Author Archives: wolfganghauck

My name is Jessica.  I am an artist, musician and children’s book writer, currently living on a farm in Poland. Since I am quite stuck to the farm during summer time (and because I’m not quite tough enough to face the sub zero temperatures of Polish wintertime) I have enjoyed taking the opportunity to explore a bit more of Europe this winter through ‘Work Away’.  Landsberg has been my final, longest and most memorable stop of the winter. I have been here just over 2 months and in that time I have met so many incredible people and formed memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

A lot of my time in the office has been spent working towards the ‘Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award’ and Jewish-German festival in May. Through this, I have encountered amazing people and stories, often devastating and inspiring in equal measure, that have changed my perception of the world.

When I have not been proof reading Wolfgang’s emails for any potentially offensive ‘German-ness’ and cooking meals with more vegetables that anyone else wants to eat, I have enjoyed freestyle dance parties in the office, karaoke nights, chaotic Arabic circle dancing, dinner parties of people I’d never met before who welcomed me like an old friend (and fed me lots of cake!),  ‘Wolfgang tours’ of the city where each small detail has its own story and, most of all, having the opportunity to meet (and make lasting friendships with) many wonderful people from all over the world.

For a small German town, Landsberg has an incredibly rich history and diverse population. I am now almost embarrassed to think of what I imaged ‘working with refugees’ to entail before I came here. The young people I have met in Landsberg have drastically changed many preconceptions I didn’t even realize I had and the ‘charity work’ I had imagined, in reality has been incredible moments of shared fun, laughter and genuine friendship, for which I am so grateful.

A big thank you to everyone who has helped make my stay here such a memorable and enjoyable one.  I hope I will see each other again some day.

Jessica xxxx

“From Lithuania to Landsberg” is the title of the exhibition, which shows the historical background of the Lithuanian Jews.

The exhibition can be seen until 4 April in the “Säulenhallke” in Landsberg.

The opening hours

Monday to Friday from 2pm to 6pm

Samsatg and Sunday 11am to 5pm.

and by appointment.

Guided tour

Guided tour with Karla Schönebeck can be arranged directly under:

Telephone +49 8191 940 96 35

Foto: Conny Kurz

On a snowy February day, amongst the imposing columns and marble clad corridors of the Munich music school, the jury for the Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award met to decide their winners. 

To be judging an award commemorating a Jewish Musician who died in a concentration camp, in a building that was originally ‘Führerbau’ for Adolf Hitler, is clearly something of great historical significance. As you walk through the corridors, footsteps on the marble floor creating a crisp, resonant percussion, you cannot help but reflect upon the building’s past, trying to imagine the characters from history text books in the same place.

Yet despite its dark history, the feeling of the building is not oppressive. The cheerful sound of music practise spills out from behind the heavy wooden doors and students hurry past with instruments on their backs, stopping to laugh and chat at the foot of the grand staircases. It is clear that the building no longer belongs to the past.

The bridging between past, present and future has been a central theme throughout the discourse the WDCA event. In a concert commemoratingtories from the past, the composition award was envisaged as a way of linking these stories to the present day, and through the use of young musicians and composers, providing a link into the future as well.

The jury, a diverse group of seven, including among them music professors, an orchestral conductor, a violin maker, a Durmaskin relative and a school girl. After some initial meetings, friendly introductions and posed photoshoots, the jury kindly, but firmly expressed their wish to be left alone to have their discussions.  Cameras and filming equipment were transported into the corridor and the rest of the team sat together in suspense, waiting for updates. After about 2 hours, the heavy wooden door opened, but the excitement was short lived, they were only making a short ‘pinklepause’, and would resume their secretive work again afterward!

Finally, when the inhabitants of the corridor thought they may not be able to resist the temptations of the buffet table any longer, the doors opened and a room of smiling, tired faces, happily announced that they had found their winners.

To avoid bias of any kind, the identities of the composers was kept secret during the adjudication process, but once the winners had been chosen, the corresponding codes were punched into a computer and, as if by magic, a photo of the composition’s creator popped up on the projector screen, followed by their personal details, each time met with cheers and excitement. Perhaps the most unexpected reaction, however, was when the photo of the second place winner, Rose Miranda Hall, appeared on the screen and a shocked voice from the back of the room, squealed ‘I know her’. Many such instances of chance connections and unexpected links seems to underline the whole weekend, yet for Jessica, a temporary volunteer from the UK, it was a surprise to find that she too was implicated in this strange web of interconnectedness, having studied music in the same year and often the same class as Rose at university in York.

In one of the many different corridor conversations, the nationalities of some of the entries was discussed. ‘There is one entry from Israel’ Wolfgang intimated, ‘wouldn’t it be special if she won’ we all agreed, knowing that it was for the best that the jury would not know this and let it affect their decision. Therefore, when the identity of the composer that the jury had unanimously voted as their winner, emerged as Bdil, from Israel, it felt extra special.

