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Hans G. Helms

April 11, 2024

Hans G Helms (8 June 1932 – 11 March 2012) was a German experimental writer, composer, and social and economic analyst and critic.[1]

Life edit

Helms was born in Teterow into a Jewish family, who were able to escape the Holocaust by using falsified papers.[citation needed] He spent his childhood and youth in Teterow and Berlin. He received his first musical education whilst young, learning the piano and theory from an immigrant from Byelorussia. During the Nazi era he became acquainted with Swing and jazz from secretly listening to "enemy transmitters".

In the years immediately after World War II, Helms studied tenor saxophone with a member of the US army and appeared from 1950 until 1952 in Sweden as a jazz musician. He played with, amongst others, Charlie Parker and Gene Krupa, and also in 1953 in Vienna with Hans Koller. As well as being preoccupied with new music (Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Alban Berg and the Second Viennese School) Helms, working at the Viennese radio station Rot-Weiß-Rot [de] (RWR), created with, amongst others, Ingeborg Bachmann, the radio genre Jazz & Lyrik.

In Göttingen, where he lived from 1953 onwards, Helms first made the acquaintance of the philosopher and sociologist Helmuth Plessner, then later with Theodor W. Adorno. His social and cultural critiques were significantly influenced by the Frankfurt School and critical theory. He also studied comparative linguistics with Roman Jakobson and philosophy and social theory with Max Horkheimer and Siegfried Kracauer; however, Helms describes the Marxist economist Jürgen Kuczynski as his most important teacher.

In 1955, the self-taught Helms began to compose. From 1957 onwards he made his base in Cologne, where he worked together with the composer Gottfried Michael Koenig at the buildings of the Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). He directed phonetic experiments together with the physicist and communications researcher Werner Meyer-Eppler, who also advised Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the same time. This work consisted of speech and sound analyses as well as linguistic and cybernetic studies.

Helms made contacts with Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and John Cage through the Donaueschingen Festival and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (where Helms visited and sometimes lectured from 1957–1970); he was especially drawn to Cage's music using radio broadcasts and writings. In Helms' abode a circle was formed, which included, as well as Koenig, also Mauricio Kagel and the musicicologist Heinz-Klaus Metzger; a central preoccupation was James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. From this influence, Helms developed two 'language-music compositions' (Sprach-Musik-Kompositionen), Fa:m Ahniesgwow and daidalos; later, in collaboration with Hans Otte, came GOLEM and KONSTRUKTIONEN. His Text for Bruno Maderna (1959), a work consisting entirely of phonemes, was used by Maderna in his stagework Hyperion (1964). Helms would apply principles to language which derived from musical techniques of serialism, organising phonemes and morphemes to create new linguistic constructions in such a manner. This work paralleled that of other contemporaries of the time, in particular Dieter Schnebel.

During the 1960s, when Helms became a private pupil of Adorno, he studied the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and its roots in Marxism. Thereby he discovered Max Stirner, whose work Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (The Ego and Its Own) had provoked a violent critique from Marx, which led in consequence to his basic concept of historical materialism. Helms worked for many years upon this work of Stirner and its reception, producing his literary magnum opus, the 600-page Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft in 1966.

Helms saw himself, with his critique of Stirner, in the tradition from both Marx and some contemporary Marxists, who had already recognised 'the suppurative focus' and Stirner's 'current danger'.[2] In his work, Helms presented the view that Stirner created 'the first consistent formulation ... of the ideology of the middle class' and further that Hitler articulated a specifically middle-class ideology and that Stirner-ism and National Socialism are both variations upon the same fascist demons. "Because this demon lives on in West Germany, controlled by the middle classes, he has written this book to fight it."[3]

Afterwards he stopped composing in order to concentrate on producing music broadcasts and films (including works on Ives, Boulez and Stockhausen), believing radio and television as the more effective media for presenting social critique. He concluded his studies in sociology with a doctorate at the University of Bremen in 1974; as well as travelling to European and North African countries, he held a Guest Professorship between 1976 and 1978 at the University of Illinois. In 1978, he moved to the United States, and from 1982 lived in New York City.

Here Helms investigated the effects of the computer and telecommunications development on the field of employment, engaging in critiques of capitalism and globalization, as well as the social consequences of modern town planning. He predominantly made use of field research and interviews. He published his findings in political and scientific, music and literary magazines, trade union journals, and daily papers; and compiled radio and television productions for several ARD broadcasting corporations.

In 1988, Helms returned to Germany, first living in Cologne; in 2003 he moved to Berlin. He adds to his studies work on the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe, as well as, separately, looking critically at the conditions of work of contemporary composers who use electronics and computers.

