Peter Czerny

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Peter Czerny in the 1980s.

Peter Czerny (born April 22, 1929 in Leipzig ; † August 4, 2011 in Berlin ) was a German musicologist , publicist and socialist-humanist cultural functionary. He was the author of an opera guide widely used in the GDR . Furthermore, he particularly influenced the genre of popular music (light music, entertainment art) in the GDR.

Life

Education and professional career

Peter Czerny came from a humble background, and his father attached great importance to a proper schooling for his sons. Czerny, who had turned 16 a few days before the end of the Second World War , narrowly escaped being drafted into the so-called Volkssturm . His mother is said to have destroyed his presentation notice by secretly burning him.

After the end of the war, Peter Czerny was initially trained as a miner in the Leipzig lignite mining district. Due to a fortunate coincidence, however, he was soon delegated to a workers and peasants faculty . He then studied art and musicology at the East Berlin Humboldt University , a. a. with Ernst Hermann Meyer , Georg Knepler and Harry Goldschmidt .

After completing his studies, he was a member of the central board of the Association of German Composers and Musicologists and editor of the association's journal Musik und Gesellschaft . In 1957 he became the first editor-in-chief of the East Berlin magazine Melodie und Rhythmus . From 1969 to 1973 he worked as artistic director of the GDR monopoly operation for sound carriers, the VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin . In 1973 he was appointed general director of the newly formed committee for entertainment arts. In February 1981 Peter Czerny took over the management of the Metropol-Theater in Berlin-Mitte. After the political turning point in autumn 1989, Czerny, who still felt connected to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, could no longer hold on to office. In the summer of 1990 he resigned from his management position at the Metropol Theater.

After that, Peter Czerny lived withdrawn and largely out of the public eye.

Private

Peter Czerny married Hedwig "Hedi" Buchelt from Halle (Saale) on November 27, 1954 . The two sons Ronald (* 1961) and Henrik (* 1965) came from this first marriage. Henrik Czerny studied singing and music at the "Hanns Eisler" University of Music in Berlin and has been a member of the Stuttgart State Opera Choir since 1994. Hedi died in 1966, after which Czerny entered into a second marriage with Erika Ida Irmgard Albrecht (* 1932 in Witten, Schwiebus district ). Erika, who came from a pious Lutheran-Protestant family, gave birth to a third son, Matthias (* 1967).

Create

Acting as a publicist

Peter Czerny's main journalistic work was the opera book . This opera guide, which is very popular in the GDR, was published between 1958 and 1982 in 17 editions with an estimated 600,000 copies. According to his own admission, Czerny pursued the goal of making the ideal wealth of opera culture and the beauty of its music understandable and accessible to broad sections of the population.

His second book publication is less well known. In 1968 a historical study of the beginnings and development of so-called light music in Germany was published under the title Der Schlager . Together with Heinz P. Hofmann, Peter Czerny undertook to trace the development of popular music from the dance music of the 19th century to the time of the First World War . Although the consistent Marxist-materialist style of the work is not necessarily obvious to today's reader, the consideration of the sociological aspect in the development of popular music appears to be quite understandable. In terms of professional biography, it should be emphasized that Czerny's pronounced interest in the operetta was already evident in the book Der Schlager : If it appeared in this publication as one of the various musical sources from which the genre of light music was derived, in his later it became professional Career, specifically during his directorship at the Metropol-Theater, the main subject of his activity.

The announced continuation of the hit song has never appeared. That book should have shown that the people's democratic conditions of socialism would overcome the narrowing of popular music in the West, which is legitimate according to Marxist theory. It may be interpreted as an irony of history that the GDR failed faster than Czerny and his co-author Hofmann were able to provide evidence of the superiority of their hit creations.

Peter Czerny has expressed himself in numerous articles and interviews on contemporary issues of artistic creation in the GDR. He came to music journalism on the initiative of Eberhard Rebling , who had been editor-in-chief of Music and Society since 1952 . The large number of music-theoretical and cultural-political controversies led Rebling to seek to strengthen the editorial team, which finally led to his being able to hire Czerny around 1956. Peter Czerny was mainly responsible for the dance and light music. Due to the increasing volume, a second magazine for popular music could finally appear from November 1957. In fact, Czerny took over the management of melody and rhythm , while Rebling was again solely responsible for music and society . In addition (and beyond that) Czerny also published in the SED party sheet Neues Deutschland and in Theater der Zeit .

General Director of the Entertainment Arts Committee

The minutes of a meeting that took place in the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED on December 21, 1973 (see below: Link to the files of the GDR Arts Union in the online stock of the Federal Archives ; from there ) are illuminating for the role and tasks of the Committee for Entertainment Art File page 35). Czerny, who has just been appointed to the head of the newly created institution , not only met comrades from the cultural sector, but also from the agitation department of the Central Committee. The notes from the meeting show that entertainment - similar to sport in the GDR - should be specifically promoted and used for the ideological and political goals of the Unity Party. How important the topic was classified by the SED agitators is made clear by a comment by Comrade Fensch who was present and who suggested a meeting to involve GDR artists: "Advice 'very high on': Central Committee and Minister of Culture."

