Hans Naumilkat

Born in Schönebeck, Naumilkat passed his Abitur in 1938 and subsequently studied music and music education in Braunschweig, Berlin and Halle. After the Second World War, Naumilkat headed the folk music department, the music department of children's radio and the children's choirs of the Berliner Rundfunk, which were founded in 1950. He worked as a freelance composer and from 1957 as a music teacher. In 1966, he was appointed as professor and from 1968 to 1974, he directed the "Ensemble Etkar André" at the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gymnasium in Berlin. From 1974, he was choirmaster and music teacher at the Pädagogische Hochschule Erfurt/Mühlhausen. Naumilkat composed mainly vocal works for his choirs, for school practice and for the GDR pioneer organisation; the lyrics of many of his songs were written by his wife Ilse, who also worked as a choir director. Through inclusion in school books, radio broadcasts, television productions with the choirs he conducted and live performances up to the act of state, his songs achieved wide distribution. Naumlkat died in Berlin at the age of 74.