Erhard Mauersberger

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Erhard Mauersberger (born December 29, 1903 in Mauersberg , † December 11, 1982 in Leipzig ) was a German organist , music teacher and choir director . He was the 14th Thomaskantor after Johann Sebastian Bach .

Life

Erhard Mauersberger was born on December 29, 1903, the son of Ferdinand Oswald Mauersberger, a cantor and teacher of the Erzgebirge community of Mauersberg , who came from Mildenau (Erzgebirge) . The father's musical roots, which are further back, are said to go back to Bohemian musicians who strove across the border in droves around the 17th century and settled right behind it. Erhard Mauersberger is the fifteen years younger brother of Rudolf Mauersberger , the cantor of the famous Kreuzschule in Dresden (also because of its choral tradition) .

From 1914 to 1920 he was a member of the St. Thomas Choir under St. Thomas Cantor Gustav Schreck and a student at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig . He studied with Karl Straube (organ), Otto Weinreich (piano) and Stephan Krehl (composition) at the Leipzig Conservatory .

In 1925 Mauersberger succeeded his brother Rudolf as choirmaster , organist and artistic director of the Aachen Bach Society . From 1928 to 1930 he was a lecturer at the Mainz University of Music . At the same time he worked as an organist and choirmaster at the Christ Church in Mainz .

In 1930 Mauersberger followed his brother again as cantor at the Georgenkirche in Eisenach. At the same time, he was appointed head of the newly founded church music school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Thuringia . From 1935 he worked there as a church councilor and from 1942 as regional church music director . He founded and directed the Eisenach Bach Choir . In 1932 he also became a lecturer and in 1946 professor for choral conducting at the State University of Music in Weimar.

Leipzig Thomaskirche at the Bach Festival 1962 under Erhard Mauersberger's direction

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , he joined the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur in 1933 , applied for membership in the NSDAP in 1937, but the application was rejected in 1939. Since autumn 1933 Mauersberger belonged to the German Christians , since 1939 he was a member of the staff of the Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life .

Mauersberger directed the Thuringian church music school in Eisenach since 1950. In 1961, during a politically and artistically difficult time, he took over the post of Thomas Cantor as the successor to Kurt Thomas . He helped to keep the choir in its church music ties during the time of political isolation, which was characterized by the wall between the two German states and the socialist cultural doctrine in the GDR . At times he also led the Gewandhaus choir . From 1963 to 1982 he was President of the Bach Committee in the GDR. Recordings and radio recordings show him as the keeper of the tradition of his teachers. In his later years Mauersberger composed a cappella works for the St. Thomas Choir , which prove themselves in the repertoire with their late romantic habitus.

Erhard Mauersberger's grave in Leipzig's southern cemetery

His departure from office in 1972 was preceded by an accident, the circumstances of which have not yet been clarified. Officially, the City Council of Leipzig, Department of Culture, alleged that the Thomaskantor Prof. Mauersberger had "dropped a pane on the head" that seriously injured him. Mauersberger repeatedly contradicted this rumor in a familiar circle. In fact, Mauersberger was in the way of a realignment of GDR cultural policy. In this context, a wave of purges followed, which led to the removal of the Thomaskantor Mauersberger, but also the Rector of the St. Thomas Choir, Nöbert, and the two teachers of the Thomas School and inspectors of the St. Thomas Choir, Görne and Mangold.

Mauersberger died on December 11, 1982 at the age of 78 in Leipzig. He was buried in the Leipzig Südfriedhof (17th section).

The journalist, film producer and author Helga Mauersberger is Erhard Mauersberger's daughter.

Honors

rating

Erhard Mauersberger did a great job in church music. In the GDR he was regarded as an independent spirit in the sense of a free cultural policy, but as a person he was an undisputed figure in the stream maintenance. He was president of the Bach Committee for years and was honored several times with the state award of the GDR, the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze . There was no reflection on Mauersberger's actions and attitudes before 1945 among those in charge of politics in the GDR and in the Evangelical Church .

Only after the fall of the Wall was this part of the Mauersberg biography brought to light. Mauersberger worked on the church “ Entjudungsinstitut ” founded by the German Christians , which had set itself the goal of “eliminating the Jewish influence on German church life”. With it the struggle against Judaism should be theologically underpinned. This should also be implemented in a “de-Judaized” hymnal . Mauersberger produced the manuscript version, created a musical notation and an accompanying chorale book . This was presented in a ceremony at the Wartburg in 1942 .

The director of the Bachhaus Eisenach said in 2016 about Mauersberger's work on Deutschlandfunk :

“One of the most beautiful cantatas of Bach, ' Wachet, calls us the voice ', has been classified as Jewish. And I don't know how to deal with it internally. He had to know that this is all nonsense what's happening here. Why do you make yourself indispensable in this project and not in another project? And how can you reconcile that with yourself and as an artist? "

- Jörg Hansen : Deutschlandfunk

Works

(mostly church music - a cappella motets )

  • The healing of the blind man of Jericho. Large gospel motet
  • Stay with us, Lord, because evening will come. Gospel motet
  • Domine dirige me
  • Christmas: I like to step out in the dark (1974) for solo voice and nine-part choir

Choral songs

  • Up from heaven, O angel come
  • Wake up, nightingale, wake up
  • Who you have time in your hands
  • Who calls himself by his name
  • O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Catalog raisonné

literature

Web links

Commons : Erhard Mauersberger  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genealogy. Volume 3, p. 67.
  2. ↑ Hofmann: Kreuzchor Anno 45. p. 57.
  3. ^ Entry Mauersberger, (Karl) Erhard. In: Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. 2nd Edition. Kopf, Kiel 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , pp. 4490-4491 (CD-ROM).
  4. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer : We went astray. The guilt of the church under the swastika, according to the confession of the "Darmstädter Wort" from 1947 (= Small Library. Volume 451 [ Church and Society ]). Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7609-1144-7 , p. 151.
    Jörg Hansen: Erhard Mauersberger in the Nazi era - an 'oppositional follower'? In: Norbert Bolin, Markus Franz (ed.): In the sound of reality. Music and theology (= Martin Petzoldt on his 65th birthday ). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-037705-1 , pp. 170–181.
  5. ↑ See also the list of winners of the National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class for art and literature (1949–1959) . Erhard Mauersberger donated the Mauersberg Kreuzkapelle from the prize money. Cross Chapel Mauersberg. In: grossrueckerswalde.de, accessed on April 10, 2019.
  6. ^ Mauersberger Museum. In: sachsens-museen-enthaben.de. Saxon State Office for Museums, accessed on December 28, 2016 (with picture gallery). -
    Mauersberger Museum Großrückerswalde. In: musikermuseen.de. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Musikermuseen in Deutschland , accessed on April 10, 2018 . -
    Worth seeing. The Mauersberg Museum. (No longer available online.) In: grossrueckerswalde.de. Archived from the original on December 18, 2015 ; accessed on April 10, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b The Mauersberger Brothers - Two church musicians and their role in National Socialism . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed December 14, 2016]). mp3; 7.6 MB ( memento from December 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ In Rudolf Mauersberger's partial memories of his youth, also on his brother Erhard Mauersberger.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In particular families named Fiedler, Scharschmidt, Wagler, Hermann, Nestler.
personal data
SURNAME Mauersberger, Erhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and Thomas Cantor
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Mauersberg near Marienberg , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1982
Place of death Leipzig