Draft:Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann

Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann (born June 15, 1952, in Hamburg, Germany) is a German philologist, journalist and author. She was appointed Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia on June 18, 1997, and has since headed the Latvian Honorary Consulate in Hamburg.

Her academic and artistic activities include literature, music, and painting.

Sabine Sommerkamp has been awarded several literary prizes. In 2002 she was appointed Senator h.c. of the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga, and in 2010 she was awarded the Latvian Cross of Recognition by President Valdis Zatlers.

Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann is married to the entrepreneur Klaus Homann and has one son.

Life, education and career

Sabine Sommerkamp was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. Since her earliest childhood, she has spent extended periods of time in the USA, South America and the Far East. She is the daughter of aviation sales manager Ernst Günter Sommerkamp, one of the pioneers of modern aviation, and his wife Antonie Sommerkamp, née Dreffein. During World War II, her mother worked as a technical draftswoman in aircraft construction for Blohm & Voss.

After graduating from high school in 1973, Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann read German, English and American studies, pedagogy (first and second state examination), comparative religious studies, and Japanese literature at the universities of Bonn and Hamburg, Germany. In 1975/76 she spent a year studying in England on a DAAD scholarship.

In 1984 she received her PhD with a dissertation on Japanese haiku and its influence on Western poetry and culture. During her studies, she worked as a journalist (feuilleton) for the German newspaper "Die Welt" and magazine "GEO," and from 1976 to 1982, as an assistant director (specializing in industrial film) for the Deutsche Wochenschau/cinecentrum production company.

From 1982 to 1986, she trained and worked as an editor for NDR television.

From 1986 to 1991, she was deputy corporate spokesperson and from 1991 to 2009, head of strategic target groups at Beiersdorf AG.

Since 1997, Sommerkamp-Homann has headed the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Latvia in Hamburg.

Scientific and artistic activities

Literature – Haiku

Sabine Sommerkamp is an expert on German and international haiku poetry. She also writes tanka and other forms of poetry and prose.

Her dissertation "Der Einfluss des Haiku auf Imagismus und jüngere Moderne" (The Influence of the Haiku on Imagism, Modern Art and Literature) is internationally regarded as a standard work of haiku research and has been translated into Japanese and published chapter by chapter at Kobe Gakuin University (Japan) since 1986. In 2023 the dissertation was published by Iudicium as a revised reprint of the 1984 edition with an additional epilogue.

In 1981, at "apropos – Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Kritik," (an Austrian newspaper for the homeless) she founded "Haiku-Spektrum," the first regularly published forum for German-language and international haiku poetry in Germany, which she edited until 1985.

As vice-president of the "German Senryū Center" (1981-1988), she helped prepare the founding of a society for haiku poetry and supported the founding of the German Haiku Society (1988).

Haiku was also increasingly introduced into German-language schools through Sabine Sommerkamp‘s haiku fairy tale "Die Sonnensuche" (Searching for the Sun), published in 1990 and also introduced as a textbook for German classes throughout Hungary in 1992. In Latvia (2004) and China (1999), the haiku fairy tale for young people and adults, published in the local language, continues to promote haiku abroad. The book has won several literary awards.

In China, Sabine Sommerkamp's haiku and tanka have been published in the local language in the People's Daily (Rénmin Ribao) and other high-circulation print media since 1985, leading to a renaissance in the writing of haiku, which, due to its originally being courtly poetry, has been frowned upon in China for political reasons since the Cultural Revolution.

Sabine Sommerkamp's haiku and tanka became famous through the translations of Wang Meng (China's Minister of Culture 1986-1989), who, as the longtime president of the China Writers' Association and four-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, is considered an influential and one of China's most widely read writers.

In Japan, Sabine Sommerkamp was given the poetic name "Szala," after the character of her poems and in reference to the Japanese stewartia, which, with its delicate white flowers, is considered the "Tree of Enlightenment" (legend has it that Buddha experienced enlightenment under the stewartia). In 1993 she was awarded the honorary title of "Senryū Master."

Painting and music

In addition to her literary work, Sabine Sommerkamp also devotes herself to painting (portraits, collages, and the "sea" theme) and music (singing). In 2014 the Alsterverlag Hamburg published the illustrated book "Sabine Sommerkamp Paintings 2003-2013" with 40 works from a decade (2^nd edition 2016).

Her record "Back in Time - Songs from the 1930s to the '60s" contains 17 studio recordings from 2008 to 2011, two of them with the Latvian vocal ensemble "Framest." This was released on June 15, 2012, by Whiterock Records and has been available in stores, on Amazon, jpc, and other outlets since July 2012, with the net proceeds going to "SOS Children's Villages of Latvia."

Diplomatic service

Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia. The Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Latvia in Hamburg, Germany, focuses on economic, cultural, scientific, tourism and social issues. The most important projects that Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann has initiated or carried out as head of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Latvia are (in chronological order):

