Fritz Berend (conductor)

Fritz Berend (born March 10, 1889 in Hanover , † December 29, 1955 in London ) was a German, later English conductor , theater and music director as well as Kapellmeister , composer and musicologist .

Life

Born in the early days of the German Empire as a scion of a Jewish family of scholars , son of the lawyer and notary and later Privy Councilor Emil Berend (1846–1920) and his second wife Leonore , née Cohen , Fritz Behrens grew up in Hanover with three half-siblings, including the later literary scholar Eduard Berend (1883–1972). He completed his high school at the local Schillergymnasium from, studied from 1907 at first two semesters Jura , but then moved to Munich at the Ludwig-Maximilians University , where he studied musicology, philosophy and art history among others Heinrich Wolfflin , Theodor Lipps and Theodor Kroyer . Under Adolf Sandberger , Berend received his doctorate in Munich in 1913 on the baroque composer and under the title Nicolaus Adam Strungk 1640-1700. His life and works with contributions to the history of music and theater in Celle, Hanover, Leipzig .

In the meantime, Berend had already received practical music lessons from Emil Blume on the violoncello and Heinrich Lutter on the piano, and had taken further practical lessons from August Schmidt-Lindner , Friedrich Klose and Felix Mottl at the Munich Academy of Music .

In 1913 Berend was given the position of assistant to Bruno Walter at the Royal Opera in Munich . In the following year, 1914, Berend took up his first job as a theater conductor in Freiburg im Breisgau , but this was interrupted the following year by the war effort in the First World War. Berend served from 1915 in the 4th Baden Field Artillery Regiment No. 66 , was an officer and was awarded the Iron Cross second and first class as well as the "Baden Order of Merit " before he returned to Freiburg in 1918 and was able to work as a theater bandmaster again until 1920.

From 1922 to 1924 Berend was appointed Kapellmeister at the Municipal Theater in Kaiserslautern , where he directed operas, symphony concerts and oratorios. But in 1924 he moved to Hagen , where he held the position of senior director at the opera there until 1925 .

At the beginning of 1926 Berend took over the position of the first Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Osnabrück , in 1931 also that of the artistic director. Due to the global economic crisis , a theater cooperation with the city of Münster was approved by "[...] the city fathers" of the two neighboring cities for the 1932/1933 season and Berend was given the management of both city theaters. Although Berend met "expectations of its discerning audience" in full, including with a performance of Richard Wagner's Valkyrie , set shortly after the seizure of power by the National Socialists , the arbitrariness against Berend one: In his holidays he learned from the radio of his deposition as Kapellmeister in Osnabrück in favor of a successor who is politically acceptable to the Osnabrück National Socialists. The dismissal was carried out arbitrarily and without a legal basis. Since according to Berend's contract on March 16, 1933, an extension of three seasons was agreed for the Münster location, the action against Berend initially had no effects in Münster. In the meantime, however, the party organ National-Zeitung spread malicious allusions to Berend's origins as a so-called “ half-Jew ”: by firing a Jewish actor, he only wanted to distract from his own origins. Only a few weeks later, Karl-Eugen Heinrich denounced the theater manager to Joseph Goebbels on June 10, 1933 , saying that Berend was "[...] to be addressed as a Jew according to party regulations". On July 2, 1933, Berend's parentage was checked, and then “Volljude (?)” Was noted on the index card of the Reich Theater Chamber .

Berend was initially able to work as the first Kapellmeister in Münster, but after he received words of thanks "[...] not only [for] the artistic, but also the human qualities of the upright front officer ," after he received words of thanks in the Münsterischer Anzeiger on July 25, 1933 ”Was released on July 28, 1933 as director in Münster and replaced by Otto Liebscher . His successor Willi Hanke , in a personal conversation with Goebbels, managed to keep Berend in employment, pointing out that he would otherwise have to close the Münster Theater. The opera ensemble was enthusiastic. However, on September 6, 1935, Berend was expelled from the Reichstheaterkammer, but was still able to work in Münster until the summer of 1936, when the party authorities' objection to the " synchronization " of the Berend theater resulted in his final dismissal in Münster.

In August 1936 Fritz Berend moved to his aunt in Berlin , where he lived at Yorkstrasse 10 until February 1938 . During this time he initially looked for a position as a répétiteur , but then joined the Jewish Artists Aid, where he was able to work as a conductor , and shortly afterwards also in the Breslauer Kulturbund Orchestra . The place of his work in Berlin was the "Jewish Art Theater" .

Then, however, he received a warning from the non-Jewish actress Ilsabe (Ilse Annemarie) Dieck , who lived in Munster, through an intermediary , that the Gestapo was investigating the mutual relationship. Berend immediately left Berlin for South Tyrol , where his cousin, who had previously also worked as a doctor in Berlin, had bought an estate in Chiusa . He later moved to Florence , where - despite the work ban - he carried out various activities to secure his livelihood . He gave music lessons to children of German emigrants in a country school near Florence, hired himself out as a répétiteur or pianist in concerts, and occasionally gave lectures on music at the British Institute . Because of the violation of the work ban, he feared the so-called “ kin liability ” for his siblings who had remained in the German Reich, especially after his brother Eduard had been arrested there. In the meantime, Ilsabe Dieck had traveled to the Netherlands again and again to regularly send Berend foreign currency via bogus addresses. His fiancée later suffered a nervous breakdown and then followed Fritz Berend to Florence.

