Christof Hanusch
Christof Hanusch was born in 1960 in Oschersleben an der Bode, Saxony-Anhalt. At the age of 15 he began playing guitar passionately and autodidactically, performing rock music with the bands Argus and Rockwärts.
In 1981 he moved to East Berlin after completing his service as a construction soldier. From 1982 to 1984, despite passing the entrance examination for music college, he did not receive a place of study and worked in various jobs at the post office and in the city library. During this time he played with the bands Jugendstil, Mustang and Casino.
From 1984 onward he lived as a freelance musician and actor, appearing with the German Theater Mime Ensemble and on GDR Television. He performed with the band Mixed Pickles.
In 1986 and 1987 he began studying classical guitar and, through a friend, was introduced to Martin Jacob Weißgerber. From the beginning he felt a strong connection to the instruments of Richard Jacob. He also participated in cabaret projects with songwriter Mario Eichel and actor Michael Engel.
From 1990 to 1994 he studied concert guitar with Thomas Offermann at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He also performed with the band Love & Paradise.
From 1993 to 1996 he took part in the Van Hout Quartet.
Between 1995 and 1999 he worked in various cultural institutions, including as a technical advisor and coordinator at the Jugend-Medien-Service and as a stage designer for the youth stage Stückwerk. During this period he founded his own band, Reality Bites.
In 1999 he began a long-term collaboration with the integrative theater group RambaZamba. Until 2012 he contributed to six major productions, including Ein Herz ist kein Fußball, part of the official cultural program of the German Federal Government for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and participated in numerous guest performances in Germany and abroad.
In 2001 an encounter with Liska Uebel, the daughter of Richard Jacob, and her Weißgerber guitar sparked a deeper engagement with Richard Jacob’s work. Hanusch gradually acquired several instruments by the Markneukirchen master, initially without intending to build a collection. From that year onward he worked at the guitar shop Wolf & Lehmann in Berlin.
In 2002 he built his own concert guitar in the workshop of Andreas Krüger in Bielefeld.
From 2003 to 2009 he organized concerts and events featuring Weißgerber guitars in Berlin, with guests such as Hans Michael Koch, Jens Wagner and Thomas Müller-Pering. He wrote his first articles for specialist journals and gave lectures.
He also participated as a musician in D-Mission at the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and in the 1950s show Teddy Tee bringing back the Doo Whop with Timo Dierkes. He performed chamber music with mezzo-soprano Christine Lichtenberg.
In 2007 he began a productive collaboration with the Musical Instrument Museum Markneukirchen, highlighted by a concert on instruments from the museum’s collection.
In 2008 he released the CD Christof Hanusch plays the Weißgerber guitar of the Musical Instrument Museum Markneukirchen and began work on the Weißgerber book.
In 2010 he co-organized the Weißgerber Days in Markneukirchen on the 50th anniversary of Richard Jacob’s death, contributing to concerts and lectures featuring Thomas Müller-Pering, the Weimar Guitar Quartet, the Weißgerber Duo, Eva Jablynska and the duo Jens Wagner–Anna Tasiemska. He also curated and designed the special exhibition of 60 Weißgerber guitars. In the same year he became self-employed as a freelance musician and teacher.
In 2011 the 460-page monograph WEISSGERBER – Guitars by Richard Jacob was published by the Association of Guitarists and Supporters of the Musical Instrument Museum Markneukirchen. He organized a memorial concert in Berlin for the 100th birthday of Martin Jacob Weißgerber with Jens Wagner.
In 2012 he presented a new concert program titled Romantic Guitar Music from 3 Centuries. He also began preparing a catalog of the guitar collection of the Musical Instrument Museum Markneukirchen.
