Ludwig Ferdinand Schiedermair (7 December 1876, in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

– 30 April 1957, in

Bensberg Bergisch Gladbach () is a city in the Cologne/Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district). Geography Bergisch Gladbach is located east of the river Rhine, approx. 10 kilometers east of ...

) was a German minister and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

. He concerned himself with opera history,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

, and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

. In 1914 he edited the first complete critical edition of the letters of Mozart and his family.

Life

After studying musicology in Munich and

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

as a docent in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

he became a professor at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

from 1920 to 1945. As department head for music history he founded the Beethoven Archive at the

Beethoven House The Beethoven House (German: ''Beethoven-Haus'') in Bonn, Germany, is a memorial site, museum and cultural institution serving various purposes. Founded in 1889 by the Beethoven-Haus association, it studies the life and work of composer Ludwig van ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, on 26 March 1927 (the 100th anniversary of Beethoven's death) and served as its first director until 1945. He also founded the Institute for Musicology at the University of Bonn – the first such institute at a German school for higher education. He also served on the committee to found the

Max-Reger-Institute The Max-Reger-Institute (MRI) is a musicological research institute and archive in Karlsruhe, Germany, dedicated to the work of the composer Max Reger, a representative of German music around the turn of the 20th century. An associated foundation, ...

which he led until 1953. After the rise of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, he published his work ''The complete world view ideas in the Volk's music of Beethoven'' in 1934. From 1937 to 1939 he served as president of the German Society for Musicology, and in this position gave the musicological address of the ''

Reichsmusiktage The Reich Music Days (German: ''Reichsmusiktage''} took place from 22 to 29 May 1938 in Düsseldorf. They were a Nazi propaganda event under the patronage of Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels had originally planned an annual return of the Reichsmusiktage ...

'' on 27 May 1938, a work of propaganda famous for its exhibition of "

Degenerate music Degenerate music (german: Entartete Musik, link=no, ) was a label applied in the 1930s by the government of Nazi Germany to certain forms of music that it considered harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concerns about degenerate music were a ...

." In 1936 he earned the Cultural Prize of Bonn and the Beethoven Medal of Bonn, and in 1948 he won the Golden Medal of the Salzburg Mozarteum. In the Second World War, he worked for the

Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (german: Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or ''ERR'') was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Par ...

. He retired in 1945 and in 1952 became an honored member of the Academy for Music Research.

Publications

* ''Der Junge Beethoven'', Lepizig 1925; reprinted Hildesheim 1978. * ''Die deutsche Oper,'' Leipzig 1930. Second Expanded edition, Bonn 1940, 3rd revised edition, Bonn 1943. * Die Gestaltung weltanschaulicher Ideen in der Volksmusik Beethovens, 1934.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schiedermair, Ludwig German musicologists Opera scholarship Beethoven scholars 1957 deaths 1876 births