Friedemann Hellwig, born 1938 in Lübeck, is a maître luthier and worked for more than twenty years as a conservator of musical instruments at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg (1963 through 1986). During that time he also served for six years as a Chairman of the Internal Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (CIMCIM) within the International Council of Museums (ICOM). After a short interlude as the head of the conservation department of Rheinisches Museumsamt Brauweiler he was appointed Professor of Wooden Objects Conservation at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne (Fachhochschule Köln) in 1988. He retired in 2003.

What has become important to the pensioneer? Making music! Nepal and the Himalaya! But there is more:

During the last ten years of my professional life the work excursions to Auschwitz have become a centre point of thinking. In Hamburg too, there is work waiting on the more recent years of German history, amongst others in the frame of the Society for research into the history of Jews in Blankenese, the part of Hamburg we live in (Verein zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Blankenese).- I enjoy working in the editorial board of the journal of the German conservators' society (VDR) which gives me the chance of staying in contact with my former occupation.

The most recent project is the new edition of Günther Hellwig's book on "Joachim Tielke. Ein Hamburger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit". The work on my father's publication will take several years.

Finally, collaboration in Kunst & Krempel, a series of Bavarian Broadcasting services not unlike the British Antiques Roadshow, is a special pleasure in that it brings me together with Bernhard von Tucher and Dr Martin Kares once a year. We advise people on their musicla instruments, give hints towards preservation and value.