Max Ernst Unger (28 May 1883, in
Taura
Taura is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany.
Personalities
* Johann Esche (1682-1752), born in today's local part of Köthensdorf, German stocking manufacturer
* Max Unger (1883-1959), musicologist, Beethoven ...
– 1 December 1959, in
Zurich) was a German
musicologist. Although he wrote on a variety of subjects, he is chiefly known for his extensive research and writings on the life and works of
Ludwig van Beethoven.
Unger, the son of a factory owner, studied from 1904 to 1906 at the
Leipzig Conservatory, and entered the
University of Leipzig in 1908. There, he studied under
Heinrich Zöllner and
Hugo Riemann
Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a musi ...
.
Fred K. Prieberg Fred K. Prieberg (3 June 1928 in Berlin – 28 March 2010 in Neuried) was a German musicologist. He was a pioneer in the field of history of music and musicians under the Nazi regime.
Works Independent publications
* ''Musik unterm Strich. Pano ...
: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945'', CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, S. 7.315. In 1911, he completed a
doctorate with a
dissertation on
Muzio Clementi. After serving in
World War I, he worked as editor of the
New Journal of Music in 1919 and 1920. From 1932 to 1939, he lived in
Zurich and catalogued the valuable Beethoven collection of local industrialist
Hans Conrad Bodmer
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...
, which was later bequeathed to 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 ...
in
Bonn. In 1939, Unger moved to
Volterra in
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
. While he had been denounced by the
Militant League for German Culture as a "musical
Bolshevik" in 1935, he cooperated with the
Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce and the
Amt Rosenberg
Amt Rosenberg (ARo, Rosenberg Office) was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. It was established in 1934 under the name of ''Dienststelle Rosenberg'' (''DRbg'', Rosenberg Depar ...
beginning in 1942 or 1943.
[ Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945''. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 626.] His job was to catalogue
sheet music
Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...
seized from
Jews in occupied
Paris, including the personal collection of escaped
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
ist
Wanda Landowska.
Unger returned from Italy to Zurich in 1957. He is considered one of the most important Beethoven scholars of the first half of the 20th century. His books and papers were acquired by the Beethoven House in 1961.
Books
* ''Auf Spuren von Beethovens „
Unsterblicher Geliebten“'', Langensalza 1910
* ''
Muzio Clementis Leben'', Langensalza 1913
* ''Beethoven über eine Gesamtausgabe seiner Werke'', Bonn 1920
* ''Ludwig van Beethoven und seine Verleger S. A. Steiner und Tobias Haslinger in Wien, Ad. Mart. Schlesinger in Berlin'', Berlin und Wien 1921
* ''Beethovens Handschrift'', Bonn 1926
* ''Eine Schweizer Beethoven-Sammlung. Katalog'', Zürich 1939 (Katalog der Sammlung H. C. Bodmer)
* ''Ein Faustopernplan Beethovens und
Goethes'', Regensburg 1952
References
1883 births
1959 deaths
Beethoven scholars
20th-century German musicologists
{{Germany-academic-bio-stub