Works edit

Music edit

  • Fa:m' Ahniesgwow. Experimental literature/speech-composition/radio play, DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1959/60
  • Text for Bruno Maderna. Rendering and incorporation from Bruno Maderna in his Dimensione II und Hyperion. Cologne 1959, Milan 1959, 1964 ff.
  • daidalos. Composition in seven scenes for four vocal soloists, instrumental ensemble, and conductor. With Hans Otte 1961
  • Yahud-Geschichten. Reading and listening pieces. 1961–65 (unfinished)
  • GOLEM. Polemic for nine singers. 1962
  • KONSTRUKTIONEN über das Kommunistische Manifest für 16 Sänger (on The Communist Manifesto for sixteen singers). 1968
  • Birdcage – 73'20.958" for a Composer. Film composition. With John Cage. 1972
  • Fa:m' Ahniesgwow. Radio version (excerpts). Radio Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne 1979
  • Hieronymus-John von Münchhausen: Fabulierer, Adventurer, Erfinder Neuer Klangwelten. In: Jahresring 40: Mythologie der Aufklärung – Geheimlehren der Moderne. (ed. Beat Wyss). Verlag Silke Schreiber, Munich 1993
  • Rapprochements à John Cage. A radio composition with an integration of Music of Changes of John Cage. Cologne and Baden-Baden 1995–96. – Verbal score in Protokolle 1–2/1997

Writings (selected) edit

  • "Marihuana". In: Jazz-Podium, vol. III, nos. 6 and 8, June and August 1954
  • "Zu John Cages Vorlesung 'Unbestimmtheit' ". In: Die Reihe V, 1959
  • "Über die gesellschaftliche Funktion der Kritik". In: Kritik – von wem/für wen/wie, Munich 1959
  • Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft: Max Stirners "Einziger" und der Fortschritt des demokratischen Selbstbewußtseins vom Vormärz bis zur Bundesrepublik. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1966
  • Fetisch Revolution. Marxismus und Bundesrepublik. Sammlung Luchterhand, Neuwied 1969
  • "Vom Proletkult zum Bio-Interview". In: Literatur als Praxis? Aktualität und Tradition operativen Schreibens. (eds. Raoul Hübner, Erhard Schütz). Lesen 4. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1976.
  • Textverarbeitungssysteme. Neue Computertechnologien – Arbeitsplatzkiller oder technischer Fortschritt. (ed. HBV-Hauptvorstand). Arbeitsmaterial zur Tarifpolitik. HBV, Düsseldorf 1978
  • Auf dem Weg zum Schrottplatz. Zum Städtebau in den USA und in Canada. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1984
  • Künstliche Intelligenz. Eine Studie ihrer historischen Entwicklung, ihrer Triebkräfte und ihrer sozio- und politökonomischen Implikationen. author's edition, New York 1985.
  • "Detroit – Motor City mit Motown Sound. Eine Metropole unter dem Diktat der Automobilkonzerne". In: Die Zukunft der Städte und der Regionen. (ed. IMSF) Arbeitsmaterialien des IMSF 21. IMSF, Frankfurt/Main 1988
  • " Electronic Battlefields' oder 'Die Einübung des imitativen Gehorsams' ". In: Imitationen – Nachahmung und Modell: Von der Lust am Falschen. (eds. Jörg Huber, Martin Heller, Hans Ulrich Reck). Stroemfeld/Roter Stern, Basel, Frankfurt/Main 1989
  • "Manhattans neue Kapitalfabriken. Zu den technologischen Ursachen und baulichen Konsequenzen der Konzentration des Weltfinanzkapitals in New York". In: Die Janusgesichter des Booms. (eds. Ulrich Becker, Annalie Schoen). VSA, Hamburg 1989
  • "Ford und die Nazis". In: Zwangsarbeit bei Ford. Dokumentation. (ed. Projektgruppe "Messelager" im Verein EL-DE-Haus e.V. Cologne). Rode-Stankowski, Cologne 1996
  • "Plüsch und deutsches Mittelgebirge. Zu den Schriften Siegfried Kracauers". In Siegfried Kracauer. Zum Werk des Romanciers, Feuilletonisten, Architekten, Filmwissenschaftlers und Soziologen. (ed. Andreas Volk). Seismo, Zürich 1996
  • "Zur Ästhetik des Widerstands. Anknüpfungen an Werner Mittenzwei [de]. Eine historische Mär von den Zwisten und Kümmernissen konservativer Literaten. / 'Und so ein Mann wollte ich eigentlich werden' oder 'Das Geheimnis des Theaters' ". In Dialog mit Werner Mittenzwei. Beiträge und Materialien zu einer Kulturgeschichte der DDR. (ed. Simone Barck, Inge Münz-Koenen, Gabriele Gast). trafo, Berlin 2002
  • Musik zwischen Geschäft und Unwahrheit (Musik-Konzepte, vol. 111, eds. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn). Text+Kritik, Munich 2001
  • "Zu Albert Speers Bürokratie der systematischen Verelendung und Deportation der Berliner Juden". In: Zeitschrift Marxistische Erneuerung. Z. 51, 2002
  • "Zu Kompromissen nicht bereit. Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen mit Franco Evangelisti. In: Hin zu einer neuen Welt. Notate zu Franco Evangelisti.. (ed. Harald Muenz [de]) Pfau, Saarbrücken 2002
  • Oświęcim – Oshpitsin – Auschwitz. Zentrum jüdischen Lebens, Stätte des Massenmords. Chronik einer polnischen Stadt. Verlag 8. Mai, Berlin 2007
  • Editor and co-author of the following volumes:
    • Max Stirner: Der Einzige und sein Eigentum und andere Schriften. Hanser, Munich 1968
    • Kapitalistischer Städtebau. (with Joern Janssen). Luchterhand, Neuwied 1970
    • Petr Kropotkin: Die Eroberung des Brotes und andere Schriften. Hanser, Munich 1973
    • Die Stadt als Gabentisch: Beobachtungen der aktuellen Städtebauentwicklung. Reclam, Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-379-00732-3

