Our former board member Antje Vollmer has died. The Protestant theologian, politician and publicist is rightly honored as a pacifist of contention, a credible campaigner in peace and environmental policy, and an outstanding parliamentarian (she was vice president of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2005).
Yes, she did polarize, but without causing harm, and built bridges across political divides. She was a fighter.
She was also a “cultural person,” which, surprisingly, is rarely mentioned in the many obituaries. This term, created by the German Cultural Council as a tribute to people who have rendered special services to art and culture, is also due to Antje Vollmer. Because of her great commitment, the cultural politician Antje Vollmer was a valued and preferred contact person for artists of all disciplines. She paid special attention to the precarious social situation of the many cultural workers.
The fact that Antje Vollmer had been following the development of our music theater for a very long time and was impressed by the “Neukölln dramaturgy” is known to only a few. After the end of her parliamentary work, she was eager to join the board of the Neukölln Opera. That she was elected unanimously was not surprising. She worked on the board as she had done in other areas: committed and full of ideas, also quite argumentative and realistic in the forward-looking sense of wanting more than circumstances allowed. She did our theatre good!