Hartung, Hugo

Hugo Hartung was born in Thuringia into a peasant family. Very early, at the age of 4, he lost his father. He studied at a rural school, where he began to become seriously interested in music - under the guidance of his teacher, he studied piano, violin and organ, and as a schoolboy he was still allowed to play the church organ and sing. All those around noted the boy's unconditional talent.

He was educated at the teacher training college in Erfurt . After 1905, he passed the first teacher exam, then spent four years as a teacher in a rural school. He passed the second exam for a teacher in 1908. In January 1910, due to his good work with young people, he was sent as a music teacher to the new land educational institution Nordhausen, where he served as organist and leader of the choir in the market church of St. Nicholas. Along with this, he studied singing and piano playing at the Princely Institute for Music Sonderhausen. Despite the advice of his professor, he did not become an opera singer, but strove for a career as a music teacher. And so in 1913 he entered the Institute of Church and School Music in Berlin. In public concerts of this institute, he performed as an organist, pianist, singer and choral conductor. After studying for three semesters, he received an excellent certificate. On the same day, August 1, 1914, his serene course of life was interrupted by the First World War, in which he took part until 1917. After contracting typhoid fever and sepsis, he was released in 1918 from military service.

In October 1918, he acquired the Tilsit Conservatory. As the conductor of the Association of Singers and the Church of the City of Tilsit, he founded the music service in his church and the boys choir, called the Luther Choir. In 1920, he sold the conservatory and again became a school music teacher. After the city orchestra was created, he directed symphony concerts. In 1919, as the chief city conductor, he established the Tilsit Musical Union, which annually arranged six symphony concerts and three choral concerts. At that time, musical life in Tilsit was at its best, thanks in part to the efforts of the chief mayor Eldor Paul : in 1920 (the year of Beethoven), the 9th Beethoven symphony was first performed in the city, in 1921 there were two large concerts, in the spring of 1923 Hartung held the four-day Bach Festival, where (in Tilsit for the first time) the Mass in B Minor was celebrated. In 1924, Hartung conducted four times during the performance of the opera Otton and Theophan by Handel .

In 1924, Hartung was transferred to the Königsberg gymnasium. In the school choir, he staged Joseph Haydn and Bach and received praise from Ernst Wiechert. In 1926, Hugo founded a female choir in Koenigsberg. At the University of Koenigsberg, he led the academic choir, philharmonic orchestra and singing union. In 1934 he combines the music and vocal academies. With the united academy, Hartung presented many large choral and symphonic works. With many well-known soloists of Koenigsberg, Hartung gave concerts on the radio every month. Hartung sat on an examination committee for church musicians. On behalf of the provincial college, he was a consultant to music teachers at high schools in East Prussia. As a music teacher, he became a model and leader for the entire generation of East Prussian school musicians and many choir leaders. In 1932, Hartung married a half-Jew, which, after the Nazis came to power, led to the fact that he lost all his posts and was sent to Gumbinnen. After being dismissed from the school system in 1936, Hartung created a music school at home, where he taught teachers and even foreign students. By 1944, 300 students were studying at his school. The school had 5 full-time teachers and 8 part-time teachers. After the British air raid on Koenigsberg in August 1944, the school was closed, in January 1945 Hartung left Koenigsberg, leaving 16 pianos, 2 harpsichords, 1 portable organ, 16 precious stringed instruments, 10,000 books and scores, as well as all school and homework in the city equipment.

The escape was brought first to Ufhofen, his sister's family was located, then to Gotu, where Hartung tried to get a job as a music teacher, but was mistakenly arrested by the Gestapo. A little later, he was arrested again - already for non-Aryan kinship and sent to a forced labor camp. After the war ended, he became the city conductor of Gotha. With the city choir, he gave the first post-war concerts in the autumn of 1945. Along with this, he was a music teacher in high school and teacher training college. In the Soviet zone of influence, he published in the winter of 1945/46 his “Reflections on the Creation of a Unified National Musical Education”. In 1947, Hartung went to Erfurt to organize a folk choir there. With him he again gave great concerts for choral performance.

In 1949, the Faculty of Education of the University of Humboldt in Berlin invited him to the post of head of the Institute of Music Education. March 17, 1950 he was given a professorship. He gave concerts with the choir of the institute. At the age of 66, Hartung became seriously ill and retired from September 1, 1951. But even in retirement, experiencing severe health problems, Hugo Hartung worked on rational proposals in the field of musical pedagogy. The renowned conductor died on February 8, 1963 at the age of 77.