Discography edit

  • Fa:m' Ahniesgwow. Experimental speech-music-composition/radio play. Integral recording (Ensemble sprechbohrer [de]: Sigrid Sachse, Harald Muenz, Georg Sachse). WERGO/HR, Mainz 2011. Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Vierteljahresliste 3/2011, Top 10 Picks 2011 The Wire, London.

References edit

  1. ^ "Helms gestorben". Junge Welt. 13 March 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2022. Helms always used "G" without a full stop as his middle name; different sources give "Günter" or "Georg".
  2. ^ Helms, Hans G (1966). Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg. p. 495.
  3. ^ Helms 1966, foreword pp. 1–5, 481.

External links edit

  • "Auschwitz vor Polens EU-Beitritt". Junge Welt, 18 May 2001
  • "Es ist doch viel wichtiger, sich mit der Basis zu beschäftigen", interview by Florian Neuner, scheinsclag [de], no. 6, 2003 (in German)
  • by Kurt Zube [de], December 1969

April 11, 2024
hans, helms, hans, helms, june, 1932, march, 2012, german, experimental, writer, composer, social, economic, analyst, critic, contents, life, works, music, writings, selected, discography, references, external, linkslife, edithelms, born, teterow, into, jewish. Hans G Helms 8 June 1932 11 March 2012 was a German experimental writer composer and social and economic analyst and critic 1 Contents 1 Life 2 Works 2 1 Music 2 2 Writings selected 2 3 Discography 3 References 4 External linksLife editHelms was born in Teterow into a Jewish family who were able to escape the Holocaust by using falsified papers citation needed He spent his childhood and youth in Teterow and Berlin He received his first musical education whilst young learning the piano and theory from an immigrant from Byelorussia During the Nazi era he became acquainted with Swing and jazz from secretly listening to enemy transmitters In the years immediately after World War II Helms studied tenor saxophone with a member of the US army and appeared from 1950 until 1952 in Sweden as a jazz musician He played with amongst others Charlie Parker and Gene Krupa and also in 1953 in Vienna with Hans Koller As well as being preoccupied with new music Charles Ives Henry Cowell Alban Berg and the Second Viennese School Helms working at the Viennese radio station Rot Weiss Rot de RWR created with amongst others Ingeborg Bachmann the radio genre Jazz amp Lyrik In Gottingen where he lived from 1953 onwards Helms first made the acquaintance of the philosopher and sociologist Helmuth Plessner then later with Theodor W Adorno His social and cultural critiques were significantly influenced by the Frankfurt School and critical theory He also studied comparative linguistics with Roman Jakobson and philosophy and social theory with Max Horkheimer and Siegfried Kracauer however Helms describes the Marxist economist Jurgen Kuczynski as his most important teacher In 1955 the self taught Helms began to compose From 1957 onwards he made his base in Cologne where he worked together with the composer Gottfried Michael Koenig at the buildings of the Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR He directed phonetic experiments together with the physicist and communications researcher Werner Meyer Eppler who also advised Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the same time This work consisted of speech and sound analyses as well as linguistic and cybernetic studies Helms made contacts with Stockhausen Pierre Boulez and John Cage through the Donaueschingen Festival and the Darmstadter Ferienkurse where Helms visited and sometimes lectured from 1957 1970 he was especially drawn to Cage s music using radio broadcasts and writings In Helms abode a circle was formed which included as well as Koenig also Mauricio Kagel and the musicicologist Heinz Klaus Metzger a central preoccupation was James Joyce s Finnegans Wake From this influence Helms developed two language music compositions Sprach Musik Kompositionen Fa m Ahniesgwow and daidalos later in collaboration with Hans Otte came GOLEM and KONSTRUKTIONEN His Text for Bruno Maderna 1959 a work consisting entirely of phonemes was used by Maderna in his stagework Hyperion 1964 Helms would apply principles to language which derived from musical techniques