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OC 54/243 - Typewritten letter from Emil Tschirch to Schenker, dated October 20, 1930
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⇧ BEETHOVEN-EHRUNG Ehrenamtl. Geschäftsstelle: Emil Tschirch / Berlin W 62, Kleiststraße 3 etc. Berlin, den ⇧ 20. Oktober 1930 Herrn Dr. Heinrich Schenker Wien III Keilgasse 8 Sehr geehrter Herr Doktor 1 Trotz der Ungunst der Zeiten schreitet unsere Beethoven-Denkmal-Aktion, besonders auch durch den Bund der Auslandsdeutschen (Präsident Gourverneur Schnee) mächtig vorwärts. Dürfen wir uns demnach erlauben, Ihnen beiliegenden Propaganda-Zettel 2 vorzulegen mit der Bitte, demselben Ihrem mit grosser Spannung erwarteten „Meisterwerk in der Musik“ Jahrbuch III. Band beizufügen. Wir erlauben uns noch darauf hinzuweisen, dass der Schöpfer des Denkmals, 3 der unlängst verstorbene Professor Peter Breuer, 4 neben Adolf Menzel s. Z. der einzige deutsche Künstler war, dem auch Frankreich neben Amerika die höchste Auszeichnung zuteil werden liess, den „Ritter der Ehrenlegion“ mit dem Grand Prix. Die Schmucklosigkeit seines grandiosen Werkes erscheint den Beteiligten als so recht für ein Ewigkeitsdenkmal ⇧ für Bonn ⇧ geeignet. Teilen Sie uns bitte mit, mit welcher Anzahl wir Ihren ev. Bedarf kostenlos decken können. Mit vorzüglichster Hochachtung Im Namen des Komitees [signed:] ⇧ [circular stamp with lyre in center]Internationale Beethoven-Ehrung für Bonn [signed:] ⇧ E Tschirch. © Transcription William Drabkin, 2023 |
⇧ BEETHOVEN-EHRUNG Honorary Place of Business: Emil Tschirch / Berlin W 62, Kleiststraße 3 etc. Berlin, ⇧ October 20, 1930 Dr. Heinrich Schenker Vienna III Keilgasse 8 Dear Dr. [Schenker], 1 In spite of the difficulties of the present times, our Beethoven monument initiative is proceeding apace, thanks especially to the Society of German Expatriates (President: Governor Schnee). We are therefore taking the liberty of presenting you with the enclosed advertising circular, 2 with the request that we may include it in your third Masterwork in Music yearbook, which is awaited with great excitement. We also take the liberty of noting that the creator of the monument, 3 the late Professor Peter Breuer 4 was, along with Adolf Menzel, the only German artist of his time to receive the highest recognition from France, alongside America, as “Knight of the Legion of Honor” together with the Grand Prix. The austerity of his grandiose work seems to those taking part to be particularly suitable for a monument of eternity ⇧ for Bonn . ⇧ Please let us know the number [of copies of the circular] we might send, without cost to you. Respectfully yours, in the name of the Committee [signed:] ⇧ [circular stamp with lyre in center]International Beethoven Monument for Bonn [signed:] ⇧ E Tschirch © Translation William Drabkin, 2023 |
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⇧ BEETHOVEN-EHRUNG Ehrenamtl. Geschäftsstelle: Emil Tschirch / Berlin W 62, Kleiststraße 3 etc. Berlin, den ⇧ 20. Oktober 1930 Herrn Dr. Heinrich Schenker Wien III Keilgasse 8 Sehr geehrter Herr Doktor 1 Trotz der Ungunst der Zeiten schreitet unsere Beethoven-Denkmal-Aktion, besonders auch durch den Bund der Auslandsdeutschen (Präsident Gourverneur Schnee) mächtig vorwärts. Dürfen wir uns demnach erlauben, Ihnen beiliegenden Propaganda-Zettel 2 vorzulegen mit der Bitte, demselben Ihrem mit grosser Spannung erwarteten „Meisterwerk in der Musik“ Jahrbuch III. Band beizufügen. Wir erlauben uns noch darauf hinzuweisen, dass der Schöpfer des Denkmals, 3 der unlängst verstorbene Professor Peter Breuer, 4 neben Adolf Menzel s. Z. der einzige deutsche Künstler war, dem auch Frankreich neben Amerika die höchste Auszeichnung zuteil werden liess, den „Ritter der Ehrenlegion“ mit dem Grand Prix. Die Schmucklosigkeit seines grandiosen Werkes erscheint den Beteiligten als so recht für ein Ewigkeitsdenkmal ⇧ für Bonn ⇧ geeignet. Teilen Sie uns bitte mit, mit welcher Anzahl wir Ihren ev. Bedarf kostenlos decken können. Mit vorzüglichster Hochachtung Im Namen des Komitees [signed:] ⇧ [circular stamp with lyre in center]Internationale Beethoven-Ehrung für Bonn [signed:] ⇧ E Tschirch. © Transcription William Drabkin, 2023 |
