Fritz Stein (musicologist)

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Fritz Stein (born December 17, 1879 in Gerlachsheim , † November 14, 1961 in Berlin ) was a theologian , conductor , musicologist and church musician . In the era of National Socialism , he had a leading position in the Reich Music Chamber and was instrumental in the DC circuit part of the musical life.

Life

Friedrich Wilhelm Stein was the son of a teacher at the institution for the deaf and dumb in Gerlachsheim Monastery and moved to Heidelberg in 1891 with his widowed mother. He studied in Heidelberg and Berlin theology and put 1902 in Karlsruhe, the theological state exam. He then began studying musicology with Arthur Nikisch and Hans Sitt . As a university and city organist in Jena since 1906 , he discovered the score of the Jena Symphony by Friedrich Witt in a Jena archive in 1909 or 1910 , which he ascribed to the young Beethoven and published by Breitkopf & Härtel . In 1910 he was with his dissertation history of musical life in Heidelberg until the end of the 18th century in Heidelberg Dr. phil. PhD . In 1914 he was appointed Meininger Hofkapellmeister as successor to Max Reger . As a participant in the First World War , he led a soldiers' choir in Laon .

In 1913 he became an associate professor in Jena. In 1919 he became associate professor and in 1928 full professor for musicology in Kiel, where he was also organist at the Nikolaikirche until 1923 and took over the position of general music director from 1925 to 1933. As a member of the General German Music Association , the German Music Society , the New Bach Society and the Handel Society, as well as the editor and organizer of several music festivals, he enjoyed a good reputation among experts. In 1928 he was one of the leading personalities in the "Working Group for German Choirs", to which the German Singers 'Association , the German Workers' Singers Association (DAS) and the Reich Association of Mixed Choirs in Germany had come together.

In 1932 he joined the ethnically -minded, anti-Semitic Kampfbund for German culture . After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he became director of the Berlin State University of Music . As a condition for accepting the post, he had demanded the immediate dismissal of Jewish musicians like Emanuel Feuermann . Another demand for “artistic rebuilding” was the dismissal of Leonid Kreutzer without notice and his replacement by Carl Adolf Martienssen .

In July 1933, Stein became Reichsleiter of the music department within the Kampfbund for German Culture , as well as a consultant for church music and choral music. In 1933 he was presidential councilor of the Reich Chamber of Music . In May 1933, Stein, as head of the “Interest Group for German Choral Singing”, was jointly responsible for bringing all choirs into line, especially the workers' choirs, under one umbrella organization. On July 30, 1933, Stein asked for an accelerated admission to the NSDAP : "I can assure you on my honor that my heart had been devoted to the wonderful movement of Adolf Hitler for many years". Because of the membership ban , which existed from May 1, 1933 and was in effect until 1937 , he was not admitted, but only registered as an NSDAP member on March 1, 1940 under the number 7,547,647. From 1934 he was head of the Office for Choirs and Folk Music of the Reich Chamber of Music.

In 1936 he was the editor of a festive oratorio based on George Frideric Handel , which he "made available for political celebrations of the Nazi state by deleting formulations like 'Jehovah' or" On Zion's holy mountain "".

In 1939, the evening before Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday , he conducted the choir of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler . In December of the same year, Adolf Hitler awarded him the Goethe Medal for Art and Science on the occasion of his 60th birthday . After the beginning of the Second World War , the Choir Department of the Reichsmusikkammer was closed. In 1940 Stein and Ernst-Lothar von Knorr put together a book of choir songs for the Wehrmacht , which was published by Edition Peters and placed on the list of literature to be sorted out in the Soviet occupation zone after the end of the war . Also from 1940 he played a leading role in the expulsion of the harpsichordist Eta Harich-Schneider from her professorship at the Berlin Conservatory. As a result of a public eulogy for the Jewish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska on the occasion of the opening of the newly established Berlin harpsichord school, he received an incriminating memo, and his granting of a scholarship to a Jewish musician was also registered negatively. In the final phase of the Second World War, Stein became head of the State Institute for German Music Research in March 1945 .

