Sudeten German Music Institute
The Sudetendeutsche Musikinstitut (SMI) in Regensburg researches, documents and promotes the musical culture in the Bohemian countries “with special consideration of the population of German language, origin or nationality”. The institute works out the complex German-Czech interactions of this culture in a European context and is geared towards exchange and international understanding. The term “music” in this project is not tied to national or genre regulations. In addition to the "classical music" "the full range of colloquial and popular music (folk, jazz and other music)" treated and promoted.
The SMI is taking on a task that the Institute for German Music in the East performed in a similar manner until 1988 for musical cultural assets from Silesia, East and West Prussia, Gdansk, the Baltic States and the German settlement areas in Southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. The SMI is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Family, Labor and Social Affairs , the City of Regensburg and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media . “The SMI collects music, specialist literature, manuscripts and documents of all kinds on the music of the Bohemian countries.” Within the scope of its possibilities, the SMI itself acts as an organizer, initiator and sponsor of events.
“Between 1944 and 1950, around 12 to 14 million Germans and people of German origin from various countries were affected by flight and displacement.” More than two million of the people affected from what was then Czechoslovakia found refuge in Bavaria. Especially in music, they brought rich and valuable cultural traditions with them from their former residential and settlement areas in Bohemia. The Upper Palatinate district decided to found the SMI in 1990 in order to secure this valuable musical culture in the Bohemian countries in the long term. The actual establishment took place on July 30, 1991.
Publications of the SMI (selection)
- Widmar Hader: Lexicon on German musical culture: Bohemia, Moravia, Sudeten Silesia. Munich 2000. ISBN 9783784427997 .
- Andreas Wehrmeyer (editor): Music in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: (1939–1945). Facts, backgrounds, historical environment. Munich: Ricordi, 2008 ISBN 9783938809341 .
- Vladimír Šlajch: The Elbogen Organ Building School. Regensburg 1992. ISBN 9783980329408 .
- The Jewish contribution to the music history of Bohemia and Moravia report. Regensburg 1992. ISBN 9783980329422 .
Web links
- Literature from and about the Sudeten German Music Institute in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- Andreas Wehrmeyer: Sudeten German Music Institute (SMI). In: www. Bezirk-oberpfalz.de. District of Upper Palatinate, accessed on February 23, 2020 .
- Culture portal west-east: Sudeten German Music Institute. Retrieved February 23, 2020 .