Meta Diestel

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Meta Henriette Maria Alwine Diestel (born June 17, 1877 in Tübingen , † April 24, 1968 in Korntal ) was a German oratorio and cantata singer ( alto voice ), singing teacher, singing leader and benefactor. The royal chamber singer was famous in the USA as well as in England , Italy and Switzerland .

Life

Meta was the youngest of six children of Professor of Theology Dr. Ludwig Diestel and his wife Emilie Diestel (née Delius). The father died when she was two years old, and the large family was extremely scarce (Grüneisen 1982, p. 128). The contralto was trained at the Stuttgart "Conservatory for Music" (today: State University for Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart ), which after two years awarded her the "skills of a concert singer and piano teacher for the middle class". In the following years she traveled through many countries and gained an excellent reputation as a bach singer, often together with Karl Erb . She was soon considered to be the most important oratorio alto of her generation. During the First World War the artist gave front concerts and sang in hospitals . She also sang butter, eggs, milk and textiles for children's homes, kindergartens and families in German cities and villages and abroad. The royal chamber singer became the 'pantry singer', as she liked to call herself overnight (Grüneisen 1982, p. 128). She also participated in the founding (1917) of a mother's school in Stuttgart, the first in Germany.

After 1918, the singer became increasingly involved in voluntary welfare work within the Protestant Church, teaching many women how to enjoy songs through so-called mother singing. In the famine years immediately after the war and during the inflation, she gave concerts and sang for fruit, beets, chaff for cots, fabrics and the like. In the USA alone in 1923 she gave 130 concerts in 108 days for dry milk , tons of which were sent to German children's homes. After the Second World War, she worked tirelessly, especially for women and large families in the GDR, and supported Protestant diaspora communities in Austria.

Bishop Otto Dibelius , who was one of her friends and admirers, pointed out in his preface to the autobiography published by Meta Diestel how significant the singer's life was for countless people:

The special thing about Meta Diestel's career as a singer was that you not only admired how she sang, elegant and simple, warm and thoughtful, but that when she performed in the great oratorios, you believed what she sang . That won her the hearts of the most serious and the best. It is still unforgettable today. And then this whole, great artistic body merged into a free and independent service to the church and took up the modern singing movement in an inimitably personal way. Anyone who has ever witnessed how this woman stepped in front of a gathering of 300 or 600 or 800 women, how under her word and under her rousing leadership the indifferent, worried, often dull faces gradually brightened up, loosened up more and more until At the end of the singing hour, a lot of happy people joined in a joyful, moving hymn of praise - he won't forget it again. Pastoral care took place here on a grand scale. What Meta Diestel once did for the German soldiers in the hospitals during the years of war and the severe inflationary period was a lot and should not be forgotten. But what she did in the last phase of her life as a pastoral minister was and is even more. It was the culmination of a blessed life course (quoted in Diestel 1952, p. 5 f).

Meta Diestel's enormous commitment to the denominational "Bavarian Mothers Service", founded in 1933 and directed by Antonie Nopitsch , must not be forgotten . She kept her distance from NS work with mothers. Her singing lessons with the mothers in the various rest homes or with the volunteers at the annual maternity service meetings are countless. In this regard, she worked closely with the theologian Maria Weigle . This opened up a completely new way of dealing with the Holy Scriptures for the singer :

She learned that the well-known biblical stories, the wording of which was often all too familiar to the ear, suddenly seemed new, strange, fascinating and that her statement was accurate. Edification had become help in life, Bible study became Bible study. Even laypeople dared to ask questions and tried to find answers in joint conversation that were often very different from what they were used to. Meta Diestel was enthusiastic and immediately began to consider how this method could be applied to the songs she sang with the women, especially the chorals. 'If only I could explain the lyrics the way Maria Weigle explains the scriptures!' Singing as proclamation, sung gospel - that was her task from now on (Nold / Pflug n.d., p. 15).

Around 1955 Meta Diestel withdrew from active church work. She suffered from severe heart disease. Nevertheless, she continued to be involved in social aid and, for example, organized parcel deliveries to the GDR or supported a home for babies and toddlers in Austria - even when she was bedridden . The latter facility is now a home for the disabled of Diakonie Kärnten and bears the name of Meta Diestel.

She lived in a partnership with her friend Heidi Denzel and remained childless.

In 1957, the artist was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her artistic and social merits .

Works

  • Annunciation in song and through song, in: Die christliche Kinderpflege 1940, pp. 138-145
  • A heart is on the way. From life and work, Nuremberg 1952
  • Your mother, Nuremberg no year.
  • Mother's house orchestra, Nuremberg undated

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Diestel, Meta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diestel, Meta Henriette Maria Alwine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer and vocal teacher
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1968
Place of death Korntal