Ludwig Philipp Carl Wilhelm Strecker (16 March 1853 – 19 December 1943) was a German businessman who owned the London-based music publishing house, Schott and Co., Limited.

Career

Strecker was born to Ludwig Theodor Strecker, a lawyer, and Wilhelmina Friderika Caroline Conradine Franziska Bermann ''(maiden).'' At the age of ten, his father moved the family to

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

. Strecker went on to earn a JD degree. In 1874, Strecker — as

devisee A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

by descent and distribution under the Estate of , Deceased (1811–1874) — became the owner of the London publishing business of B. Schott's Söhne. He was not related to the

decedent Death is the Irreversible process, irreversible cessation of all biological process, biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whol ...

. The London publishing firm stayed in his family, passing to his four children, until 1980, when it merged back into B. Schott's Söhne of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, Germany.

Inheritance of music publishing firm

(1811–1874) – the oldest son of Johann Andreas Schott (1781–1840), who was the oldest son of Bernhard Schott – was the managing director and sole proprietor of B. Schott's Söhne from 1855 until his death. Franz, who had no children, stipulated in his will that B. Schott's Söhne be distributed after the death of his wife, Betty de Braunrasch (1820–1875), as follows:

Strecker's career (continued)

In Strecker, Sr.'s, role as head of B. Schott's Söhne, he was a publisher for

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, who made challenging demands that frequently culminated in financial duress. Nonetheless, Strecker, Sr., in a succession of renegotiations for moderate compromises, after each, was able to compensate Wagner. B. Schott's Söhne published ''

Siegfried Idyll The ', WWV 103, by Richard Wagner is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra. Background Wagner composed the ''Siegfried Idyll'' as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first perf ...

'' (1877) and '' Parsifal'' (1882). Strecker was involved in the Mainz Oratorio Society (de), currently known as the Mainzer Singing Adacemy – which has endured for years. Strecker was its president for 25 years.

Awards

* Awarded the title of Secret Commercial Council by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig * 1909: He was appointed by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig as a lifelong member of the first chamber of the Provinces of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (de), of which he was a member until the

German Revolution of 1918–1919 The German Revolution or November Revolution (german: Novemberrevolution) was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a dem ...

Family

Strecker – on March 9, 1883, in

– married Elisabeth Merck ''(maiden;'' 1862–1947), the daughter of Georg Franz Merck (1825–1873), a Darmstadt entrepreneur, and Antoinette Wilhelmine Caroline Schenck ''(maiden;'' 1830–1908). The couple had three sons and a daughter. When Ludwig Strecker, Sr., died in 1943, his oldest son,

Ludwig Strecker Jr. Ludwig Strecker Jr., also Ludwig Strecker der Jüngere, (13 January 188315 September 1978) was a German music publisher, and an author of opera librettos which he wrote under the pen name Ludwig Andersen. He authored, and published through the S ...

, took over the management of the publishing house with his second oldest son, Wilhelm as manager and director. Ludwig Strecker, Sr., is buried in the main cemetery in Mainz. Strecker, Sr.'s, third and youngest son,

Paul Strecker Paul Strecker (13 August 1898 Mainz – 6 March 1950 Berlin) was a German artist and writer who painted and designed sets for opera and theater. Career highlights Between 1919 and 1922, Strecker studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, ...

(1898–1950) was an artist and writer who painted and designed sets for opera and theater.

References

Inline citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Strecker, Ludwig, Sr. 1853 births 1943 deaths Music publishers (people)