Herta Blaukopf

Herta Blaukopf (born January 3, 1924 in Vienna as Herta Singer ; † January 19, 2005 in Vienna) was an Austrian literary and musicologist who also worked as a journalist and editor .

Life & work

education

Herta Blaukopf was born on January 3, 1924 in Vienna as the daughter of the businessman Julius Singer and Anna Singer, née Fränkel, who is considered highly musical, as Herta Singer. She came from a social-democratic family on her mother's side - her grandfather Richard Fränkel had been the head of the social-democratic workers' choir - and grew up in an environment that was described as non-denominational and agnostic . Her father had Jewish roots but was not religious. Musically supported by her family on her mother's side, she began playing the piano in her childhood . Her piano skills were constantly encouraged during her time as adolescents and young adults; She took lessons from 1938 to 1945, among others, from the pianist and composer Olga Novakovic (1884-1946), who herself was probably Arnold Schönberg's first student . She also attended courses and took part in a course on musical form theory with Anton von Webern in the later years of the Second World War.

After elementary school, she attended the Humanist Girls' Gymnasium in Rahlgasse in the 6th district of Mariahilf , where she completed the lower school. As a “ 1st degree Jewish half-breed ”, she was denied further visits after the annexation of Austria and the increasingly stricter regulations. After leaving school in June 1938, she took foreign language lessons and, after a one-year break, in 1939 switched to the commercial academy on Karlsplatz in Vienna's 1st district, Innere Stadt , which at the time was run as a business school . On February 5, 1943, the then 19-year-old passed her school leaving examination with distinction and, after finishing school, took a job in an office because she had been denied university under the Nazi regime because of her origins.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War , Singer enrolled in the summer semester of 1945, which only began in May due to the war, at the University of Vienna as a major in German studies . At the same time, she took English studies as a minor from the summer semester 1945 to the winter semester 1947/48 . After three years of study , she received her doctorate on May 12, 1948 with a dissertation on the subject of time and society in the work of Arthur Schnitzler . Hans Rupprich and Dietrich Kralik acted as first and second reviewers of their dissertation . Blaukopf's other rigors were the Indo-Germanist Wilhelm Havers , Alois Dempf (philosophy) and Hubert Rohracher (psychology) for the Philosophicum. According to an official note on the rigorous protocol , her two semesters were waived on the actual minimum duration of eight semesters “in the course of reparation for preventing her from studying for racist reasons”.

Professional activities

Subsequently, she worked as a journalist for several years in the editorial department of the daily newspaper Der Abend and between 1958 and 1964 she worked as an editor in several publishing houses, including Universal Edition . At the same time, she married the music sociologist Kurt Blaukopf (1914–1999) in 1959 ; their son Michael was born on April 22, 1962. Through her husband, who was already a renowned Mahler researcher, she turned more and more to the biographical research of the composer Gustav Mahler. She published three volumes of letters from Mahler ( Gustav Mahler - Richard Strauss. Correspondence between 1888–1911 (1980), Gustav Mahler, Briefe, Neuausgabe (1982) and Gustav Mahler, Unknown Briefe (1983)). From the 1950s on, she published some works in collaboration with her future husband. This produced music leader Vienna. Voyage of discovery to the capital of music (1957), The Vienna Philharmonic. Essence, Becoming, Working of a Great Orchestra (1986), The Vienna Philharmonic. World of the Orchestra - Orchester der Welt (1992), Gustav Mahler. Life and Work in Testimonies of Time (1994) or Gustav Mahler - Briefe (1996).

Despite her marriage in 1959, she published under her maiden name as Herta Singer until 1964. Other noteworthy works that Herta Blaukopf published as sole work were Im Wiener Kaffeehaus (1959) and Humor & Hamur (1962). She also wrote the article Positivism and Ideology in German Studies. From the beginnings of Austrian language and literature research in philosophy, literature and music in the Orchestra of the Sciences (1996), which was edited by her husband. In Science in Fiction - Fiction in Science. With the contribution of Stifter's literary record , she is part of the 1998 conversation between literature and science by Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler . A means of presenting the 'real truth'. represented. With from a writing workshop. Living and working with Kurt Blaukopf. Art, Art Theory and Art Research in Scientific Discourse published in 2000 . In memoriam Kurt Blaukopf (1914–1999) by Martin Seiler and Friedrich Stadler , she wrote an article in memory of her husband, who had died a year earlier.