of serialism organising phonemes and morphemes to create new linguistic constructions in such a manner This work paralleled that of other contemporaries of the time in particular Dieter Schnebel During the 1960s when Helms became a private pupil of Adorno he studied the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and its roots in Marxism Thereby he discovered Max Stirner whose work Der Einzige und sein Eigentum The Ego and Its Own had provoked a violent critique from Marx which led in consequence to his basic concept of historical materialism Helms worked for many years upon this work of Stirner and its reception producing his literary magnum opus the 600 page Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft in 1966 Helms saw himself with his critique of Stirner in the tradition from both Marx and some contemporary Marxists who had already recognised the suppurative focus and Stirner s current danger 2 In his work Helms presented the view that Stirner created the first consistent formulation of the ideology of the middle class and further that Hitler articulated a specifically middle class ideology and that Stirner ism and National Socialism are both variations upon the same fascist demons Because this demon lives on in West Germany controlled by the middle classes he has written this book to fight it 3 Afterwards he stopped composing in order to concentrate on producing music broadcasts and films including works on Ives Boulez and Stockhausen believing radio and television as the more effective media for presenting social critique He concluded his studies in sociology with a doctorate at the University of Bremen in 1974 as well as travelling to European and North African countries he held a Guest Professorship between 1976 and 1978 at the University of Illinois In 1978 he moved to the United States and from 1982 lived in New York City Here Helms investigated the effects of the computer and telecommunications development on the field of employment engaging in critiques of capitalism and globalization as well as the social consequences of modern town planning He predominantly made use of field research and interviews He published his findings in political and scientific music and literary magazines trade union journals and daily papers and compiled radio and television productions for several ARD broadcasting corporations In 1988 Helms returned to Germany first living in Cologne in 2003 he moved to Berlin He adds to his studies work on the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe as well as separately looking critically at the conditions of work of contemporary composers who use electronics and computers Works editMusic edit Fa m Ahniesgwow Experimental literature speech composition radio play DuMont Schauberg Cologne 1959 60 Text for Bruno Maderna Rendering and incorporation from Bruno Maderna in his Dimensione II und Hyperion Cologne 1959 Milan 1959 1964 ff daidalos Composition in seven scenes for four vocal soloists instrumental ensemble and conductor With Hans Otte 1961 Yahud Geschichten Reading and listening pieces 1961 65 unfinished GOLEM Polemic for nine singers 1962 KONSTRUKTIONEN uber das Kommunistische Manifest fur 16 Sanger on The Communist Manifesto for sixteen singers 1968 Birdcage 73 20 958 for a Composer Film composition With John Cage 1972 Fa m Ahniesgwow Radio version excerpts Radio Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne 1979 Hieronymus John von Munchhausen Fabulierer Adventurer Erfinder Neuer Klangwelten In Jahresring 40 Mythologie der Aufklarung Geheimlehren der Moderne ed Beat Wyss Verlag Silke Schreiber Munich 1993 Rapprochements a John Cage A radio composition with an integration of Music of Changes of John Cage Cologne and Baden Baden 1995 96 Verbal score in Protokolle 1 2 1997Writings selected edit Marihuana In Jazz Podium vol III nos 6 and 8 June and August 1954 Zu John Cages Vorlesung Unbestimmtheit In Die Reihe V 1959 Uber die gesellschaftliche Funktion der Kritik In Kritik von wem fur wen wie Munich 1959 Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft Max Stirners Einziger und der Fortschritt des demokratischen Selbstbewusstseins vom Vormarz bis zur Bundesrepublik DuMont Schauberg Cologne 1966 Fetisch