Werner Reinhart

Werner Reinhart ( born March 19, 1884 in Winterthur, † August 29, 1951 ) was a Swiss industrialist and patron.

Life

Werner Reinhart was born as the third of five children of Theodore Reinhart and his wife Lilly, born Volkart. His brothers Hans and Oskar were also patrons. After training in the company of his parents, he spent a year in Paris as an intern at a bank. After that he worked as an employee of the parent company, undertook business trips to England, India, China and Japan, and in 1912 a partner in the Volkart Brothers. In 1932 he received a Ph.D. H.C. the University of Zurich. He worked among other things as church wardens, as CEO of the Gottfried -Keller- company as well as almost 40 years for the Musikkollegium Winterthur in different functions. Both as treasurer as well as president of the Concert Commission, he shaped its development.

Reinhart knew, encouraged and corresponded with many European composers, writers and artists. These include Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Othmar Schoeck, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek and Rainer Maria Rilke. His villa Rychenberg in Winterthur was an important meeting place for musicians and authors. He bequeathed it to the Musikkollegium Winterthur as a music school. The correspondence Reinhart came after his death in the possession of the Musikkollegium Winterthur; He also is accessible in manuscript catalog of the Winterthur libraries. It is being developed in a research project at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Zurich.