Herbert Breast

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Herbert Brust (born April 17, 1900 in Königsberg ; † June 26, 1968 in Bremerhaven ) was a German composer who became known primarily for the East Prussian song Land of Dark Forests .

Life

Herbert Brust's house where he was born stood at the Königsberg castle pond , where the town hall was later built and where works by him were also performed. Walter Eschenbach, church music director and cathedral organist, was his first teacher, he also learned from the conductor of the Haberberg Oratorio Association, the organ virtuoso Reinhold Lichey . At the age of 16 he played the organ in the Löbenicht Church . From 1919 to 1922, Brust studied at the Berlin University of Music under Professors Fischer and Friedrich Ernst Koch .

After completing the master class for composition and taking the exam, Brust returned to Koenigsberg as a freelance artist and employee of the Ostmarken broadcasting company . It was here that his wind and chamber music, the Funkhaus consecration cantata, the oratorios The Great Game of Death (text Ernst Wiechert ) and East Prussia with the final chorus Land of the Dark Forests (text Erich Hannighofer ) were composed. He set texts by Erich Hannighofer, Charlotte Wüstendörfer, Walter Scheffler, Agnes Miegel and Margarete Kudnig to music. A total of 96 compositions have been preserved. In spring 1941 Herbert Brust was drafted into the Wehrmacht . In Schiffdorf near Bremerhaven he became an organist and music teacher after the war . He is buried there.

Relationship to National Socialism

According to an undated “confession”, Brust was an admirer of Hitler : “I believe that the way will be free to a purely German religion ... I believe in Adolf Hitler”. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he composed cantatas in the spirit of National Socialism, as in 1934 Volk in der Ostmark . In 1936 the commissioned composition Memelruf was premiered at the Reichstagung of the National Socialist Cultural Community . In May 1937, Brust joined the NSDAP ( membership number 5.582.760).

Other works

  • East Prussia Overture, for large orchestra (op.14)
  • Five Nehrungsgesänge, for voice and piano (op.33)
  • Der Memelruf , cantata after Hannighofer for choir, orchestra, speaker, baritone and organ ( op.48 )
  • Music for the radio play In the house of Simon Dachs (op.50)
  • Three songs based on texts by Agnes Miegel (op.96)

literature

  • Old Prussian biography . Volume III, 1975, p. 877 (Werner Schwarz).
  • H. Breast: From my life. With catalog raisonné . In: Ostpr. Music . Volume I, 1937.
  • E. Brust: Land of dark forests and crystal lakes: The East Prussian song, its origins and its composer Herbert Brust . Bremerhaven sa
  • E. Kroll: Music City Königsberg . Freiburg i. Br. 1966.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 85.
  2. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 85.
  3. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 792.
personal data
SURNAME Chest, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breast, Herbert Waldemar Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer of the East Prussian song Land of Dark Forests
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1968
Place of death Bremerhaven