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Authors: Robert. Gerwarth
Tags: Yale University Press
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the
middle classes prospered most. With their growing wealth, the social
status attached to a distinct bourgeois culture of Bildung – education and
cultivation through engagement with literature, music and the fine arts –
increased. For all the backwardness of its political elite, Imperial Germany
was a country with a hyper-modern cultural scene, a country in which
these arts where widely cherished and officially promoted.19 By the time
Bruno Heydrich opened his business in Halle, music had become a
middle-class commodity which formed an essential part of a bourgeois
education. Its representative medium was the piano, which became an
affordable asset of many middle-class living rooms in the late nineteenth
century. With the shift in piano manufacture from craft shop to factory by
the mid-ninteenth century, the production of pianos increased eightfold
in Germany between 1870 and 1910. Their cost was accordingly cut by
half and the piano became the centrepiece of middle-class cultivation.
Hausmusik or simple compositions for amateur players was a central
feature of middle-class entertainment and culture.20
In 1901, Bruno Heydrich’s small Choir School became a fully fledged
conservatory specializing in piano and singing lessons. It was the first
establishment of its kind in Halle. Progress was swift in the following
years. The citizens of the increasingly wealthy and fast-growing city were
well able to afford to send their children to the Conservatory. Several
times a year Bruno’s pupils staged public concerts, which soon became an
important feature of Halle’s cultural life.21 Parallel to his professional
success, Bruno Heydrich managed to integrate himself fully into Halle’s
social circles. As in other European cities at the time, clubs and associa-
tions in Halle remained the preferred framework for middle-class social
interactions. The Halle registry of 1900 listed 436 private clubs and asso-
ciations, many of them learned societies that catered for the interests of
the university-educated and wealthy middle classes, and arranged litera-
ture evenings, concerts, balls and similarly edifying social events. One of
20
HITLER’S HANGMAN
the most socially influential of these organizations was the Freemason
lodge of the Three Sabres, whose membership included both university
staff and members of the wider business community. It is unclear when
Bruno Heydrich joined the lodge, but he repeatedly organized concerts on
its premises in the first years of the twentieth century.22
Bruno was also one of the founders of the Halle branch of the
Schlaraffia society, an all-male organization founded in Prague in 1859
with the purpose of advancing the arts, conviviality, and friendship across
national borders. Membership of the Schlaraffia was not atypical for an
artist like Bruno Heydrich. More eminent contemporaries such as the
famous Hungarian composer Franz Lehár and the Austrian poet Peter
Rosegger were members of the society, which operated across Central
Europe. As a local celebrity, Bruno was also made an honorary member of
several of the town’s musical societies such as the Hallesche Liedertafel, a
men’s choir founded in 1834. At the Liedertafel’s seventy-fifth anniversary
in 1909, he composed a ‘Hymn to the Men’s Choir’ and repeatedly staged
choral performances involving both members of the Liedertafel and
students from his Conservatory.23
Meanwhile, the Halle Conservatory continued to thrive. The number of
students grew rapidly, from 20 in 1902 to 190 in 1904, requiring eleven
permanent teachers, four teaching assistants and a secretary. At this point,
the Heydrichs could also afford to employ two maids and a butler.
Elisabeth ran the financial and administrative side of the family business,
holding together what would otherwise have soon disintegrated had it
been left in the hands of her artistically talented but financially inept
husband, who spent
middle classes prospered most. With their growing wealth, the social
status attached to a distinct bourgeois culture of Bildung – education and
cultivation through engagement with literature, music and the fine arts –
increased. For all the backwardness of its political elite, Imperial Germany
was a country with a hyper-modern cultural scene, a country in which
these arts where widely cherished and officially promoted.19 By the time
Bruno Heydrich opened his business in Halle, music had become a
middle-class commodity which formed an essential part of a bourgeois
education. Its representative medium was the piano, which became an
affordable asset of many middle-class living rooms in the late nineteenth
century. With the shift in piano manufacture from craft shop to factory by
the mid-ninteenth century, the production of pianos increased eightfold
in Germany between 1870 and 1910. Their cost was accordingly cut by
half and the piano became the centrepiece of middle-class cultivation.
Hausmusik or simple compositions for amateur players was a central
feature of middle-class entertainment and culture.20
In 1901, Bruno Heydrich’s small Choir School became a fully fledged
conservatory specializing in piano and singing lessons. It was the first
establishment of its kind in Halle. Progress was swift in the following
years. The citizens of the increasingly wealthy and fast-growing city were
well able to afford to send their children to the Conservatory. Several
times a year Bruno’s pupils staged public concerts, which soon became an
important feature of Halle’s cultural life.21 Parallel to his professional
success, Bruno Heydrich managed to integrate himself fully into Halle’s
social circles. As in other European cities at the time, clubs and associa-
tions in Halle remained the preferred framework for middle-class social
interactions. The Halle registry of 1900 listed 436 private clubs and asso-
ciations, many of them learned societies that catered for the interests of
the university-educated and wealthy middle classes, and arranged litera-
ture evenings, concerts, balls and similarly edifying social events. One of
20
HITLER’S HANGMAN
the most socially influential of these organizations was the Freemason
lodge of the Three Sabres, whose membership included both university
staff and members of the wider business community. It is unclear when
Bruno Heydrich joined the lodge, but he repeatedly organized concerts on
its premises in the first years of the twentieth century.22
Bruno was also one of the founders of the Halle branch of the
Schlaraffia society, an all-male organization founded in Prague in 1859
with the purpose of advancing the arts, conviviality, and friendship across
national borders. Membership of the Schlaraffia was not atypical for an
artist like Bruno Heydrich. More eminent contemporaries such as the
famous Hungarian composer Franz Lehár and the Austrian poet Peter
Rosegger were members of the society, which operated across Central
Europe. As a local celebrity, Bruno was also made an honorary member of
several of the town’s musical societies such as the Hallesche Liedertafel, a
men’s choir founded in 1834. At the Liedertafel’s seventy-fifth anniversary
in 1909, he composed a ‘Hymn to the Men’s Choir’ and repeatedly staged
choral performances involving both members of the Liedertafel and
students from his Conservatory.23
Meanwhile, the Halle Conservatory continued to thrive. The number of
students grew rapidly, from 20 in 1902 to 190 in 1904, requiring eleven
permanent teachers, four teaching assistants and a secretary. At this point,
the Heydrichs could also afford to employ two maids and a butler.
Elisabeth ran the financial and administrative side of the family business,
holding together what would otherwise have soon disintegrated had it
been left in the hands of her artistically talented but financially inept
husband, who spent
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