Paul Ottenheimer

Paul Ottenheimer (born March 1, 1873 in Stuttgart , † December 28, 1951 in Darmstadt ) was a German composer and conductor . Ottenheimer was a prominent prisoner in the Theresienstadt ghetto and survived the Holocaust .

Live and act

Ottenheimer was a composer of songs, ballads, choral music and operettas. He worked as Kapellmeister in Augsburg , Trier , Linz , Graz , Nuremberg , Prague and Vienna . From 1913 to 1919 he succeeded Willem de Haan as court conductor at the Darmstädter Hoftheater , and from 1914 as councilor. Ottenheimer was the world premiere conductor of Siegfried Wagner's "Sun Flames" on October 30, 1918 in Darmstadt . From 1926 to 1933 he directed the opera school of the Municipal Academy for Music in Darmstadt. He was married and had two children. He counted Richard Strauss and Felix Weingartner among his friends .

During the Nazi era, Ottenheimer was first denounced by Hans Brückner and Christa Maria Rock in their anti-Semitic text Judentum und Musik and later by Herbert Gerigk and Theophil Stengel in the Lexicon of Jews in Music because of his Jewish origins . In February 1945 Ottenheimer was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto , where he arrived on February 18, 1945. There, after the intervention of Winifred Wagner, he had the status of a so-called "prominent prisoner". Despite the inhumane living conditions, Ottenheimer was able to survive and was liberated by the Red Army in Theresienstadt in early May 1945 .

As part of the first summer courses for international new music , Ottenheimer conducted an evening of composition on September 16, 1946 on behalf of the New Darmstadt Secession, with three premieres of his own songs.

Parts of his estate, including an autograph, music manuscripts and numerous song compositions, are in the Darmstadt University and State Library .

Operettas

• Secret love (Vienna, Johann Strauss Theater , 1911)
• The poor millionaire (1913)
• Lucky Hans (1914)

literature

• Axel Feuss: The Theresienstadt-Konvolut , Altonaer Museum in Hamburg, Dölling and Galitz Verlag, Hamburg / Munich 2002, ISBN 3-935549-22-9 .
• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 404.

Web links

• Ottenheimer, Paul The Theresienstadt Lexicon

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "in reality a highly calcified provincial nest", letter to Julius Bauer , October 20, 1927 musikerbriefe.at  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ ^{A b c} Axel Feuss: The Theresienstadt convolute , Hamburg / Munich 2002, p. 56
3. ↑ DNB
4. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 5067.
5. ↑ see first performance in 1918
6. ^ Summer courses for international new music, August 25 to September 29, 1946. with: Markus Grassl; Reinhard Kapp (Ed.): Darmstadt Talks: The International Summer Courses for New Music . Böhlau, Vienna 1996
7. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 8821.