Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz (EN)

Stuckenschmidt Hans Heinz, *1 November 1901 Strasburg, †15 August 1988 Berlin, German writer, music critic and teacher. He studied violin, piano and composition privately, and was a self-learner in the theory and history of music; in 1931–33, he attended courses in musical analysis led by A. Schoenberg. From 1920, he was active as a music critic, composer and organiser of musical life in Bremen, Hamburg, Vienna, Paris and Berlin, promoting avant-garde music. In 1923–24, together with J. Rufer, he organised a series of new music concerts in Hamburg; in 1927–28, he directed the organisation of concerts as part of the revolutionary activities of the November Group in Berlin. At the same time, he collaborated with numerous periodicals (including “Melos,” “Die Musik,” “Modern Music”) and journals; in 1928–29, he headed the music criticism section of the magazine “Bohemia” in Prague, and from 1929 he wrote music criticism in the “Berliner Zeitung am Mittag.” In 1934, the Nazis banned him from publishing in Germany. From 1937, he lived in Prague, where he initially collaborated with “Prager Tagblatt,” and in 1939–42 with “Der Neue Tag.” In 1942, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a translator and spent time in American captivity. In 1946, he returned to Berlin and took over the management of the contemporary music studio (Studio für Neue Music) at the West Berlin Radio Station (RIAS), worked as a music critic for “Neue Zeitung” (1947) and, together with J. Rufer, edited the magazine “Stimmen” in 1947–49. From 1948 to 1967, he taught music history at the Technische Universität of Berlin, where he became a professor in 1953. At the same time, he was active as a music critic for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (1946–56) and the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (1956–88). His wife, the singer Margot Hinnenberg-Lefèbre, was a well-known interpreter of Schoenberg’s music. Stuckenschmidt was a member of the Akademie für Künste in Berlin (1974) and the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt (1977). He received numerous awards for his work, including the Bundesverdienstkreuzes (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), Johann Heinrich Merck Award in 1973, and the University of Tübingen awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1977.

Stuckenschmidt’s diverse activities as a music critic for several internationally renowned magazines, a concert organiser, and a writer who was very committed to promoting avant-garde trends in artistic creativity, especially Schoenberg’s music and theoretical thought, had a significant influence on both the aesthetic attitude and work of composers, as well as on conveying an image of the history of music in the last century to art recipients, as Stuckenschmidt’s books were translated into many languages. Stuckenschmidt’s interpretation of 20^th-century musical creativity was influenced by his fascination with Schoenberg’s personality and his acceptance of the philosophy of new music in the approach of Th. W. Adorno.

Literature: K.H. Wörner Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Arnold Schönberg, “Musica: Monatsschrift für alle Gebiete des Musiklebens X, 1951; K. Wagner Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Neue Musik, “Musica: Monatsschrift für alle Gebiete des Musiklebens” IV 1952; W. Schwinger Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Schönberg: Leben, Umwelt, Werk, “Musica: Monatsschrift für alle Gebiete des Musiklebens”, III, 1974; Aspekte der Neuen Musik, commemorative book of Stuckenschmidt, ed. W. Burde, Kassel 1968; H. Poos Bibliographie Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, in: Aspekte der Neuen Musik: Professor Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt zum 65. Geburtstag, Kassel 1968; W. Schwinger Mitschöpfer der neuen Musik. Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt siebzig Jahre, “Musica” XXV, 1971; A. Briner Paul Hindemith und Arnold Schönberg: Die Hindemith-Stellen in Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidts Schönberg-Biographie von 1974, “Hindemith-Jahrbuch/Annales Hindemith” IV, 1975; G. Puchelt Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt: Neue Musik. Drei Klavierstücke 1919/1921, “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” VI, 1981; H. Weber Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Margot – Bildnis einer Sängerin, “Das Orchester: Zeitschrift für Orchesterkultur und Rundfunk-Chorwesen” X, 1982; F. Reininghaus Ein ziemlich gerader Weg. Zum Tod von Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” No. 149, 1988; H. Kotschenreuther Wortführer und Wegbegleiter: Ein Nachruf auf Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, “Musica: Zweimonatsschrift” VI 1988; L. Stein Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt (1901–1988), “Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute” II, 1988; Ch.M. Schmidt Protokoll im „Leverkuehn Case” Arnold Schönberg versus Thomas Mann: Nebst einer kritischen Dokumentation zu dessen Darstellung durch den Schönberg-Biographen Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, in: Musik und Biographie: Festschrift für Rainer Cadenbach, Cordula Heymann-Wentzel, J. Laas (ed.), Würzburg 2004; W. Grünzweig, Ch. Niklew (ed.), Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt. Der Deutsche im Konzertsaal, in: Archive zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts, Band. 10, Hofheim 2010; F. Hilberg Vom Protagonisten zum Anachronisten – Zu einer Textsammlung von Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, “Musik Texte” August 2012 (No. 134); N. Grosch Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt: Der Deutsche im Konzertsaal, “Die Musikforschung” I, 2013; M. Pasdzierny, D. Schmidt, M. Vogt (ed.), “Es ist gut, dass man überall Freunde hat”: Brigitte Schiffer und ihre Korrespondenz mit Heinz Tiessen, Alfred Schlee, Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt und Carla Henius, Munich 2017; M. Pasdzierny From Berlin to the world? The early postwar writings of Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, in: Music criticism, 1900–1950, ed. J. Ballester, G. Gan Quesada, Turnhout 2018.