Groningen city historian Beno Hofman died on Thursday after a short illness. Hofman, who received the Medal of Honor from the city of Groningen in 2010, was 69 years old.
Hofman, born in Workum, received recognition from the College van B en W during the four hundredth and final broadcast of the program Beno’s City, that he has made for city broadcaster OOG since 1998. In that long series he brought the history of the City and Ommelanden to life in an accessible, visual way.
With a great sense of theater, he often dressed up in a costume that matched the episode he was narrating, and then performed it in slapstick style. In 2005 Beno’s City was named the best local TV program in the country, after which it won third prize at an international festival in Kosice (Slovakia).
He also showed his preference for theater in theater performances that he made, with himself in a leading role, sometimes played at the Noorderzon festival.
Numerous publications
Hofman wrote numerous books about Groningen history. Many descriptions of monumental places that can be found in Groningen are by him. During the corona period, Hofman made for OOG together with Mirre van der Klok The City Walk .
He wrote his column for this newspaper at the beginning of this millennium Hofman’s Stories after earlier in the Groninger Dagblad respectively Newspaper of the North . In 2008, readers of Dagblad van het Noorden named him City of the Year. Hofman also had a historical column on Radio Noord every Thursday from 2000 to 2017. He also provided guided tours of the city.
‘Completely recognizable videos’
The death of Beno Hofman is a big shock for city archaeologist Gert Kortekaas. “He was at the forefront of popularizing Groningen history. He did not do this with in-depth work, but with fun things to read. Preferably for the widest possible audience.
In books, for the classroom, in the theater – which was completely new at the time – and with ‘weird’ films for television, which were completely recognizable as his. No one else could make them like that.”
According to Kortekaas, Hofman always looked for personal, funny things in his archive research to turn them into fun stories. “He made history readable in an inimitable way.”
The two worked together on the book series, among other things Groningen of all times , an initiative of the municipality. “A special series, for which he described all kinds of facets of history in a beautiful and accessible manner.”
Teacher and football player
Until Beno Hofman was able to earn his living as a city historian as a self-taught/enthusiast, he was trained as a historical geographer in Amsterdam and was a geography teacher at the Leon van Gelder middle school in Groningen in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was also a meritorious footballer. At the age of 52 he still played matches in the first team of De Fivel in Zeerijp.
Just a few weeks ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Beno Hofman married his girlfriend just before his death. He leaves behind two sons and a daughter.