Heinrich Puthon
Colonel i. R. Heinrich Freiherr von Puthon ( May 17, 1872 in Graz - April 24, 1961 in Salzburg ) was president of the Salzburg Festival for many years before and after the Second World War .
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Life
Puthon comes from a family of Austrian officials and was a cavalry officer in the First World War . According to the laws of the Republic of Austria , he did not use his title of nobility. He was elected President of the Salzburg Festival on May 5, 1926 and remained so - interrupted by the Nazi regime from 1938 to 1945 - until he resigned at the age of 88 after the completion of the Great Festival Hall in 1960. In close cooperation with the governors Franz Rehrl and later Josef Klaus he succeeded in the financial restructuring of the festival community, the international acceptance of the festival and the establishment and constant expansion of the Salzburg Festival venues . His later successor Josef Kaut describes him as a noble diplomat who managed the festival “over all the storms of time with a happy hand” and “knew how to treat the most sensitive artists. But he was also energetic and unyielding when it came to protecting the interests of the festival. He was not very musical and listened to performances out of the officer's sense of duty rather than out of enthusiasm for the arts. Nevertheless, he repeatedly demonstrated an unmistakable sixth sense of artistic quality, with which he was often right even against the judgment of experts. ”Puthon was in the house and in the city - whether his honesty, justice and omnipresence: he regularly visited the workshops and Offices - respected by everyone. Even in old age, Puthon came to his small, modest office on foot, his dog on a leash.
In 1948 there was an eviction suit against Puthon, who had refused to accept the termination of his apartment in Mirabell Palace and the provision of a replacement apartment in the city center.
Honors
- Puthon was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Austrian Order of Merit on August 8, 1937 .
- On August 9, 1957, he was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Salzburg .
- Heinrich-Puthon-Strasse in Salzburg is dedicated to him.
literature
- Thomas Eickhoff: Political dimensions of a composer's biography in the 20th century: Gottfried von Eine (= archive for musicology . Supplement 43). Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07169-5 .
- Josef Kaut: The Salzburg Festival 1920–1981. Salzburg 1982.
swell
- Kaut, 187
Individual evidence
- ↑ 100 years of the Salzburg Festival: Jedermann, Karajan and Goebbels. In: wienerzeitung.at . November 13, 2019, accessed March 5, 2020.
- ↑ High awards for services to the Salzburg Festival. In: Salzburger Chronik. Tagblatt with the illustrated supplement “Austrian Week” , August 6, 1937, p. 4 (online at ANNO ). .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Puthon, Heinrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Puthon, Heinrich Freiherr von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian President of the Salzburg Festival |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 17, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Graz |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 24, 1961 |
| Place of death | Salzburg |