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Marie Hüllenkremer Dies |
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The German AICA is mourning the loss of Marie Hüllenkremer, a member since 1987. The head of Cologne’s Department of Culture died in Cologne on 16th May, aged 61, after a long and painful illness, of cancer. The city of Cologne has launched an electronic condolences book at www.stadt-koeln.de/kondolenz. Mayor Schramma (CDU) paid tribute to the prominent politician in the field of culture policy, describing her as a personality characterized by an insatiable curiosity and a capacity for enthusiasm. Marie Hüllenkremer was born in Eupen on 14th March 1943 and began her career in journalism, working for the Aachener Nachrichten in the mid 1960’s. There she was responsible for cultural matters from 1970 to 1978, succeeding Klaus Honnef in the post. Further stage posts of her career were spent as a culture and art critic at the Hamburg-based art magazine ART, for which she reported from New York, as culture editor of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and the „Zeit“ magazine. She returned to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger as acting editor-in-chief in 1992. The Social Democrats won the independent journalist over in 1998 for the important task of heading Cologne’s Department of Culture – on the threshold of the city’s as yet not fully recognizable financial crisis. Among her most important personnel decisions were the appointments of Kasper König as director of the Museum Ludwig and Albin Hänseroth as head of the Philharmonic. Her plan to get Barbara Mundel for the Cologne Opera, foundered on the objection of the mayor, who in the end also overruled her in other crucial decisions. Marie Hüllenkrener liked to be characterized as „down-to-earth“ and as a „strong woman“, but at the same time she was extremely sensitive. Above all, she had style. Her talent in bringing people together and her open nature meant that meetings with her were invariably profitable. Right to the end she concealed many of her major worries, concerning her public office and those relating to her illness, beneath a generally optimistic disposition. We will treasure Marie Hüllenkremer’s memory. Cologne, mid May 2004 WALTER VITT |
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