Julius Stwertka

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Julius Stwertka ( March 7, 1872 in Vienna - December 17, 1942 in the Theresienstadt ghetto ) was an Austrian violinist and music teacher. For many years he was concertmaster in the orchestra of the k. u. k. Court Opera and member of the Vienna Philharmonic . He and his family were murdered by the Nazi regime in the course of the Holocaust .

life and work

He was the son of the Moravian-born musician Alois Lazar Stwertka (1841–1911) and his wife Antonie geb. Figdor (1846-1917), a Viennese. Julius had at least four brothers and a sister, all born after him: Max (born 1873), Friedrich (1875), Berthold (1877) and Joseph (1878 or 1879) as well as Caroline Lina (1882).

He attended the community school and from 1886 studied violin with Sigmund Bachrich , then with Jakob Moritz Grün at the Conservatory for Music , where he graduated with honors in 1891. He then took private lessons with Joseph Joachim in Berlin and gave concerts in London. His youngest brother, Joseph Stwertka, embarked on a career as a musician, learned from Ferdinand Hellmesberger and became a cellist. From 1892 to 1895 Stwertka served as the deputy military bandmaster in the kuk Lower Austrian infantry regiment "Hoch- und Deutschmeister" No. 4 . From around 1898 he was the first concertmaster at the Hamburg City Theater .

In 1899 he married the singer Rosa Kohlberg, who was born on August 15, 1875 in Dunaföldvár . The couple had two children: Franz Stwertka, born on October 30, 1903 in Vienna, and Margarete, born on June 23, 1906 there.

In 1902 the former Court Opera brought him Gustav Mahler in Vienna, where he alongside Arnold Rosé as concertmaster at the k. u. k. Court opera worked. He also became a member of the Vienna Philharmonic . From 1934 to 1938 he played the viola in the famous Rosé Quartet . Parallel to his engagement at the Vienna Opera, he also worked as a music teacher: in 1903 he became a violin teacher at the Music Conservatory, in 1908 a professor and in 1924 a member of the government. He was the teacher of a large number of violinists, including Daniel Falk , Karl Hawranek , Karl Rosner , Franz Samohyl and Otto Strasser . Some of his students were in turn philharmonic and music teachers.

In 1933 he retired from the Conservatory and in 1936 from the State Opera. After the annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany, his internment is said to have been prevented twice by interventions. However, in August 1942 he was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto with his wife and two children . There he made music with the quartet founded by Egon Ledeč , which played on various occasions as part of the so-called leisure activities in autumn 1942. He died on December 17, 1942 in Theresienstadt.

The wife and children were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in May 1944, where they were murdered by the Nazi regime. None of his siblings survived the Shoah : Friedrich died in Vienna in 1932, Berthold committed suicide in 1941, Max was murdered by the Nazi regime in Izbica , Joseph in the Dachau concentration camp and Caroline Lina in the Maly Trostinez extermination camp .

Award

  • 1933: Gold Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria

literature

Original sources can be found in the following Vienna archives

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MARGARETHE GRETE STWERTKA on yadvashem.org
  2. ^ Jewish Music Research Center: EGON LEDEČ , accessed January 10, 2017

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stwertka, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian violinist and concert master
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1942
Place of death Theresienstadt ghetto