On the one hand, the committee itself performed operational tasks, such as detailed planning for the promotion of individual artists or drawing up model contracts. On the other hand, it was supposed to coordinate the various actors in GDR entertainment art and create conceptual foundations in order to enforce the SED ideology in the field of entertainment art.

As general director , Czerny prepared some of his proposals directly for the GDR's minister of culture . In an extensive concept paper that was to be discussed with the minister on June 25, 1974 (see below: Link to the files of the GDR arts union in the online stock of the Federal Archives; there from file page 148), Czerny u. a. the need to find new talent in the entertainment arts. It is remarkable that his efforts in this direction found an echo even in West Germany. The news magazine SPIEGEL noted in an extensive article on GDR entertainment on March 22, 1976: "Peter Czerny (animated) ... only ten days ago the youngsters again:" New faces, voices, performances are needed. ""

Director of the Metropol Theater in Berlin

The Metropol-Theater in Berlin-Mitte was a traditional revue and operetta theater . Shortly after Peter Czerny took over the management at the beginning of 1981, the members of parliament from East Berlin set his profile on the cheerful music theater , which was to cultivate the genres of operettas and musicals . A little later, Czerny set the first accents by entering into a cooperation with the nearby Friedrichstadt-Palast . The joint production of Im Weißen Rößl turned out to be very popular and all performances were in fact sold out. Furthermore, the first own ballet production from the Metropol was reported.

The repertoire of the Metropol-Theater under the directorship of Peter Czerny comprised works of both classical operettas and contemporary musicals, supplemented by ballet performances and productions on the “small” stage of the house, also known as the rehearsal stage. The operettas Die Fledermaus (premiere: May 1987), Der Graf von Luxemburg (October 1985) and Countess Mariza (May 1983) came onto the stage . For the 750th anniversary of the city of Berlin in 1987, more attention was paid to the Berlin operetta; Sun came in that year Frau Luna from Paul Lincke well on stage as the musical revue evening at Kollos with pop and melodies of Walter and Willi Kollo . Well-known Broadway musicals such as Alexis Sorbas (July 1984), Kiss Me, Kate (February 1985) or Sugar (March 1989) were released at the Metropol in their respective German versions.

He saw the demands on the versatility of the artist as a particular challenge. According to Czerny, operettas and musicals require a special combination of performing means, singing skills and dancing qualities. In an article for the trade journal Theater der Zeit , he supported the desire to found a specialized musical studio to train suitable stage artists for his specialty theater .

On the other hand, it worried him that musical production in the GDR had practically fallen asleep. The staging of “western” musicals unfortunately often failed due to financial hurdles because the GDR lacked the necessary foreign currency reserves for the performance rights .

Critical appraisal

For most of his life, Czerny was a party-loyal socialist cultural functionary who largely identified with the political line of the SED. As early as 1963, the (West German) news magazine SPIEGEL dubbed him the “Schlager expert of the SED”. Exactly 25 years later, in February 1988, the New Germany published an Eloge by Czerny to SED leader Honecker , in which the former praised Marxism-Leninism as groundbreaking for the further development of culture in the GDR.

The concept of the creative and critical appropriation of cultural heritage on the basis of Marxism and Leninism, represented by Peter Czerny, appears from today's perspective to be ideologically inflated. However, the musical works of earlier epochs, including those from the bourgeoisie period , basically left their creative dignity. Because Czerny also supported and promoted their performance , reproduction and reception in the GDR, the individual appropriation and enjoyment of numerous works of cultural heritage remained possible for the East German population as well.

Peter Czerny expressly and appreciatively recognized the humanistic core of bourgeois art - which was at times denigrated as "parasitic" by socialist cultural theory . This is how he judged Franz Lehár :

"He tried to ennoble people with his operettas, he tried to achieve a humanistic concern ... Here we have the key that explains why Lehár strives for the creation of beauty, happiness and joie de vivre."

- Peter Czerny : The Schlager, 1968

This appreciation of Lehár was not without its explosiveness. In a retrospective assessment, a connoisseur of the subject writes about the composer's reception in East Germany: “In the GDR operetta guides, descriptions of works were deterred from this poisoned entertainment culture and its Austrian performance tradition, which is triumphing with sentiment .” Against this background, Peter Czerny appears to be clearly advocating the artistic-humanistic quality of Franz Lehár's works is by no means taken for granted.

Numerous reviews of operas from all epochs in his opera book also show that the creative value and emotional agitation of the works of this genre earned him respect.

