Gerard (Gerhardt) Hoffnung was born to Jewish parents in 1925 in Grünewald, Berlin. In order to escape Nazi persecution, he immigrated to London with his mother in 1938, briefly studying at Hornsey College of Art before working as an art teacher. Despite his early death at the age of 34 (from a brain haemorrhage), Hoffnung became a highly acclaimed musical cartoonist for publications including the Radio Times and Punch, as well as a raconteur, broadcaster, and organiser of the humorous Hoffnung Music Festivals at London's Royal Festival Hall.
Cartoonist and musical humourist Gerard (Gerhardt) Hoffnung was born to Jewish parents in 1925 in Grünewald, Berlin. His mother, Hilde, was an amateur musician and encouraged his artistic talents from an early age. Following the rise of Nazism, in 1938 Hoffnung and his parents fled Germany. His father moved to Palestine while he and his mother immigrated to England; the young Hoffnung briefly attended Bunce Court School for refugees, before settling in Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London with his mother, and which remained their home for the rest of their lives. His uncle, the renowned art historian Bruno Adler also settled in England. Hoffnung was further educated at Highgate School and at the age of 15 his first cartoon was published in the satirical monthly magazine Lilliput. He went on to study at Hornsey College of Art but was expelled, and subsequently taught art at Stamford School, Lincolnshire (1944) and Harrow School (1945–50). Following brief stints as a staff artist for the London Evening News and the New York-based Flair, Hoffnung worked as a freelance illustrator, his drawings appearing in Punch, Tatler, Strand Magazine and Radio Times, as well as in advertisements for Kia-Ora and Guinness.
Hoffnung's early cartoons were influenced by German illustrators Wilhelm Busch (1893–1908) and Walter Trier (1890–1951), a fellow émigré residing in London, and were inspired by the world of music. His uniquely warm and witty drawings, often featuring orchestral instruments, were predominantly executed with a mapping pen and Indian ink, with occasional additions of watercolour and wax crayon. So fascinated was he by music that he taught himself to play the tuba and performed regularly with the amateur Morley College Orchestra. In the 1950s his musical cartoons were published in to widespread acclaim in publications including Maestro (1953), The Hoffnung Orchestra (1955), The Hoffnung Music Festival (1956), The Companion to Music (1957), Hoffnung's Musical Chairs (1958) and Hoffnung's Acoustics (1959). Towards the end of the decade, he also published a book of non-musical cartoons entitled Ho Ho Hoffnung and illustrated John Symonds' children's book The Isle of Cats. He held several one-man exhibitions in London including at the Little Gallery, Piccadilly, in 1949 and at the Royal Festival Hall in 1951 and 1956.
Hoffnung's cartoon published in 1958 in the Radio Times, depicting 'a tuba player filling a glass with beer flowing from a tap in his instrument' may have been used to advertise his own Hoffnung Music Festivals held at the Royal Festival Hall in 1956 and 1958 (and posthumously in 1961) (Schlenker 2019, p. 146). During these highly popular, humorous concerts, both existing pieces of classical music and new compositions were performed, 'some of it by respected composers such as Malcolm Arnold, played on ludicrous instruments or to the accompaniment of vacuum cleaners or road rammers' (Ingrams, 2004). In his late wife Anette's words, these events showcased Hoffnung's 'own particular brand of symphonic caricature' (artist's website). As an equally gifted speaker, he spoke at the Oxford Union (1958) and was a raconteur and regular contestant on panel game shows including One Minute Please (later renamed Just a Minute) on BBC Radio 4. His contribution to various BBC projects throughout the 1940s and 1950s has been explored by Ines Schlenker in Applied Arts in British Exile from 1933: Changing Visual and Material Culture (2019). In his spare time Hoffnung volunteered as a visitor at Pentonville Prison and from 1955 onwards he became a Quaker, believing they shared his concern for the abolition of the death penalty and his support of pacifism.
Gerard Hoffnung died in London in September 1959 at the age of 34 from a cerebral haemorrhage; his obituary appeared in AJR (Association of Jewish Refugees) Information. Many of his previously unseen cartoons were published posthumously in publications including Birds, Bees and Storks (1960), Hoffnung's Little Ones (1961), Hoffnung's Constant Readers (1962) and Hoffnung's Encore (1968). In 1960 Humphrey Burton used Hoffnung's drawings to make a short black and white film for BBC arts programme Monitor, narrated by John Amis and, in 1964, the BBC produced six short animated films based on Hoffnungs's musical cartoons in collaboration with cartoon makers, Halas and Bachelor. Posthumous exhibitions of Hoffnung's artwork were held in Berlin (1964), New York (1970), and London (1978 and 1992). A memorial tribute, O Rare Hoffnung: A Memorial Garland was published by Putnam in 1960 and, in 2009, a comedy-drama by Alan Stafford entitled Hoffnung: Drawn to Music was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Gerard Hoffnung]
Publications related to [Gerard Hoffnung] in the Ben Uri Library