition in the Wes ...
. In 1995 he joined a (voters group) Arbeit für Bremen und Bremerhaven (AfB) as a candidate, a group of both dissatisfied SPD members and committed citizens who had not belonged to any party, led by the former savings bank director . The AfB immediately achieved 10.7% of the votes and 12 seats in parliament for the , including Bernbacher. He helped to ensure that culture was included in the constitution as a state objective. The AfB had no seat from 1999.


Other memberships

* Bremen * Collaboration, together with Peter Schulze, at the citizens' initiative for the preservation of the famous for its acoustics. * Landesmusikrat Bremen * Chairman of the support association "Musicon Bremen", which supports the construction of a concert hall on the Bürgerweide according to plans by Daniel Libeskind.


Work

* Klaus Bernbacher, Detlef Müller-Hennig (ed.): ''Dokumentation 20 Jahre Konzert des Deutschen Musikrates''. Bonn 2000.


Awards

In 2011, Bernbacher was awarded the Bremische Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Bremen Medal for Art and Science) for his decades of influential work for the music scene in Germany.


References


Further reading

* Norbert Korfmacher: ''Mitgliederverzeichnis der Bremischen Bürgerschaft 1946 bis 1996'' (''Kommunalpolitik.'' Vol. 1). LIT, Münster 1997, . * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernbacher, Klaus 1931 births Living people Musicians from Hanover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover alumni Academic staff of the University of the Arts Bremen German conductors (music) Radio Bremen people German politicians