Siegfried Janzen, one of the last dialect artists, has gone

Looking back to better days: Christa and Siegfried Janzen in their summer kitchen, which also served as their very own private museum of local history.

Siegfried Janzen was born on September 20, 1931 in Elbing, West Prussia. The turmoil of the Second World War led him and his parents to flee in January 1945, which ended in Velten after a 14-day train journey.

From 1946 to 1951, he completed an apprenticeship as a machine fitter and worked at LEW-Hennigsdorf. In the fall of 1951, however, he embarked on a new path and began studying to become a teacher in Frankfurt/Oder. After his first and second teacher examinations (1952 and 1954), he was employed in Beuchow and Neuzelle. His passion for music was already evident in 1956 with the founding of the Groß Lübbenau shawm band.

The year 1959 marked a turning point in his private life: He married his wife Christa on September 19. The couple had two children, son Sven (born in 1959) and daughter Uda (1961). Siegfried Janzen remained true to his profession as a teacher for over 36 years. He taught almost all subjects and led a total of 27 classes as a class teacher. Despite the heavy workload, he continued his education, completing a correspondence course in Leipzig and choral conducting courses at the Humboldt University in Berlin. A particular personal success was the completion of a three-year course at the Dresden Academy of Culture in 1977, which he celebrated at the age of 45 as the “triumph of age over youth”.

In addition to teaching, from which he retired in 1989, Siegfried Janzen was intensively involved in local politics and cultural life. From 1992 to 1998, he was mayor of Groß-Lübbenau and chairman of the Lübbenau district committee. He worked as a local chronicler, compiled the chronicle of the fire department and was chairman of the Oberspreewald singing group. His love of the Spreewald dialect was expressed in the publication of eight dialect books, some of which he wrote in collaboration with his wife Christa. He wrote his last two books after the death of his wife.

His private life also remained eventful, marked by numerous family milestones, such as the birth of five grandchildren and later five great-grandchildren. He received a special honor in 2018 when he visited Bellevue Palace and was received by the then Federal President Joachim Gauck.

Siegfried Janzen was a man of many talents. His hobbies included playing numerous instruments (including the violin, saxophone and mandolin), painting oil paintings and collecting beer labels and capsule closures. He was deeply rooted in the community of Groß-Lübbenau throughout his life.

Siegfried Janzen is in his element: he displays collector’s items from Spreewald households.

In 2019, the couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. However, shortly after his 90th birthday in September 2021, Siegfried Janzen suffered a heavy loss: His beloved wife Christa passed away in Lübben Hospital on September 26, 2021, just a few days after they had celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary together.

Health problems forced him to use a wheelchair in the last year of his life. He found the help and support he needed at the “Christinenhof” in Burg. His alert mind kept him busy right to the end: his room at home was more of an office, he wrote articles, wrote lyrics and reproduced songs, and he organized many an evening for senior citizens with his poems, songs and texts in Spreewald dialect.

The Prussian boy from Elbing, now Elbląg, became a Spreewald native with a whole new home in his heart. His curriculum vitae bears witness to a full, busy life that was always closely linked to his family, music and his homeland.

On April 29, 2026, Siegfried Janzen passed away at the age of 94 after a short, serious illness.

Peter Becker, 08.05.26