Simon Anton Zimmermann

Simon Anton Zimmermann (* 1807 in Haigerloch ; † 1876 in Weinheim ) was a German conductor , choir director and composer .

Life

Zimmermann was baptized as a Catholic son of Antonius Zimmermann and Johanna Sommer on April 18, 1807 in Haigerloch. As a child he had contact with church music and sang in the church choir. From 1820 he lived in Konstanz and from 1827 in Freiburg im Breisgau . In 1830 he became Kapellmeister with the 4th Baden Infantry Regiment in Mannheim .

In 1832 he married a woman from Mannheim. In 1833 he finished his military service and became an organist and church choir director in Mannheim. He was also active as a composer of secular and ecclesiastical literature. In 1840 he became the founding conductor of the Mannheimer Liedertafel, and in 1842 he also took over as a conductor at the Mannheimer Musikverein. In 1861 he won the competition from the Moritz Schauenburg publishing house in Lahr to set Victor von Scheffel's poems to music , although he was a member of the Badischer Sängerbund on the jury and therefore only submitted his composition out of competition. In Mannheim he became a member of the Freemason Lodge Carl zur Eintracht .

In 1863 he gave up his activities for health reasons and moved to live with his son in Weinheim, where he was buried 13 years later on July 12, 1876 in the St. Peter cemetery. A large memorial stone still reminds of his musical work today.

Works (selection)

• Setting (1861) of the song "Alt Heidelberg, du fein" written by Victor von Scheffel in 1852 .

source

• Eberhard Grießhaber: "Old Heidelberg, you fine ..." The musical version was created 145 years ago . In: "Church on the Way", Heidelberg, November 2006 (PDF file; 158 kB)