Joseph Engel de Jánosi

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Josef Engel de Jánosi (also: Jánosi Engel József , called Joska ; Joseph Engel von Jánosi ; the pseudonym anagrammatizing his real name, under which he published almost all of his writings, was: JE de Sinoja ; * November 20, 1851 in Fünfkirchen , Kaisertum Austria ; † November 25, 1939 on his estate Jánosi) was a royal Hungarian councilor, large landowner, writer with a special interest in music, patron and antique and art collector.

Life

Among other things, although he initially belonged to Richard Wagner's circle, at the age of eighteen he wrote a defensive text directed against Wagner's Das Judenthum in der Musik under the title Richard Wagner's “Judenthum in der Musik”. A defense (Leipzig 1869). Josef Engel continued to admire Richard Wagner as a musician, there remained friendly relations and the correspondence continued until Wagner's death.

For decades, Josef Engel worked for the Leipziger Musikalisches Wochenblatt and the Robert Schumannsche Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and wrote studies on Meyerbeer and Judaism , which were also published in Mult és Jövö . He was also considered a musical child prodigy and had aspired to a virtuoso career with Robert Fuchs at a very early age , which he had to give up because of the family business in the wood industry because his over-strict father had not allowed training in this direction.

Josef's father was the Hungarian-Jewish industrialist (wood, coal mines, cement factory, building contractor and large landowner) and patron Adolph Engel de Jánosi (Fünfkirchen 1820 - Vienna 1903), who worked his way up from difficult circumstances to astonishing prosperity and from the king in 1886 the Hungarian hereditary nobility with the predicate "de Jánosi" (after the estate acquired in 1880 by Prince Alfred Montenuovo) was awarded.

Josef left behind a huge collection of art objects, antiques, rare printed matter and manuscripts. His collection of music-historical rarities was particularly rich and valuable. Likewise, the collection of his correspondence with personalities such as B. Wagner and Turgenev . After the turmoil of the post-war period, this collection no longer exists.

Josef had two sons: Richard (named after Richard Wagner, 1882 Pécs - 1944 Mauthausen concentration camp , presumably died there on a hunger strike, with which he tried to defend himself against the unjust treatment) and Róbert (named after Robert Schumann, 1883 Pécs - 1943 ibid ).

Works (selection)

  • The Marranas . Tragedy in five acts and one prelude. Dresden 1900
  • In the confessional . Tragedy in two sections. Dresden 1903
  • The honor of the newspaper. - Truth without poetry . Dresden 1904
  • The Kabbalist . Tragedy in three acts. Dresden 1909
  • The merchant of Rome or: Shylock's original figure . Drama in five acts, plus an introduction. Dresden undated (1925)
  • Anti-Semitism in Music . Zurich 1933

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Burned in public in Leipzig during National Socialism. - Motto: "The pigeon has its nest - the fox the ravine [ravine, cave], man is home - Judah only the crypt ..."
  2. ↑ Published under the name JE de Sinoja . A book that, above all, prompted Thomas Mann to reflect more intensely on the Hitler-Wagner problem by 1935 at the latest and which was to determine Mann's Wagner image permanently in the future; Thomas Mann wrote about Wagner as a result of reading the Josef Engel in his diary (February 13, 1935): Horrible feeling of how much this petty bourgeoisie, who is a hideous character, actually anticipates National Socialism (cf. Hans Rudolf Vaget : Seelenzauber. Thomas Mann and die Musik , Verlag S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2006, p. 163)
personal data
SURNAME Angel de Jánosi, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engel de Jánosi, Joseph; Sinoja, JE de (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian music writer and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Five churches
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1939
Place of death Pécs