Wilibald Gurlitt

Wilibald Ludwig Ferdinand Gurlitt ( born March 1, 1889 in Dresden, † December 15, 1963 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German musicologist.

Life

Wilibald Gurlitt, son of the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt and brother of Hildebrand Gurlitt was in 1914 received his doctorate in Hugo Riemann in Leipzig with a thesis on Michael Praetorius. In 1919 he became a lecturer in 1920 associate, in 1929 a full professor at the University of Freiburg. He founded the musicological seminar and Collegium Musicum with which he in Hamburg for the first time performances of medieval music organized in larger public in 1922 in Karlsruhe and 1924. As a promoter of the " organ movement " he was in the Department of Musicology of the University by the Ludwigsburg Oscar Walcker organ builder (nephew of Paul Walcker ) build the so-called Praetorius organ whose plan was based on the information in Praetorius ' 1619 printed Organographia. It was destroyed in 1944 by bombs and in 1954/55 newly built by Werner Walcker -Mayer after the first, larger disposition of Michael Praetorius with mean tone mood in the auditorium of the University of Freiburg.

Gurlitt was in the Third Reich as " versippt Jewish" and in 1937 was relieved of his duties. He was not allowed to publish more, was excluded from all committees and monitored by the Gestapo, his children attend school was denied.

In 1945 he was reinstated as a full professor. From 1946 to 1948 he was a visiting professor at the University of Bern, 1955-1956 Visiting Professor at the University of Basel. 1953 Wilibald Gurlitt was awarded an honorary doctorate of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Leipzig.

Gurlitt turned his gaze to the "authentic" sound shape of older music and initiated a systematic study of musical terminology. His international reputation helped that the German music research after the Second World War became known internationally again. Among his students Fritz Dietrich, Wilhelm Ehmann, Joseph Müller- Blattau, Heinrich Besseler, Reinhold Hammerstein, Harald Heckmann, Günther Birkner and Wolfgang Rehm. In 1937, the Nazi Party member Joseph Müller- Blattau became his successor. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht was the successor to the Freiburg Institute since 1961 Gurlitt.