German publisher, proprietor of Breitkopf & Härtel.

Career Summary

Hellmut's father, Oskar von Hase (1846‒1921), and his cousin Wilhelm Volkmann (1837‒96), had inherited the firm of Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig from their uncles, the brothers Raymund and Hermann Härtel, in 1880. Oskar initiated the monumental series Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst and Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, and launched more than twenty complete critical editions of the works of major composers, establishing the firm at the centre of German music publishing.

Hellmut von Hase and his brother Martin (1901‒71), with Wilhelm Volkmann (1898‒1939), inherited the firm Breitkopf & Härtel from Oskar in the late 1910s, and led the firm through the interwar years. Hellmut became a prominent figure in the German publishing world in the 1930s, and in 1933 publicly declared his approval of the burning of books by the National Socialists. From 1939 to 1945 he was a major in the German Wehrmacht. He also established and edited the Jahrbuch der deutschen Musik, Abteilung Musik des Reichsministeriums für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (1943‒44). Hellmuth and Martin continued as proprietors of the firm through World War II and into the post-war era, establishing Breitkopf & Härtel as an independent company in Wiesbaden in West Germany in 1947 (while the Leipzig firm was placed in public ownership in 1952).

Hellmut von Hase and Schenker

Wilhelm Furtwängler approached Hellmut von Hase in the spring of 1930 on behalf of Schenker, in an attempt to secure the publication by Breitkopf & Härtel of Schenker's planned monograph on the "Eroica" Symphony. The substance of Furtwängler's meeting with von Hase and Wilhelm Volkmann is recorded in his letter to Schenker of June 26, 1930, OC 54/299‒300: they had appeared to reject the proposal, but now declared themselves willing to consider it. Ultimately the "Eroica" monograph was published by Drei Masken Verlag as the greater part of Meisterwerk III . There appears to have been no direct contact between von Hase and Schenker.

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