Hans Böhm (musicologist)

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Edwin Martin Johannes "Hans" Böhm (born July 17, 1909 in Struppen , † December 26, 1999 in Dresden ) was a German musicologist , music critic and publicist .

Life

Böhm, the son of a pastor, attended the secondary school in Pirna and the state school in Dresden. After graduating from high school, he studied musicology, history and philosophy in Greifswald from 1929 to 1935 and passed his philological state examination in Leipzig in 1936 . During this time he wrote his first music reviews for the Pirnaer Anzeiger and the Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten . Until the outbreak of the Second World War , he was active in higher education in Dresden.

After serving as a soldier and as a Soviet prisoner of war, he did not return to Dresden until July 1950. Here Böhm worked as a freelance music critic for numerous newspapers and magazines at home and abroad and was a full-time music critic for the Dresden daily newspaper Die Union . Between 1954 and 1959 he also taught as a lecturer in music history at the Dresden University of Music and was a board member of the GDR Composers' Association .

Hans Böhm's publications have been published in over 55 daily and specialist magazines in the GDR , the Federal Republic , the Czechoslovak Republic , the Soviet Union , Switzerland , Sweden , Bulgaria and Romania . In total, he wrote over 14,000 publications on classical concerts and performances by all important Dresden music institutions and orchestras and thus became a valued and knowledgeable music critic of the GDR.

He gained recognition for his courageous statements on musical topics, even if they contradicted the official political line. He criticized Dresden's disadvantage compared to East Berlin and campaigned persistently for the reconstruction of the Semperoper as early as the 1950s and 1960s . He did not shy away from severe criticism of one of the SED's chief conductors of the Dresden Philharmonic , who did not like Böhm's blunt manner of reporting.

Böhm died on Boxing Day 1999 in his hometown of Dresden. His estate is in the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library . On July 1, 2004, Nicodéstrasse in the Blasewitz district was renamed Hans-Böhm-Strasse in his honor .

literature

  • Hans Böhm, Rudolf Mauersberger : Church music today , Union-Verlag, 1959
  • Hans Böhm: Critical and much more - memoirs of a Dresden music critic . edited by Peter Zacher. (Ed.), City of Dresden, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport, Union Druckerei, 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Significant Wachwitz personalities: Hans Böhm , in: Wachwitz - History of a fishing and wine village , Elbhang-Kurier-Verlag, Dresden, 2000, p. 145.
  2. ↑ Eckart Schwinger: A portrait of Germany's oldest music critic: "HB" from Dresden , in: Der Tagesspiegel , August 2, 1999 ( online ).
  3. ^ Street in Blasewitz is given the name Hans Böhm. In: dresden.de. State capital Dresden, June 29, 2004, accessed on December 25, 2016 (press release).
personal data
SURNAME Bohm, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boehm, Edwin Martin Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musicologist, music critic and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Struppen
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1999
Place of death Dresden