Köhler, Peter

Jazz musician, journalist, author

Born: 16.04.1933 in Angerburg, East Prussia (today Węgorzewo/Poland)

died: 04.12.1993 in Wiesbaden

Köhler studied clarinet at the State Academy of Music under Prof. Paul Gloger, among others. As a student, he founded the "Cologne Dixieland Steamers" with friends in 1954.

After graduating, he traveled through Europe in 1957-60 with the band of Afro-German drummer William MacAllan. This was followed by several years with his own band, which was followed by longer engagements, e.g. two years in Istanbul with Ibrahim Solmaz's band. After returning to Wiesbaden, he mainly performed in the Rhine-Main region. In 1976, a serious car accident ended his career as a professional musician, and since then he has worked as a clerk in the Hessian State Chancellery in Wiesbaden. From the mid-1980s until his death, he played clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophone with the Wiesbaden Lawyers' Band.

Köhler taught at the Frankfurt Jazz School, wrote reviews for the Wiesbadener Kurier, gave lectures on jazz at the Volkshochschule Wiesbaden e.V. and in 1992 organized the series "Jazz, Society and Politics" about the 1920s, the Nazi takeover, the swing youth and the new beginning after the war for the Hessische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung. He created more than 200 radio programs about jazz for WDR.

In 1983, his study "Die Jazzmusiker: zur Soziologie einer kreativen Randgruppe" (Jazz musicians: the sociology of a creative fringe group) was published with the sociologist Konrad Schacht and in 1991, together with Matthias Schubert, "Vom Ragtime endlich auch zum Swing. On the early history of jazz in Germany". A book on the history of jazz in Germany remained unfinished due to his sudden death. The manuscript, together with his extensive collection of books, magazines, photos, LPs and shellac records, is in the possession of the Darmstadt Jazz Institute. Köhler was a member of the Wiesbaden Jazz Circle.