After the end of the Second World War he lost his offices and worked “freelance”, including for Christian Science . He later became president of the Association for Protestant Church Music .

His wife Margarete Stein-Czerny published her Reger memoirs Hours with Max Reger in 1936 , which was published in 1955 by Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, have been reissued.

Max Reger was the godfather of Gretel and Fritz Stein's son Max Martin Stein (1911–2001), who became a university professor in Düsseldorf as a pianist. The daughter Hedwig (1907–1983), also a godchild of Reger, married the English pianist Iso Elinson .

His brother-in-law Frank Bennedik and his brother-in-law Bernhard Bennedik were music educators.

Festschriften

  • Hans Hoffmann ; Franz Rühlmann; Käte von Pein: Festschrift, Fritz Stein for his 60th birthday , Braunschweig, H. Litolff, 1939.
  • Max Hinrichsen : Festgabe for Fritz Stein, on the completion of his 80th year of life on December 17, 1959 , Bonn: Max-Reger-Institut, 1959.

literature

  • Albrecht Dümling: The synchronization of musical organizations in the Nazi state. In: Dietrich Schuberth (Ed.): Church Music in National Socialism - Ten Lectures. Kassel 1995.
  • Miriam Pfadt: " Ties - bonds - bonds of friendship surround us" - Fritz Stein and Max Reger . In: Siegfried Schmalzriedt u. Jürgen Schaarwächter (Ed.): Reger Studies 7th Festschrift for Susanne Popp . Stuttgart 2004 (= series of publications by the Max Reger Institute, Vol. XVII), pp. 495–522.
  • Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information on Fritz Stein at Heimat und Kulturverein Gerlachsheim ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 261 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hukv-gerlachsheim.de
  2. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 588.
  3. ↑ Miriam Pfadt: " Ties - bonds - bonds of friendship surround us" - Fritz Stein and Max Reger . In: Siegfried Schmalzriedt u. Jürgen Schaarwächter (Ed.): Reger Studies 7th Festschrift for Susanne Popp . Stuttgart 2004, p. 503f.
  4. ^ Friedrich Witt; Fritz Stein: Symphony in C major: handed down with Ludwig van Beethoven's name. According to the old voices of the academic concert in Jena for the performance. and ed. by Fritz Stein , Leipzig: Breitkopf & Haertel, [1911] Pl. no. 27157
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, pp. 6.817–6.818.
  6. ↑ Miriam Pfadt: " Ties - bonds - bonds of friendship surround us" - Fritz Stein and Max Reger . In: Siegfried Schmalzriedt u. Jürgen Schaarwächter (Ed.): Reger Studies 7th Festschrift for Susanne Popp . Stuttgart 2004, p. 512.
  7. ↑ Joseph Wulf: Culture in the Third Reich. Music. 1989, p. 18
  8. ^ Josef Wulf: Culture in the Third Reich. Music. 1989, p. 100, there reproduction of the correspondence of the Kampfbund Deutscher Kultur with dismissal requests and recruitment requests as well as fee issues. Letter from Stein for the Kampfbund dated April 1, 1933
  9. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 588.
  10. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg; Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , p. 6.819.
  11. ↑ Joseph Wulf: Culture in the Third Reich. Music. 1989, p. 18
  12. ↑ Quotation from Fred K. Prieberg, in: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , p. 6.823.
  13. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , p. 6.823.
  14. ^ A b Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , p. 6.825.
  15. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-s.html
  16. ^ Eta Harich-Schneider: Characters and catastrophes , Berlin 1978; Pp. 88-109, 111-136, 142-164, 401, 419-439
  17. ↑ Miriam Pfadt: "Bande - Bande - bonds of friendship surround us" - Fritz Stein and Max Reger . In: Siegfried Schmalzriedt u. Jürgen Schaarwächter (Ed.): Reger Studies 7th Festschrift for Susanne Popp . Stuttgart 2004, p. 517.
  18. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , p. 6.829.
personal data
SURNAME Stein, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stein, Fritz Wilhelm; Stein, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor, musicologist and member of the Kampfbund for German Culture
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Gerlachsheim
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1961
Place of death Berlin