Revolution Marxismus und Bundesrepublik Sammlung Luchterhand Neuwied 1969 Vom Proletkult zum Bio Interview In Literatur als Praxis Aktualitat und Tradition operativen Schreibens eds Raoul Hubner Erhard Schutz Lesen 4 Westdeutscher Verlag Opladen 1976 Textverarbeitungssysteme Neue Computertechnologien Arbeitsplatzkiller oder technischer Fortschritt ed HBV Hauptvorstand Arbeitsmaterial zur Tarifpolitik HBV Dusseldorf 1978 Auf dem Weg zum Schrottplatz Zum Stadtebau in den USA und in Canada Pahl Rugenstein Cologne 1984 Kunstliche Intelligenz Eine Studie ihrer historischen Entwicklung ihrer Triebkrafte und ihrer sozio und politokonomischen Implikationen author s edition New York 1985 Detroit Motor City mit Motown Sound Eine Metropole unter dem Diktat der Automobilkonzerne In Die Zukunft der Stadte und der Regionen ed IMSF Arbeitsmaterialien des IMSF 21 IMSF Frankfurt Main 1988 Electronic Battlefields oder Die Einubung des imitativen Gehorsams In Imitationen Nachahmung und Modell Von der Lust am Falschen eds Jorg Huber Martin Heller Hans Ulrich Reck Stroemfeld Roter Stern Basel Frankfurt Main 1989 Manhattans neue Kapitalfabriken Zu den technologischen Ursachen und baulichen Konsequenzen der Konzentration des Weltfinanzkapitals in New York In Die Janusgesichter des Booms eds Ulrich Becker Annalie Schoen VSA Hamburg 1989 Ford und die Nazis In Zwangsarbeit bei Ford Dokumentation ed Projektgruppe Messelager im Verein EL DE Haus e V Cologne Rode Stankowski Cologne 1996 Plusch und deutsches Mittelgebirge Zu den Schriften Siegfried Kracauers In Siegfried Kracauer Zum Werk des Romanciers Feuilletonisten Architekten Filmwissenschaftlers und Soziologen ed Andreas Volk Seismo Zurich 1996 Zur Asthetik des Widerstands Anknupfungen an Werner Mittenzwei de Eine historische Mar von den Zwisten und Kummernissen konservativer Literaten Und so ein Mann wollte ich eigentlich werden oder Das Geheimnis des Theaters In Dialog mit Werner Mittenzwei Beitrage und Materialien zu einer Kulturgeschichte der DDR ed Simone Barck Inge Munz Koenen Gabriele Gast trafo Berlin 2002 Musik zwischen Geschaft und Unwahrheit Musik Konzepte vol 111 eds Heinz Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn Text Kritik Munich 2001 Zu Albert Speers Burokratie der systematischen Verelendung und Deportation der Berliner Juden In Zeitschrift Marxistische Erneuerung Z 51 2002 Zu Kompromissen nicht bereit Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen mit Franco Evangelisti In Hin zu einer neuen Welt Notate zu Franco Evangelisti ed Harald Muenz de Pfau Saarbrucken 2002 Oswiecim Oshpitsin Auschwitz Zentrum judischen Lebens Statte des Massenmords Chronik einer polnischen Stadt Verlag 8 Mai Berlin 2007 Editor and co author of the following volumes Max Stirner Der Einzige und sein Eigentum und andere Schriften Hanser Munich 1968 Kapitalistischer Stadtebau with Joern Janssen Luchterhand Neuwied 1970 Petr Kropotkin Die Eroberung des Brotes und andere Schriften Hanser Munich 1973 Die Stadt als Gabentisch Beobachtungen der aktuellen Stadtebauentwicklung Reclam Leipzig 1992 ISBN 3 379 00732 3Discography edit Fa m Ahniesgwow Experimental speech music composition radio play Integral recording Ensemble sprechbohrer de Sigrid Sachse Harald Muenz Georg Sachse WERGO HR Mainz 2011 Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Vierteljahresliste 3 2011 Top 10 Picks 2011 The Wire London References edit Helms gestorben Junge Welt 13 March 2012 Retrieved 25 May 2022 Helms always used G without a full stop as his middle name different sources give Gunter or Georg Helms Hans G 1966 Die Ideologie der anonymen Gesellschaft Cologne DuMont Schauberg p 495 Helms 1966 foreword pp 1 5 481 External links edit Auschwitz vor Polens EU Beitritt Junge Welt 18 May 2001 Es ist doch viel wichtiger sich mit der Basis zu beschaftigen interview by Florian Neuner scheinsclag de no 6 2003 in German Herr Helms and Herr Stirner A Critique of Hans G Helms The Ideology of the Anonymous Society by Kurt Zube de December 1969Portals nbsp Biography nbsp Classical music nbsp Literature Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hans G Helms amp oldid 1089743461, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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