Magnus Davidsohn
Magnus Davidsohn (born November 2, 1877 in Beuthen in Upper Silesia , † August 21, 1958 in Düsseldorf ) was an opera singer, music teacher and senior cantor at the Fasanenstrasse synagogue in Berlin .
Life
Magnus Davidsohn was the son of Hermann Davidsohn, who was cantor at the synagogue in Bytom for over 40 years. After his school education he studied music history at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and at the Musikhochschule Berlin , later he attended the rabbinical seminar in Berlin . At the age of 18 he became a cantor for the first time, but then took the opportunity to become an opera singer at the Deutsches Theater in Prague with the protection of Angelo Neumann . Under the name Magnus Dawison , he sang the bass part in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and King Heinrich in Wagner's Lohengrin under Gustav Mahler in 1899 .
After three years Davidsohn left the opera and became cantor at the synagogue in Gliwice . He married Harriet Fröhlich, with whom he lived until her death in 1954. In 1906 the daughter Ilse was born.
In 1912 he took the position of chief cantor at the Fasanenstrasse synagogue in Berlin-Charlottenburg , which he held until 1938. During this time he became president of the General German Cantor Association and editor of its magazine Der Jewish Kantor . In addition, he worked as a teacher at the teachers' seminar of the Prussian State Association of Jewish Communities.
In 1939 Davidsohn had to emigrate to London due to the National Socialist Jewish policy . There Davidsohn was co-founder and from 1939 to 1956 cantor of the New Liberal Jewish Congregation (today Belsize Square Synagogue ), the only German-speaking Jewish community in London. The parish chairman was Lily Montagu, the chief rabbi was Georg Salzberger from Frankfurt am Main. Davidsohn was at the same time senior teacher at the community school and editor of the community newspaper. He founded a funeral society ( Chewra Kadischa ) in the community whose first presidency and later honorary presidency he held.
On November 2, 1955 Son of David appeared as a surprise guest for his daughter Ilse Stanley in the US television show This Is Your Life radio station NBC on.
He spent the last months of his life in Düsseldorf doing research on various Jewish and music-historical topics.
Works (selection)
- Encounter with Gustav Mahler . Central-Verein-Zeitung, January 10, 1935, suppl. 1.
- A teacher of Judaism. Max Abraham on his 50th birthday . in: Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung, April 9, 1954.
- It will not go under: Jewish liturgical chants from Berlin , audio CD, Barbarossa (Edel), 2005; Recordings by various performers, including Magnus Davidsohn
Web links
- Literature by and about Magnus Davidsohn in the catalog of the German National Library
literature
- Esther Slevogt: Magnus Davidsohn. "We pray history". A great Berlin cantor of the 20th century. Published by the Centrum Judaicum , Hentrich & Hentrich , Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-95565-032-2 (= Jewish miniatures. Volume 145).
- Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Published by the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem . Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .
- Magnus Davidsohn, modern synagogue musician. In: Israelitisches Familienblatt , No. 22, 31, May 1928
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c H. H. Kuttner: Obituary - Magnus Davidsohn ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 6.1 MB) , AJR Information, Association of the Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Vol. XIII No. 10, 1958, p. 6
- ^ Address book of the city of Beuthen OS and the rural villages of the district of Beuthen 1880, entry Hermann Davidsohn , accessed on September 13, 2013
- ↑ a b Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss : Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume I: Politics, economy, public life. , KG Saur, 1980, p. 123, ISBN 3-598-10087-6
- ↑ Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch, Volume 67, 1959, p. 109
- ^ Henry-Louis de La Grange: Gustav Mahler, Volume 2: Vienna: The Years of Challenge (1897-1904) . Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 1995, pp. 172-174, ISBN 978-0193151598
- ↑ Website of the Belsize Square Synagogue , see section In the beginning .
- ^ Biography of Georg Salzberger from the Museum Judengasse in Frankfurt / M.
- ↑ This is Your Life website with name search, accessed September 14, 2013
- ↑ Printed in: Horst Weber (Hrsg.): Musik in der Emigration 1933-1945. Persecution, displacement, retroactive effect. Stuttgart, 1994, pp. 133-135, ISBN 3476012085
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Son of David, Magnus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dawison, Magnus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cantor, opera singer, music teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 2, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bytom |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 21, 1958 |
| Place of death | Dusseldorf |