2016 - News - Detail Page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The former Vice President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Peter Hofmann, is dead. He died in Berlin at the end of August at the age of 89. Hofmann served the SPK for almost three decades. From 1968, he was the first permanent deputy to the President, and from 1990 he was Vice President. The lawyer had previously worked in the Nördlingen District Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

As Vice-President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Peter Hofmann headed the Foundation's main administration until 1997. In this role, in addition to all fundamental administrative matters and the often difficult task of securing funding from the federal and state governments, he also oversaw a number of new buildings from planning to inauguration. These included the Kulturforum and the construction of the State Library in Potsdamer Strasse. As the President's permanent representative, he was also involved in all cultural policy tasks and played a decisive and pioneering role in shaping and organising them.

In a letter of condolence to the family, SPK President Hermann Parzinger paid tribute to Peter Hofmann as a "formative figure" of the foundation: "The very special challenges of German reunification and the organisational and personnel integration of the foundation's institutions in East and West fell within his term of office. He left his personal and pioneering mark on this special development work. He achieved this through his extensive knowledge, his great experience and his unconditional attachment to this outstanding cultural institution, but above all through his great personal commitment and empathy for the people who had to be brought together after reunification in order to give the entire foundation a future-oriented direction in terms of personnel and collections."

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is deeply indebted to Peter Hofmann and will always honour his memory.