• Supporting/assisting at business seminars and delegation visits since 1997
• "Pictorial Messages from Latvia" – the largest exhibition of contemporary Latvian painting ever shown in Germany, 1998
• Relief deliveries and actions, partly in cooperation with charitable organizations in Hamburg (Hamburger Tafel e.V., German Red Cross, Johanniter, Lions Club, Hamburger Abendblatt, SOS-Kinderdörfer e.V.), since 1998
• Facilitator of the International Master's and PhD program "Media and Cultural Management" from Hamburg (University of Music and Theatre Hamburg) to Riga (Latvian Academy of Culture), 1999/2000
• Co-hosting visits to Hamburg by Latvian presidents Vaira Vike-Freiberga (guest of honor at the Matthiae Dinner 2000), Raimonds Vējonis (guest of honor at the Matthiae Dinner 2019), and Egils Levits, 2022, 2023
• Patronage of the annual concerts of the Latvian choirs in Hamburg and its surrounding area (including the Michel), in particular of the "Cantus Chor" (Cantus choir) and the "Latvian Voices," since 2000
• Arranging suitable location conditions in Hamburg for the state-owned Latvian Business and Investment Promotion Agency (LIAA), which operates throughout Germany, 2002
• Leading negotiations with the Latvian national airline airBaltic to reintroduce continuous direct flights between Hamburg and Riga, 2000-2003
• Providing the idea and concept for and realizing the "Richard Wagner Days in Riga" (in cooperation with the city of Bayreuth, the Latvian National Opera and the Latvian Academy of Culture) with the participation of Wolfgang Wagner and Gudrun Wagner, 2004, 2006, and 2009
• Providing the concept for and co-organizing the reciprocal city days "Hamburg Days in Riga" – "Riga Days in Hamburg," 2006, 2007
• Providing support in the realization of the "Kurt Hagen Foundation at the University of Riga/Latvia Fund," 2000-2008
• Conducting Latvia-related elections at the Honorary Consulate, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2022

Publications

• Der Einfluss des Haiku auf Imagismus und jüngere Moderne. Studien zur englischen und amerikanischen Lyrik (The Influence of the Haiku on Imagism, Modern Art and Literature. Studies of English and American Poetry), Phil. Diss. Universität Hamburg 1984, reprinted from the 1984 edition, revised and expanded to include an afterword, Iudicium, 2023, ISBN 978-3-86205-603-3, E-Book / PDF, 2023, ISBN 978-3-86205-974-4. [in German] The dissertation has been translated into Japanese by Kenji Takeda since 1986 and published chapter by chapter at Kobe-Gakuin university
• Die Sonnensuche – Ein Haiku-Märchen (Searching for the Sun, A Haiku Fairy Tale), with pictures by Irene Müller, Christophorus, Freiburg i.Br., 1990. In 2022 Iudicium took over distribution, ISBN 978-3-86205-557-9. Also published in China in 1999 and Lettland in 2004 in the local language:
  • Zhuixun taiyang (Searching for the Sun), Wang Taizhi / Shen Huizhu tr., “ Deyizha mingjia tonghua“ (Tales of the German Masters), Beijing: Haitun chubanshe Waiwen chubanshe, 1999, pp. 386–435, ISBN 7-80138-143-2
  • Saules Meklejumos, Jumava, Riga, 2004, ISBN 9984-05-857-3
• Back in Time. Songs from the 1930s to the ‘60s, Whiterock Records, 2012
• Paintings 2003–2013. Malerei, afterword: Prof. Klaus Peter Nebel, Alsterverlag, Hamburg, 2014, 2^nd edition 2016, ISBN 978-3-941808-11-9
• 17 skati uz Fudži kalnu – Fotoattēli un tankas / 17 Ansichten des Berges Fuji – Bilder und Tanka (17 Views of the Mount Fuji – Pictures and Tanka), language: Latvian – German, translated from the German by Anita Muitiniece, introduction: Dietrich Krusche, afterword: Prof. Klaus Peter Nebel, 56 pages with 22 color images, Jumava, Riga, 2020, ISBN 978-9934-20-390-9
• 17 Ansichten des Berges Fuji – Bilder und Tanka / ザビーネ・ゾマーカンプ 富士17景―写真と短歌 (17 Views of Mount Fuji – Pictures and Tanka), language: German – Japanese, translated from the German by Kenji Takeda, afterword: Prof. Klaus Peter Nebel, introduction: Dietrich Krusche, 60 pages, bound, with 22 color images, Iudicium, München, 2021, ISBN 978-3-86205-545-6
• Im Herzen des Gartens. Tanka und Haiku (In the Heart of the Garden), reprint and expansion of the first edition from 1993, (Graphikum), Rotkiefer, 2024, paperback ISBN 978-3-949029-23-3, hardcover ISBN 978-3-949029-26-4

Awards

Literary awards

• Various literary awards (Germany, Japan, and the USA)

Orders

• Commander of the Latvian Cross of Recognition (2010)

Honors

• Appointed Honorary Senator of the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga (2002)
• "Consul of the Year" – Diplomatic Magazine Award, Berlin (2012)
• "Donor of the Month" – award from SOS Children's Villages Worldwide for the record of Sabine Sommerkamp "Back in Time" for the benefit of SOS Children's Villages Latvia (net proceeds) (2012)
• "Silberne Ehrennadel" (Silver Badge of Honor) from the German Association of Journalists (Deutscher Journalistenverband e.V. (2016)

Memberships (selection)

• Curator of "Der Neue Klub e.V.," a cultural association of writers, artists, and publicists (2001-2018)
• Vice-president of the German-Latvian Scientific Society (Deutsch-Lettische Wissenschaftsgesellschaft) (since 2018)
• Member of the board of trustees of "Der Übersee-Club e.V." (since 2014)
• German Association of Journalists (Deutscher Journalistenverband e.V.)
• German Haiku Society
• Haiku Society of America
• German-Japanese Society of Hamburg (Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft zum Hamburg e.V.)
• Hamburg Writer's Association (Hamburger Autorenvereinigung e.V.)
• Economic Council Germany (CDU-Wirtschaftsrat)
• Friends of the Training of Foreign Officers (Freundeskreis Ausbildung ausländischer Offiziere
• Hamburg Consular Women's Club e.V.

Web links

• Commons: Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann – collection of images, videos, and audio files
• Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann's website
• Literature by and about Sabine Sommerkamp-Homann in German National Library