Gerda Herrmann

Gerda Herrmann (June 30, 1931 in Cannstatt – April 15, 2021 ) was a German composer and poet. She had been living in Botnang since the 1960s and wrote more than 400 songs, setting to music both her own and other authors' lyrics.

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.

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.

In 2019, a documentary film The Songwriter of Botnang was made on Herrmann's life and oeuvre. and was additionally screened in competition at Berlin Independent Film Festival.

Encouraging creative writing by young people

From 2003, until her death, Gerda Herrman was a founding member 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. and contain texts of different genres and styles. 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. Herrmann set several poems from these anthologies to music.

Further commitments

Additionally, from 1968 until the birth of her third child in 1972, Herrmann committed for Amnesty International and regards Amnesty's work as "important". She was a founding member of Group 49.