After Benito Mussolini had enacted “ race laws ” in autumn 1938, similar to Adolf Hitler's earlier , and Berend now also threatened persecution and expulsion in Italy, the artist left after being forced to pay the “ Reich flight tax ” of 1,917 Reichsmarks - for which he left his concert grand had to sell - by means of a visa to Italy and reached England on March 18, 1939 .

About half a year later he was followed by Ilsabe Dieck, who Berend married in 1940, “[…] on household permit”. But even in England the two - without a work permit - only led an oppressive emigrant life .

When the Second World War began, the couple could no longer - as desired - travel to the USA . The couple initially relied on support from English artists or the Anglican Church . In addition, Fritz Berend founded two orchestras with emigrants and conducted concerts and operas with them, but only for charitable purposes, for example for the benefit of the Red Cross . He also gave lectures, organized concerts and opera performances in the city of Hampstead and the English provinces. Fritz Berend once found a larger audience when the regional group of German trade unionists in Great Britain celebrated the 25th anniversary of the November Revolution on November 9, 1943 in the middle of the war : at the well-attended event with lectures, musical interludes and recitations by Ferdinand Freiligrath and Bertolt Brecht Berend was able to perform a sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven and his victory symphony from Egmont to the audience .

Between 1944 and the post-war period in 1951, Berend found a wide audience as a conductor, especially in London during the matinees of the National Gallery of Art , and performed cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach , among others . In the meantime, Fritz Berend received news as early as 1945 that his mother and half-siblings had been victims of the Holocaust .

Although Fritz Berend had finally obtained British citizenship in 1948 , he never found permanent employment again . He worked at the Carl Rosa Opera Company from 1951 to 1953 , but only as a guest conductor. Last worked from 1953, only limited ability to work , at the Welsh National Opera Company Ltd. in Cardiff again as music director, but was dismissed in late 1954 due to incapacity for work . In 1955, Berend's total disability was determined.

After a new city theater was completed in Berend's former place of work in Münster in the wake of the German economic miracle , Berend was invited to perform the first opera as a conductor in 1956. But the invitation did not reach the artist: After a heart failure was added to his kidney disease, which he had already discovered in 1933, he succumbed to the disease at the end of December 1956 at the age of 66.

An application for compensation previously made by Fritz Berend was no longer processed in Berlin in good time before his death.

Literature (selection)

• Joseph Bergenthal : Theater Community Münster-Osnabrück. In: Das Schöne Münster , Issue 22, publisher: Münster City Transport Office in conjunction with the Münster Tourist Office, 1932
• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss : Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration nach 1933 (= International biographical dictionary of Central European emigrés 1933-1945 ), Ed .: Institute for Contemporary History Munich, Munich and others: Saur, 1983.
• Manfred Kroboth: A conductor has to go into exile. A portrait of the musician Fritz Berend , unpublished manuscript, Osnabrück: 1987
• Peter Junk, Martina Sellmeyer: Stations on the way to Auschwitz: disenfranchisement, expulsion, extermination. Jews in Osnabrück 1900-1945. A memorial book , 2nd edition, Bramsche: Rasch, 1989
• Klaus Hortschansky, Gerd Dethlefs: Music in Münster. An exhibition by the Münster City Museum in cooperation with the Musicology Seminar of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster from April 22 to July 31, 1994 , publisher: Stadt Münster, Münster: Regensberg, 1994
• Gisela Möllenhoff, Rita Schlautmann-Overmeyer: Jewish families in Münster 1918-1945 , 1st edition, publisher: City of Münster, Franz-Josef Jakobi, Münster: Westphalian steam boat;
  • Part 1: Biographical Lexicon , 1995
  • Part 2.1: Treatises and Documents 1918-1935 , 1998
  • Part 2.2: Treatises and documents 1935-1945 , 2001
• Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (eds.): Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie , 1st edition, Vol. 1, Munich: Saur, 1995, p. 436
• Christoph Schmidt: National Socialist cultural policy in the Gau Westphalia-North. Regional structures and local milieus (1933-1945) (= research on regional history , vol. 54), also dissertation 2002/2003 at the University of Münster, Paderborn; Munich; Vienna; Zurich: Schöningh, 2006, ISBN 3-506-72983-7

Archival material

• Compensation file Fritz Berend (file number 53.274), Compensation Authority Berlin, State Administration Office for Civil and Regulatory Affairs, Department 1

Remarks

1. ↑ In contrast to this, the German National Library names 1915 as the year of Berends' philosophical dissertation at the University of Munich; compare
2. ↑ Deviating from this, the Riemann Musiklexikon (sd) names Berend's activity in London "[...] as an opera conductor and music teacher at the university "

Individual evidence

1. ^ Berend, Fritz in the database of Niedersächsische Personen (new entry required) of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library - Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Willibald Gurlit (Ed.): Berend, Fritz , in ders .: Riemann Musiklexikon , twelfth, completely revised edition, vol. 1: Person Teil A - K , Mainz a. a .: B. Schott's Sons, 1959, p. 144
3. ↑ ^{a b} Compare the information and cross-references under the GND number of the German National Library
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v} Gisela Möllenhoff: Fritz Berend , in: Lexicon of persecuted musicians of the Nazi era (LexM), publisher : Claudia Maurer Zenck , Peter Petersen , Sophie Fetthauer , Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, since 2005, (this text from 2010, updated on April 2, 2014)
5. ↑ Christoph König (Ed.), With the assistance of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 1: A-G. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , pp. 140-142.
6. ^ ^{A b} Hugo Thielen : Berend, (2) Fritz. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 51; online through google books