The final results for the composition award are as follows

1^st price: BRACHA BDIL Israel

2^nd price: ROSE MIRANDA HALL, England

3^rd price: OTTO WANKE, Tschech, living in Vienna

A special and memorable day was had by all and we are very excited for the concert in May 10th in Landsberg where we will have the opportunity to see these great new compositions performed.

Text: Jessica Kettle

Photo: Conny Kurz

High flights of paper

24 students from the secondary school in Landsberg built artistic paper planes and mobiles as part of our “Fliang” project and learned about the special features of origami. Very creative and also artistic works were created, which were exhibited in selected Landsberg shops.

One day later, an official and public workshop began in the Landsberg column hall, where everyone could build paper models on the subject of “flying” under professional guidance. Whether airplanes, butterflies or birds – cranes or doves of peace according to Origamiart – everything was possible here, as long as it flies. On the following day the workshop was open for everyone to experiment – everyone was again invited to participate.

Everybody was very eager to help, children as well as parents folded and tinkered as much as they could, let their planes fly in the columned hall for testing purposes and finally perfected them further. Our workshop leader Renate, former costume director of the Bayreuth Festival and a master craftswoman, offered help and support.

On the last day of the workshop, the flying objects created were finally tested for their flying qualities in the neighbouring hall of the Stadttheater. During this competition, a jury took a close look at the models and tested them according to two important criteria: Who has built the most beautiful aircraft? And: Which flying object flies best? But because all the aircraft were really beautiful and were built with a lot of effort, we decided to draw lots to determine the winner. The lucky winner was 12-year-old Niklas from Landsberg. He could look forward to a real sightseeing flight over Landsberg, which he redeemed a short time later.

TRAILER

They come from Romania, Afghanistan, Poland, Italy, Latvia and Africa: Fourteen young people from the Mittelschule Landsberg Ost between 14 and 18 years are currently working on migration histories and experiences in the past and their own life situations within the framework of the “Türkenmariandl yesterday” project. Young people, who are not even a year in Germany with their parents, sit at the table when it comes to the special features of German everyday life.

The extracurricular project is part of the cultural education work of the Landsberger Kulturverein «dieKunstBauStelle e.V.».
The implementation is carried out together with the partners, the Mittelschule Landsberg and the Landsberg Tagblatt.

PARTNERS

dieKunstBauStelle e .v.
Mittelschule Landsberg am Lech
Landsberger Tagblatt, Redaktion

FUNDING

The project “Tamam” is supported by the “MeinLand program – a time for the future” of the Turkish community in Germany within the framework of the Federal Culture program. Alliances for the formation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Credits to:
Sabine März-Lerch, Speaker and the “Bayerischen Rundfunk”.

Rachel Drissi for edditing and video.

Workshops during the summer holidays 2017

Information and registration by e-mail:

info@dieKunstBauStelle.de

Creative instead of boring: Just in time for the start of the summer holidays, the Landsberger Kulturverein «dieKunstBauStelle e.V.», «The Stelzer» and the Mittelschule Landsberg will once again start their joint project “Der Rote Faden” (The Red Thread ) with costume and theater workshops for teenagers 13 years and older.

As in previous years, this summer also offers the opportunity to learn about design, stilts and theater performance in one fell swoop.

Between 1 August and 14 September, free summer workshops will take place, which will be presented in a final presentation at Landsberger Langen Kunstnacht on 16 September. To be completed.

Started in August with the costume workshops, which takes Renate Stoiber, former head of the costume department of the Bayreuther Festspiele under their care. “We will again build exciting and cool things,” says Stoiber.

“This time, we are also using materials from the construction market. We screw, drill, saw and glue and create a “forest of masks” – the guys are also welcome to this time and are very welcome. “

The theater and stilts workshop is run by the sons, “Here the youngsters learn to walk and play on stilts,” says Wolfgang Hauck, theater director. “After all, they will present the costumes at the” Langen Kunstnacht “as an exhibition and performance.”

The participation is free of charge, as the project “Youth is the center!”, Within the framework of the program “Culture makes strong. Alliances for education “is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The dates are discussed with the participants.
Young people between the ages of 13 and 18 are now welcome to participate.

“Henny Durmashkin, originally from Vilnius, Lithuania and survivor of Dachau concentration camp, was my maternal grandmother.

Wolf Durmashkin was her brother and my great uncle, but I never met him because he was killed in the concentration camps. His musical abilities and genius are legendary in my family.

My entire family is thrilled and truly honored by the creation of a composition award in his honor.

Several of us are excited to be attending the ceremony in Spring 2018.”

Jonathan Reisman, MD

Website

Jonathan Reisman is an internist and pediatrician, wilderness physician, writer ​and philanthropist.