During her life she took part in many symposia and congresses and published numerous articles on Mahler research in congress files, commemorative publications and edited volumes. Furthermore, she made constant contributions to - and contributions to - the news on Mahler research of the International Gustav Mahler Society (IGMG) in Vienna , which has been published since 1976 and edited by her between 1978 and 1994 . Blaukopf had a close friendship with Erwin Ratz , the founding president of the company founded in 1955 on the initiative of the Vienna Philharmonic . Blaukopf was also involved in organizing various exhibitions for the IGMG. In 1980, in collaboration with Emmy Hauswirth (1918–1999), a traveling photo exhibition on Mahler took place, which took place in over 30 countries. Blaukopf also wrote numerous reviews and articles in newspapers and magazines and, parallel to his musicological research, was also busy with publications on everything to do with Austrian culture and literature. Until recently, she worked as a co-designer of the research focus “Scientific World Conception and Art” initiated and led by her husband at the Institute Vienna Circle (also Institute Vienna Circle or IVC for short ). In doing so, she made important contributions to the history of German studies and the history of Austrian science and culture.

The exhibition held from September 2005 to January 2006 under the title Mahleriana - From Becoming an Icon in the Vienna Jewish Museum on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the IGMG was originally intended to be planned and designed by Blaukopf. However, since she became seriously ill at the same time, she could hardly contribute anything to the exhibition, apart from some preliminary conceptual work. Furthermore, there was also no publication of a (extended) joint new edition of the correspondence between Mahler and Strauss from 1980 and the volume Gustav Mahler, Unknown Letters from 1983, which she had planned and published under the title Extraprobe at my expense wanted to publish.

On January 19, 2005, Blaukopf died after several months of serious illness, shortly after her 81st birthday, in her hometown of Vienna and was buried on February 17, 2005 at the side of her husband at the Mauer cemetery in the family grave of the Singer family. On January 25, 2005, Die Presse published an obituary written by Ilse Korotin and Nastasja Stupnicki under the title Gustav Mahler's Trustee. On the death of the Viennese literary and music researcher Herta Blaukopf . The two also dedicated a multi-page article to the renowned Mahler researcher in their 2018 volume Biographies of Important Austrian Women Scientists . Korotin also mentioned them in her four-volume lexicon biografiA , published in 2016 . Lexicon of Austrian Women .

Kurt and Herta Blaukopf's grave at the Mauer cemetery

Works (selection)

• 1959: In the Viennese coffee house
• 1962: Humor & Hamur
• 1996: Positivism and Ideology in German Studies. From the beginnings of Austrian language and literature research . In: Philosophy, Literature and Music in the Orchestra of Science , Ed. Kurt Blaukopf
• 1998: Stifter's literary record. A means of presenting the 'real truth' . In: Science in Fiction - Fiction in Science. On the conversation between literature and science , Ed. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler
• 2000: From a writing workshop. Living and working with Kurt Blaukopf . In: Art, Art Theory and Art Research in Scientific Discourse. In memoriam Kurt Blaukopf (1914–1999) , eds. Martin Seiler and Friedrich Stadler

Together with Kurt Blaukopf

• 1957: Music Guide Vienna. A journey of discovery to the capital of music
• 1980: Gustav Mahler - Richard Strauss. Correspondence between 1888–1911
• 1982: Gustav Mahler, letters, new edition
• 1983: Gustav Mahler, Unknown Letters
• 1986: The Vienna Philharmonic. Being, becoming, and working of a great orchestra
• 1992: The Vienna Philharmonic. World of the orchestra - orchestras of the world
• 1994: Gustav Mahler. Life and work in the testimonies of time
• 1996: Gustav Mahler - Letters

literature

• Ilse Korotin (Ed.): BiografıA. Lexicon of Austrian Women. Volume 1: A-H. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2 , pp. 339-340.
• Ilse Korotin & Nastasja Stupnicki : Biographies of important Austrian scientists . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2018, ISBN 978-3-205-20238-7 , pp. 88-95 .

Web links

• Entry on Herta Blaukopf in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Footnotes & individual references

1. ↑ January 3, 1924 according to the biographies of important Austrian scientists
2. ↑ January 1924 according to biografiA. Lexicon of Austrian Women January 1924
3. ↑ September 3, 1924 according to Herta Blaukopf on friedhoefewien.at