In a 1964 article in the SED party sheet Neues Deutschland , he defended Hanns Eisler against the allegation in the room that he had used Schönberg's twelve-tone technique . (The twelve-tone music had been dismissed by the GDR leadership as formalistic and modernistic since the 1950s .) The composer Hanns Eisler, who had lived in the GDR after the Second World War, was evidently repeatedly confronted with the accusation that he was a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg. Although it is unclear why these allegations against Hanns Eisler still - or again - played a role in the art business of the GDR even after his death, it can be stated that Czerny's article tried to save Eisler's honor:

"There is no Chinese wall between realism and modernism in the 20th century."

- Peter Czerny : New music that inspires our work. In: New Germany 1964

In the same contribution, Czerny suggested a differentiated view of the works of - in his diction - late bourgeois composers. Czerny took a cautiously distant stance here, which in the sense of humanism left room for the recognition of non-socialist artists and their works. At the same time he tried to protect his own comrades from overly restrictive standpoints by calling a "broad discussion about new works with the audience" and an "open dispute" as necessary.

It remains in the dark whether he was aware that the staging of numerous old Viennese operettas in East Berlin in the 1980s could have the same effect that he himself had once assigned to this art genre . In 1968 Czerny had written:

"The so-called« Weaner comfort »is like a curtain behind which the motto is hidden:« Just don't think about the future »."

- Peter Czerny : The Schlager, 1968

Against this background, it seems almost symbolic that Peter Czerny himself promoted the Viennese operetta during his nine years at the helm of the Metropol-Theater. The political change that ended his professional career in 1990 seems to have come as a surprise to him; in any case, he did not find an adequate answer to this social and cultural-political challenge.

Fonts

  • Opera book. Henschel, Berlin 1958. Last (17th) edition: Henschel, Berlin 1982
  • The bat. A panorama of light music. Lied der Zeit, Berlin 1968 (together with Heinz P. Hofmann)
  • numerous articles and interviews in the magazines Musik und Gesellschaft , Melodie und Rhythmus and in East Berlin daily newspapers from the 1960s to the 1980s

literature

  • Günter Görtz: Carefully guarded love for the cheerful - the director of the Metropol Theater Peter Czerny on his 60th birthday. In: Neues Deutschland , April 24, 1989, p. 4.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Registry office Halle / Saale, excerpt from the family tree.
  2. ^ Forum Neues Musiktheater, Stuttgart. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  3. ^ State Opera Stuttgart: Henrik Czerny | State Opera Stuttgart. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  4. ^ Peter Czerny: Opera book. Henschel , Berlin 1982, foreword.
  5. ↑ Lin Jaldati, Eberhard Rebling: Never say you go the last way. BdWi-Verlag, Marburg 1995, pages 452-473
  6. ^ Establishing a committee for entertainment art, in: Neues Deutschland, April 7, 1973, p. 4
  7. ^ GDR entertainment: “Humor, Humor, Humor!”, In: DER SPIEGEL, No. 13/1976
  8. ↑ New director of the Metropol-Theater, in: Neues Deutschland from January 30, 1981, p. 4
  9. ^ Resolution of the city council of the capital of the GDR of March 24, 1983 on the tasks of the (East) Berlin theaters
  10. ↑ Theater der Zeit No. 09/1982, p. 74
  11. ↑ New good pieces - and good old ones too, in: Neues Deutschland, May 6, 1982, p. 4; Metropol Theater with interesting productions, in: Neues Deutschland, January 4, 1985, p. 4; Tilo Treskow: Evergreen wise men around the linden trees of Berlin, in: Neues Deutschland, 6./7. June 1987; Günter Görtz: Some like it hot, and many will like it, in: Neues Deutschland, March 30, 1989, p. 4
  12. ↑ Theater der Zeit No. 02/1987, p. 10
  13. ↑ Theater der Zeit No. 07/1985, p. 29
  14. ↑ Florian Felix Weyh: The cultural functionary - In search of a shy being, in: Deutschlandfunk, May 13, 2012, 8: 05-21: 00.
  15. ↑ First you come, in: DER SPIEGEL, March 27, 1963, p. 92
  16. ↑ Strong response in the population of the GDR to Erich Honecker's presentation to the 1st district secretaries of the SED, in: Neues Deutschland , February 18, 1988, p. 2.
  17. ^ Peter Czerny and Heinz P. Hofmann: The hit. Lied der Zeit, Berlin 1968, p. 183.
  18. ^ Roland H. Dippel: Old Operetta for the Young GDR - Part 2, in: Leipziger Volkszeitung , February 3, 2016
  19. ^ Peter Czerny: New music that inspires our work - Thoughts on the GDR Music Congress. In: Neues Deutschland , September 18, 1964, p. 4.
  20. ^ Peter Czerny and Heinz P. Hofmann: The hit. Lied der Zeit, Berlin 1968, p. 178.
personal data
SURNAME Czerny, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musicologist, journalist and socialist-humanist cultural functionary
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 2011
Place of death Berlin