Siegfried Köhler

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Siegfried Köhler (March 2, 1927 in Meißen – July 14, 1984 in East Berlin) was a German composer in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). During World War II, Köhler worked with a musicians group (Spielschar) within the Hitler Youth organisation. After the end of the war, the Soviet secret police NKVD arrested him and charged him with being a member of the Werwolf. He was detained at the infamous prison Speziallager Nr. 4 in Bautzen. In March 1946 he was transferred into Speziallager Nr. 1 in Mühlberg and on June 21, 1946 he was handed over to the NKVD command in Dresden.[1] He was released there suffering from tuberculosis.[2] Köhler went on to study first Composition in Dresden and then Musicology and Art history in Leipzig. From 1963 to 1968 he worked as an art director at the state-owned music publisher VEB Deutsche Schallplatten in East Berlin. In 1968 he returned to Dresden and became the president of Musikhochschule Dresden. From 1982 until his death he was the president of the Association of Composers and Musicologists of the German Democratic Republic. In 1983 he was appointed as the director of the prestigious opera house Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. However, he did not live to see the re-opening of the Semperoper in 1985. Köhler died on July 14, 1984 in East Berlin. Siegfried Köhler's best-known works are the song Heut ist ein wunderschöner Tag (1942) and the Christmas song Tausend Sterne sind ein Dom. His Symphony No. 5 "Pro Pace" (premiered in 1984) i

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