Wilhelm Wapenhensch

Wilhelm Wapenhensch in 1963 in Kiel

Wilhelm Wapenhensch (born January 2, 1899 in Groß Zarnow ( Polish : Czarnowo), Pyritz district , Pomerania; † December 7, 1964 in Kiel ) was a German pianist, organist, conductor and composer.

Live and act

Wilhelm Wapenhensch was born as the son of the pastor Ernst Wapenhensch and his wife Marie Wapenhensch (née Braun) . For two years he attended the village school in Groß Zarnow , after which his father prepared him for lessons in the grammar school of the district town of Pyritz (Polish: Pyrzyce).

Wilhelm Wapenhensch's musical talent was already evident in early childhood. He played harmonica and harmonica, mastered the harmonium at the age of seven and composed a waltz at the age of eight. A year later he even took over the harmonium representation in the Groß Zarnower village church.

In 1909 the family moved to Sinzlow (Żelisławiec) in the Kolbatz church district / Greifenhagen district , where the ten-year-old often plays the organ in church services. He also received his first piano lessons. In 1910 Wapenhensch came to the Royal Bismarck High School in Pyritz .

After the father's death in 1914, Pyritz became the family's new home. At Ernst Callies Wapenhensch got piano lessons in theory. It was Callies who drew him to concerts in school, teacher training college and church. In 1917 Wapenhensch graduated from high school. At the closing ceremony, a choir performed the "Reiterlied" which he had composed.

At Easter 1917 Wapenhensch began studying ancient languages ​​and music at the University of Leipzig , and from 1919 he went to Berlin to study music: at the University of Music and the Academy for School and Church Music . In July 1921 he passed his exams as a music teacher for higher education institutions and as an organist and choir director.

In August 1921, Wapenhensch was appointed organist at Stendal Cathedral , and later music lessons were added at two Stendal schools. He stayed in the Altmark for only three years, only to be employed as a music teacher at the Marienstiftsgymnasium in Szczecin in 1924 , and five years later in the same capacity at the Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Schule . At the same time, when he was only 30 years old, he was appointed “music consultant at secondary schools for Pomerania”. From 1924 Wapenhensch was also the organist at the St. Peter and Paul Church in Szczecin (Polish: Kościół Piotra i Pawel) and actively shaped the concert life of Szczecin until 1943: as a choir director, orchestral conductor, as a soloist or accompanist for piano and music Organ evenings.

In 1943 the Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Schule was relocated to Sellin on Rügen . In 1944 Wapenhensch had to join an air force unit in Greifswald , then in April 1945 he fled with his wife to Lübeck , where he worked as an organist until he went to the Ricarda Huch School in Kiel as a music teacher in the same year . The local university community appointed him their organist, and from 1959 to 1961 he took over the office of organist in Kronshagen near Kiel, where he lived. In addition, he became - as was the case in Stettin - music advisor at the Ministry of Culture of Schleswig-Holstein .

For health reasons, Wilhelm Wapenhensch had to retire early from school service in 1959. From 1962 he directed the entire church music at the Luther Church in Kiel .

Wilhelm Wapenhensch died on December 7, 1974 in Kiel. On the occasion of the funeral service for his funeral at the Eichhof cemetery in Kiel , a composition was played that he had written especially for this hour.

Wapenhensch was married to Clara Kunkel for the first time in 1923 . After her death in 1940 he married the music teacher Hermine Rudolph . Both marriages remained childless.

Unfortunately, most of Wapenhensch's pre-war works have been lost. Since the end of the war, his work was all the more focused on composing. His works correspond to a classic-romantic style with occasional borrowings from the baroque. An overview of his works shows that they always have the folk song, folk dance or chant as a basis. They are carried by the profound authenticity and cleanliness of the musical disposition in the practice of compositional basic truths.

Appreciation

The Pomeranian Landsmannschaft honored Wilhelm Wapenhensch for his life's work with their culture prize in 1963.

References

Compositions (selection)

• Peacefully, star after star (Text: Ernst Moritz Arndt )
• Juchhei, Blümelein, smell and bloom (Text: EM Arndt)
• I want to sing songs, songs that I sang at home (Text: Martin Kohz)
• W. Schultz (arr.), On the green meadow. Dances of the homeland. Musical movements by Wilhelm Wapenhensch , Troisdorf, 1954

Book edition

• Wilhelm Wapenhensch, Ernst Zahnow : Mien Pommernland. Pomeranian song book , Hamburg, 1958

literature

• Brigitte Klesczewski: Everything went better with music, a third serenade for the Szczecin teacher Wilhelm Wapenhensch , o.A.
• Not musical enough. The composer of Pomerania: Wilhelm Wapenhensch (1899–1964) , in: Zeitschrift Pommern, issue 1/1999, reprinted in Die Pommersche Zeitung , episode 33/10