Paul Willert

Max Paul Georg Willert (born December 12, 1901 in Tanna ; † June 17, 1988 in Göttingen ) was a German musicologist and singer ( baritone ).

Life

Willert was born in 1901 as the son of a teacher and a housewife in Tanna, Thuringia. He was a student at the elementary school and the secondary school in Frankenhausen . He attended the Leipzig teacher training college until he passed his first teaching degree in 1921 . The second teacher examination followed in 1924. After a short period as a primary school teacher in Chemnitz, he studied musicology , music education and German studies at the University of Leipzig and singing at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1926 to 1928 . He also passed the school-leaving exam for elementary school teachers at the Schillergymnasium in Leipzig. In 1928 he acquired the qualification to teach singing and then worked as a music teacher at the secondary school in Greiz and as a concert and oratorio singer.

In 1933 the entire teaching staff of the Realgymnasium joined the NSDAP . In 1938 he was given leave of absence to study at the Weimar Academy of Music ; he passed the state examinations for music, musicology and German (upper level) and was an assistant at the musicological institute of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . In 1940 he was in German at Arthur Witte and Bernhard Kummer at the Faculty with a thesis on German translations of Walthariliedes : bushel, Winterfeld, Althof to Dr. phil. PhD. From 1940 to 1942 he was a music teacher at the Realgymnasium Greiz. In 1941 he passed the assessor examination in Weimar. In 1942 he became a high school teacher at the advanced school in Weimar and lecturer at the music pedagogical institute at the music academy in Weimar. In February 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht , where he a. a. worked as a military musician . From April 1945 to March 1947 he spent in French captivity in Heidenheim-Kreuznach-Rennes.

From 1947 to 1949 he was choirmaster and opera singer at the theater in Greiz and then opera and concert singer (baritone) at the Landestheater in Wismar. In 1951 he became a university lecturer and director of the Institute for Music Education at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Rostock . In 1952/53 he was a lecturer in music education at the Institute for Music Education at the University of Leipzig . In 1953 he was appointed professor with a teaching position for theory of music and vocal training at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Leipzig. From 1957 to 1959 he was vice dean . In 1965 he became professor with full teaching position for music history, instrument studies and folk song studies there, from 1965 at the Institute for Musicology , Music Education Department. At the institute he was head of the artistic practice department in 1966/67. He was also the second chairman of the university's Senate Culture Commission. In 1967 he retired .

Willert was a member of the Kulturbund of the GDR from 1947 to 1967 . From 1960 he belonged to the Association of German Composers and Musicologists , the Society for Music Research and the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge (Urania). From 1961 to 1967 he was in the Leipzig district board of Urania.

In 1972 he moved to Dietzenbach- Steinberg (Hessen) in the Federal Republic of Germany , where Willert was the organist's representative in the Evangelical Martin Luther Congregation . From 1981 to 1986 he represented the organist in the Evangelical Lutheran parish of St. Petri in Göttingen-Weende and in the Evangelical Lutheran parish of the St. Nikolaus monastery church in Göttingen- Nikolausberg . In the FRG he published numerous works and opera introductions.

Willert, an Evangelical Lutheran , was married.

Awards

• 1963: Pestalozzi Medal for Faithful Service (bronze)
• 1965: Medal for excellent performance

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Willert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Paul Willert in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig