Hans Simon (composer)
Hans Simon (born December 18, 1897 in Darmstadt , † December 14, 1982 in St. Ingbert ) was a German composer and conductor .
Life
Simon attended the Alte Realgymnasium (today: Georg Büchner School ) in his hometown. During this time he received a basic musical education, which he received from 1914 to 1919 at the Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main . Until 1922 he worked as a répétiteur at the Hessisches Landestheater in Darmstadt.
Simon had worked as a piano accompanist at events organized by the Bayreuth Association in the early 1920s and since 1930 at the reactionary Richard Wagner Association of German Women .
After engagements in other cities, Hans Simon returned to Darmstadt in 1928 and concentrated on compositional work. His cheerful opera Valerio was premiered on May 2, 1931 in Darmstadt under the direction of Karl Böhm . In autumn 1932 he took over the leadership of the Darmstadt Chamber Orchestra of the Kampfbund for German Culture . After the National Socialist seizure of power in March 1933, he was appointed acting director of the municipal academy for music in April . Simon joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 and had membership number 2291107. He was a member of the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur, which stood up against “degenerate art” and the “corrosive influence of Judaism”. In his function as acting director of the academy, he had "cleaned" the institute of Jewish and politically unpopular lecturers, including the prominent Jewish director of the opera school Paul Ottenheimer , until he left the academy in October 1933 . In the regional press it was reported as follows: "As the acting head of the Municipal Academy for Tonkunst, he turned the chaos of a liberalist, relaxed institute into a tightly formed whole that is flooded with the spirit of the new Germany and serves this spirit."
In 1934 he was engaged at the Braunschweig State Theater. Until 1944 Simon was general music director of the opera in Breslau .
Returning from the Second World War , Simon settled in St. Ingbert in the Saarland in 1949 . There he took over the management of the municipal orchestra until his retirement in 1962. In 1982 Simon died in St. Ingbert. His remains were buried in 1986 on the initiative of Günther Metzger in a grave of honor in the old cemetery in Darmstadt.
Some of his compositional legacy is kept in the University and State Library in Darmstadt .
Hans Simon was married to Emmy Aden (1901–1996).
Honors
- 1931: Georg Büchner Prize
- 1962: Simon receives an honorary retirement pension from the Saarland state government
- 1963: Johann Heinrich Merck Award
- 1986: Honorary grave of the city of Darmstadt in the old cemetery. At the suggestion of the City of Darmstadt's Magistrate in April 2015, the honorary grave is to be closed shortly.
literature
- No more grave of honor for Hans Simon , in: Darmstädter Echo from April 16, 2015.
- Motion "Revocation of the city's honorary grave for Hans Simon" , parliamentary group Die Linke in the Darmstadt city council meeting on September 5, 2011.
- Karl Michler: Hans Simon 65 years old. In: Saarheimat 1963, pp. 60-61.
- Historical Association for Hesse (ed.): Stadtlexikon Darmstadt. Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, p. 826.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Darmstädter Tagblatt of October 28, 1921 and January 11, 1930
- ↑ a b Darmstadt: Unjustly honored. In: fr-online.de . April 14, 2015, accessed October 6, 2015 .
- ↑ Darmstädter Zeitung of October 12, 1933
- ↑ Hans Simon ( memento from December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at saarland-biografien.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Simon, Hans |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German composer and Kapellmeister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 18, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Darmstadt |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 14, 1982 |
| Place of death | St. Ingbert |