Hermann Horner (30 January 1892 – probably in 1942) was an Austrian-Hungarian operatic

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...

. He performed on numerous stages in Germany and Czechoslovakia and was a guest at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

. He was murdered by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Life and career

Horner was born as the son of a hotel owner in

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

.Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
Horner, Hermann
Bild 3, retrieved on 2 January 2020 From 1916 to 1918 he served as a non-commissioned officer in the Austrian army in Montenegro and Albania. Horner completed his vocal studies in Belgium and made his debut at the

Vlaamse Opera Opera Ballet Vlaanderen ( Dutch; "Opera Ballet Flanders") is an opera and ballet company in Belgium directed by Jan Vandenhouwe. It operates in two different opera houses in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Antwerp. However, the company shares one ...

in Antwerp. From 1919 to 1923 he was engaged at the City Theatre of Lemberg. This was followed by positions at the

Wrocław Opera The Wrocław Opera ( Polish: ''Opera Wrocławska'') is an opera company and opera house in the Old Town of Wrocław, Poland. The opera house was opened in 1841 and up to 1945 was named after the city's then German name, Oper Breslau. History An ...

(1923/24), the

Staatsoper Unter den Linden The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Pr ...

(1924/25), at the

Prague State Opera The State Opera (Czech: Státní opera) is an opera house in Prague, Czech Republic. It is part of the National Theatre of the Czech Republic, founded by Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in 1992. The theatre itself originally opened ...

(1925–27), at the

Staatstheater Stuttgart The Staatstheater Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Theatre) is a theatre with three locations, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper Stuttgart (Opera Stuttgart), Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgarter Ballett (Stuttgart Ballet), and Schauspiel Stuttgart (Stuttgart Drama ...

(1927–29) and the

Staatstheater Nürnberg The Staatstheater Nürnberg is a German theatre company in Nuremberg, Bavaria. The theatre is one of four Bavarian state theatres and shows operas, plays, ballets and concerts. History Its main venue, the opera house ("Opernhaus Nürnberg"), i ...

(1929–33).

Karl-Josef Kutsch Karl-Josef Kutsch, also known as K. J. Kutsch, (born 11 May 1924) is a German physician and music biographer. With the Dutch musicologist Leo Riemens he co-authored the ''Großes Sängerlexikon'', the standard reference for opera singers. Life ...

Leo Riemens Leonardus Antony Marinus Riemens (3 December 1910 – 3 April 1985) was a Dutch musicologist and cultural journalist. He wrote a book about Maria Callas, and together with Karl-Josef Kutsch began a reference book about opera singers in 1962, whic ...

: ''

Großes Sängerlexikon ''Großes Sängerlexikon'' (''Biographical Dictionary of Singers'', literally: Large singers' lexicon) is a single-field dictionary of singers in classical music, edited by Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens and first published in 1987. The fi ...

'', volume 4, , 4th expanded and updated edition, Munich 2003 In Stuttgart, Horner also worked as a singing teacher. One of his students was

Gottlob Frick Gottlob Frick (28 July 1906 – 18 August 1994) was a German operatic bass. He was known for his wide repertory including Wagner and Mozart roles. Some of his most celebrated roles were Wagnerian villains such as Hunding and Hagen in ''Der Ring ...

. In 1928 he sang the role of Titurel in ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance ''Parzival'' of th ...

''. The day of the

Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses () in Germany began on April 1, 1933, and was claimed to be a defensive reaction to the anti-Nazi boycott, which had been initiated in March 1933. It was largely unsuccessful, as the German population conti ...

, two months after the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933, the singer was informed that he was no longer allowed to perform with immediate effect. He was suspended from duty with immediate effect. He first went back to Rzeszów and then to Czechoslovakia, where he was engaged for two years (1933–35) at the municipal theatre of Aussig. Horner was married to Anna, née Koller, who was born in Lwiw in 1892. The couple had at least three children, all born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

: Mario (born 1925 or 1926), Eva (also Ewa, born 1930) and Ludwig (also Ludvik, born in 1931 or 1932). The whole family was murdered. According to Danny Newman, an in-laws relative, Horner was shot along with his younger son while trying to protect his son from the Nazis who murdered the other family members in a gas truck. Horner died in the Ghetto Reichshof or in the

Belzec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major p ...

Repertoire

The list of roles was created based on Kutsch/Riemens and the Vox recording book.

Recording

Horner's voice has been handed down through vox recordings from 1923, he sang arias of the Landgrave and King Henry (from ''Tannhäuser'' and ''Lohengrin''), as well as the Porterlied of Plumkett from the opera ''Martha'' and the Trinklied of Falstaff from the opera ''The Merry Wives of Windsor''.

Memorial

His name can be found on a commemorative plaque for Nazi victims in the

, which was unveiled on April 7, 2016 by Minister

Theresia Bauer Theresia Bauer (born 6 April 1965) is a German politician from the Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by ...

together with the director of the Staatstheater.:
Gedenktafel für NS-Opfer im Staatstheater Stuttgart enthüllt
'', retrieved on 2 January 2020

External links

References