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⇧ BEETHOVEN-EHRUNG Honorary Place of Business: Emil Tschirch / Berlin W 62, Kleiststraße 3 etc. Berlin, ⇧ October 20, 1930 Dr. Heinrich Schenker Vienna III Keilgasse 8 Dear Dr. [Schenker], 1 In spite of the difficulties of the present times, our Beethoven monument initiative is proceeding apace, thanks especially to the Society of German Expatriates (President: Governor Schnee). We are therefore taking the liberty of presenting you with the enclosed advertising circular, 2 with the request that we may include it in your third Masterwork in Music yearbook, which is awaited with great excitement. We also take the liberty of noting that the creator of the monument, 3 the late Professor Peter Breuer 4 was, along with Adolf Menzel, the only German artist of his time to receive the highest recognition from France, alongside America, as “Knight of the Legion of Honor” together with the Grand Prix. The austerity of his grandiose work seems to those taking part to be particularly suitable for a monument of eternity ⇧ for Bonn . ⇧ Please let us know the number [of copies of the circular] we might send, without cost to you. Respectfully yours, in the name of the Committee [signed:] ⇧ [circular stamp with lyre in center]International Beethoven Monument for Bonn [signed:] ⇧ E Tschirch © Translation William Drabkin, 2023 |
Footnotes1 Receipt of this letter is recorded in Schenker’s diary for October 22, 1930: “Von der Beethoven-Ehrung (Br.): ein Propagandablatt; bitten das Blatt dem III. Jahrb. beizulegen.” (From the Beethoven Tribute [committee] (letter): a publicity flyer; they ask that it be inserted into the third Yearbook.”). — Emil Tschirch has been described as a “literary figure” in Bauer and Geck’s Beethoven-Bilder (2019); so he is probably the same person as the actor Emil Tschirch who took part in an 1887 production of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm (Municipal Theatre, Augsburg) and the Emil Tschirch who is credited as the co-librettist of Coeur-As (“Ace of Spades”), Eduard Künneke’s three-act opera which was performed at the Saxon Court Theatre in Dresden in 1913. (Werner Busch and Martin Geck, Beethoven-Bilder: Was Kunst- und Musikgeschichte (sich) zu erzählen haben (Berlin: Metzler and Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2019), pp. 120–24.) 2 A copy of the two-page printed flyer, entitled “An Beethovens Verehrer” (“To Beethoven’s Admirers”), is preserved as OC 54/244. Schenker bracketed this entire second paragraph and wrote a large question-mark in the left margin. The flyer was inserted into copies of the third Meisterwerk yearbook when it was published. 3 The origins of Breuer’s Beethoven date as far back as 1910, and plaster-of-Paris models were prepared in 1916 and 1919. In 1927 a “Beethoven Ehrung Berlin Bonn 1927–1930” was established, its committee assigning Emil Tschirch the task of raising funds for what was to be a huge granite monument with a reclining figure of the composer in the foreground; but the project was never realized. Breuer’s assistant Friedrich Diederich made a sculpture based on the Beethoven figure. This was erected at the Alter Zoll near the center of Bonn in 1938 but removed in the late 1940s, being regarded as a Nazi disgrace to the city. It was re-erected in 1977 in the Rheinaue, now a large leisure park along the Rhine upstream from the city. 4 Peter Christian Breuer (1856–1930), German sculptor, was a professor at the Prussian Academy of the Arts; his work is displayed in his home town (Cologne) and especially in Berlin. He contributed the figure of John Sigismond, Elector of Brandenburg, to the Siegesallee, a half-mile-long avenue of sculptures in the Berlin Tiergarten commissioned by Emperor Wilhelm II as a gigantic monument to Prussian history (1895–1901). |
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Digital version created: 2023-10-16 |