Werner Danckert (22 June 1900 – 5 March 1970) was a German folk song researcher.

Life

Born in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

, Danckert trained as a concert pianist after graduating from high school in 1917. He studied

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

with the subsidiary subjects

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

. In 1923 he received his doctorate in

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

(''summa cum laude''); the

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

followed at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

in 1926. In 1937 Danckert became a member of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

and professor at the

Musikhochschule Weimar The University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (in German: Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar) is an institution of music in Weimar, Germany. The Hochschule Franz Liszt, who spent a great deal of his life in Weimar, encouraged the founding of ...

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was conce ...

: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Who was what before and after 1945.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, , . Danckert became a member of the ''Hauptstelle Musik'' at the

Amt Rosenberg Amt Rosenberg (ARo, Rosenberg Office) was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. It was established in 1934 under the name of ''Dienststelle Rosenberg'' (''DRbg'', Rosenberg Depar ...

. At the

Reichsmusiktage The Reich Music Days (German: ''Reichsmusiktage'') took place from 22 to 29 May 1938 in Düsseldorf. They were a Nazi propaganda event under the patronage of Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels had originally planned an annual return of the Reichsmusiktage ...

in Düsseldorf (1938). Danckert gave a lecture on ''Volkstum, Stammesart, Rasse im Lichte der Volkstumsforschung''. In 1939 he published the book ''Die ältesten Spuren germanischer Volksmusik''. In 1943 he was given a chair in Graz and an apl. professorship in Berlin as successor of . After the end of the Second World War he did not return to any university, but published further books on folk music and other musical topics. Danckert died in

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

at age 69.

Publications

* ''Geschichte der Gigue'', Leipzig 1924 * ''Ursymbole melodischer Gestaltung'', Kassel 1932 * ''Beiträge zur Bachkritik'', Kassel 1934 * ''Grundriss der Volksliedkunde'', Berlin 1939 * ''Das Europäische Volkslied'', Berlin 1939, dto, 2. improved and extended edition Bonn 1970 * ''Claude Debussy'', Berlin 1950 * ''Goethe, der mystische Urgrund seiner Weltschau'', Berlin 1951 * ''Offenes und geschlossenes Leben, zwei Daseinsaspekte in Goethes Weltschau'', Bonn 1963 * ''Unehrliche Leute. Die verfemten Berufe'', Bern and Munich 1963 * ''Das Volkslied im Abendland'', Bern and Munich 1960 * ''Tonreich und Symbolzahl in Hochkulturen und Primitivenwelt'', Bonn 1966 * ''Symbol, Metapher und Allegorie im Lied der Völker'', four volumes, issued from the estate of Hannelore Vogel, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1976–78 * ''Musik und Weltbild'',''Musik und Weltbild : Morphologie der abendländischen Musik''
on WorldCat

Discontinued volumes

* ''Bach und Händel'' * ''Musik und Musikstile Polynesiens'' * ''Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte ostasiatischer Musik'' * ''Musik im indopazifischen Raum'' * ''Musikwissenschaft und Kulturkreislehre''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danckert, Werner 20th-century German musicologists Nazi Party members 1900 births 1970 deaths Writers from Erfurt