Berendt's father, Ernst Berendt, was a
Protestant pastor belonging to the
Confessing Church who was imprisoned and died in the
Dachau concentration camp. J.-E. Berendt started studying Physics, but his studies were interrupted by his enlistment to the
Wehrmacht. Already during the
Nazi Germany years Berendt took an interest in
jazz; enthusiasts in this period retreated to the underground. After
World War II, he helped founding the
Südwestfunk (SWF) radio network in the then French
occupation zone of Germany. From 1950 until his retirement in 1987, he was in charge of the jazz department of the SWF. Berendt initiated and organized many jazz festivals (
American Folk Blues Festival,
Berliner Jazztage,
World Expo Osaka). He was the producer of many records, mainly for
MPS Records, and supported the
Jazz & Lyrik project, combining jazz performances with readings of poetry (not
jazz poetry). Berendt was awarded, amongst others, the critic's award of German television, the culture award of Poland, and twice the
Bundesfilmpreis. Berendt died on 4 February 2000 at the age of 77 after a traffic accident which he was involved in as a pedestrian. The accident happened in Hamburg, Berendt was on his way to a book promotion for his book
Es gibt keinen Weg nur Gehen (
There Is No Way, Only Going). Berendt's huge collection of records, books, magazines, photos and more is in the archive of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt. ==Later work==