Ernst-Lothar von Knorr

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Ernst-Lothar von Knorr

Ernst-Lothar von Knorr (born January 2, 1896 in Eitorf / Sieg , † October 30, 1973 in Heidelberg ) was a German composer , music teacher and music official .

The years up to 1933

Ernst-Lothar (Carl) von Knorr grew up in Bonn . His parents were the pharmacist Dr. chem. Karl Ferdinand von Knorr and Eugenie Sophie Merten. From 1902 he got his first violin lessons. In 1907 he was accepted into the Cologne Conservatory. After high school, conservatory exams and military service, he became a violin teacher at the Heidelberg Music Academy in 1919 , and in 1920 he founded the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra Association with P. Gies. On October 6, 1923, in Gummersbach , he married Elise Siebel, a granddaughter of Lebrecht Steinmüller , co-founder of the L&C Steinmüller paper mill . In the same year he became concertmaster with the orchestra of the Djaghilew Ballet in Munich , followed by the establishment and management of the Volks- und Jugendmusikschule-Süd in Berlin in 1924 . His son Friedrich-Carl and daughter Ellen were born in 1925 and 1928. A third child (Angelika, * 1944) died shortly after birth.

Professional career during the Third Reich

In 1937 von Knorr became a teacher at the State University of Music in Berlin, where he received a professorship in 1939. From 1937 to August 31, 1941 he was also music advisor to the High Command of the Army (OKH) and was promoted to captain and then major in the Wehrmacht . Towards the end of his tenure as music critic of the OKH he created in 1941 along with the general and later resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 Eduard Wagner a list of various music creator that of Adolf Hitler has been signed and a uk position meant by 360 musicians. Knorr also employed some musicians as teachers at the army music schools, which meant that they were released from active military service.

After his tenure as music advisor to the OKH, he became deputy director of the University of Music and the Military Music School in Frankfurt am Main on August 31, 1941, against the resistance of Herbert Gerigg and the Reichsleiter Rosenberg . In 1942 he joined the NSDAP (membership number: 8.995.057).

The years from 1945

In 1944 von Knorr began to set up the State University Institute for Music Education in Trossingen , of which he was also director. In 1945 he was initially removed from the service as a senior civil servant. In 1948 he received the certificate of only "minor [National Socialist] exposure" and was able to continue his work. However, the university was constantly threatened with closure; von Knorr therefore soon applied for other positions. In 1952 he became director of the Academy for Music and Theater in Hanover . From 1955 he was also a military music advisor to Theodor Blank , the first defense minister of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1956 his wife Elise died after a long illness. Two years later von Knorr married the Swedish music student Britt-Gun Lidin. After his retirement in 1961, von Knorr took over the management of the University of Music and Theater in his old home in Heidelberg until 1969 .

In 1961 Ernst-Lothar von Knorr received the Great Federal Cross of Merit .

estate

In 2014 Knorr's written estate was donated to the Badische Landesbibliothek . It includes documents of all kinds, including compositions, extensive correspondence, manuscripts, photos, etc. a. from the period from 1944 to his death in 1973. Earlier documents do not exist, because Knorr's apartment at the time was destroyed in a bomb attack on Frankfurt in 1944 and his documents, including the manuscripts of his compositions up to this point in time, were almost completely destroyed.

literature

  • Jasmin Hambsch: “Introduction”, in this: Ernst-Lothar von Knorr estate - Finding aid . Karlsruhe 2018, online
  • Ernst-Lothar von Knorr: Memoirs. Experienced musical events in Germany. from the estate published by the Ernst-Lothar von Knorr Foundation, with an introduction by Thomas Schipperges. PJ Tonger Musikverlag, Cologne-Rodenkirchen 1996, ISBN 3-920950-25-9 .
  • Ernst Lothar von Knorr , In: International Biographical Archive. 45/1960, October 31, 1960, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronicle of the Luyken family, 1929, p. 434.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 3.784.
  3. ↑ Date according to Ernst-Lothar von Knorr: Memoirs. Tonger Musikverlag, 1996, pp. 82-83.
  4. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-Rom Lexicon. Kiel 2004, p. 3.784.
  5. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, pp. 308-309.
  6. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-Rom Lexicon. Kiel 2004, p. 3.805.
  7. ↑ Jasmin Hambsch: Nachlass Ernst-Lothar von Knorr - Findbuch . Karlsruhe 2018, p. VIII
personal data
SURNAME Knorr, Ernst-Lothar von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Eitorf
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1973
Place of death Heidelberg