Oscar Hammerstein II Mathias by his first wife, and James Hammerstein by his second wife, with whom he also had a stepdaughter, Susan Blanchard. Hammerstein was one of the most important "book writers" in Broadway history – he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical and brought musical theater to full maturity as an art form. According to Stephen Sondheim, "What few people understand is that Oscar's big contribution to the theater was as a theoretician, as a Peter Brook, as an innovator. People don't understand how experimental "Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!" felt at the time they
Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord Luise von Hammerstein-Equord was a friend to Werner Scholem. First he was a member of the Reichstag (KPD), organizer and redactor. He turned away from the KPD, was mostly arrested since 1933 and was shot 1940 in the KZ Buchenwald. From 1937 until 1951 she was in a second marriage with Ernst-Friedemann Freiherr von Münchhausen, who owned an estate near Weimar. After the war the couple separated, Marie Luise moved 1949 from West-Berlin to East-Berlin, and became a member of the SED, and worked as a lawyer“. She worked mostly for Jewish clients. Helga von Hammerstein-Equord fell at the age