Karl Klingler

Karl Klingler was born in Strasbourg, at that time in Germany, the fifth of his parents' six recorded children. His father, Theodor Klingler (1845–1905), was a professional viola player who taught at the conservatory.[1] When he was still very young Klingler was receiving violin lessons from his father, and then from his father's colleague at the conservatory, Heinrich Schuster.[3] Klingler began giving concerts at five years of age.[4] In 1897, when he concluded his schooling in Strasbourg, he relocated to Berlin where he was a student at the city's University of the Arts ("Universität der Künste Berlin" / UdK) where, now aged 17, he studied the violin with Joseph Joachim, an inspiring teacher and, very soon, a close personal friend.[1] For composition he was taught by Max Bruch and Robert Kahn. In 1899, still aged only 19, he won the Mendelssohn National Composition Prize.[4]

He joined the Berlin Philharmonic (orchestra) in 1901.[4] In (or before) 1904 he was appointed the orchestra's deputy concertmaster "Zweite Konzertmeister", serving under Arthur Nikisch. At the same time he was playing the viola in the "Joachim Quartet", founded back in 1869 by Klingler's friend and former teacher, Joseph Joachim. He accordingly acquired a high-profile among Berlin's top musicians while still in his early 20s. In addition, while still only 23, in 1903 he took on a violin class at the university, where in 1908 he was appointed to a regular teaching post and in 1910 became a full professor, "King of Prussia Professor" (in succession to Joseph Joachim).[2] Broken only by his military service during the First World War, Klingler's teaching career at the UdK lasted more than 30 years, concluding in 1936.[4] Along with performing and teaching, he also turned his talents to composition, producing songs, chamber music and a violin concerto in E-major which he premiered with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1907.[2]

He also succeeded in getting hold of a Stradivarius violin – the "De Barreau" (1714) – which many years before had been owned by Joachim.[5] During the years before the war he was receiving glowing reviews from the critics, notably in 1911 for a performance with the Welsh 'cellist Arthur Williams and the Galician pianist Artur Schnabel, in the United States, of Beethoven's Triple Concerto.[6]

His career was interrupted by the outbreak, in July 1914, of the First World War: he was called up to fight as a soldier. Towards the end of the war he was able to transfer to musical work in support of the troops. He arranged regular musical evenings at his house in the Sophienstraße (today the Bellstraße), with fellow musicians such as Korngold, Wilhelm Kempff and Emil von Reznicek.[4] In 1917 he married Margarethe von Gwinner, daughter of the well connected banker-aristocrat Arthur von Gwinner.[1] The marriage produced four recorded children, Arthur, Wolfgang, Marianne and Charlotte, born between 1918 and 1926.[2]

In 1920 Klingler was sought out by a young Japanese musician called Shinichi Suzuki. For the next eight years Klingler taught Suzuki, for the first four years covering etudes and concertos, and for the next four years covering chamber music. Klingler had let it be known that did not normally extend his activities to private tuition, and accordingly Suzuki became his only private pupil.[7] In this way, Klingler had a direct and positive influence on the Suzuki method of violin teaching.

Régime change in January 1933 ushered in a new intrusive style of government in Germany. Racism and strident antisemitism which had been a feature of Nazi propaganda during the previous decade were now progressively and rapidly integrated into daily life. Klingler was not naturally drawn towards Nazi attitudes, and in 1933 it was noted at the University of the Arts where he still taught that he did not adopt the habit of exchanging "Heil Hitler" greetings.[8] His wife was identified as "half-Jewish" ("Halbjüdin") and he himself as "Jewish minted" ("jüdisch versippt"), which may have been a reference to his Jewish teacher, the great Joseph Joachim.[4] He nevertheless managed to sustain a public career in music for several years after the Nazi takeover. He participated in the activities of the Fighting League for German Culture ("Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (KfdK)"). He was recruited by Richard Strauss to a senior administrative role within the Reichsmusikkammer ("National Chamber of Music"). As a former president of the "German League of Concert Artists" he must have been familiar with the politicised music policy of these and other culture based institutions when he involved himself in them.[4]

Despite holding office inside the musical establishment, Klingler came under growing political pressure. A case in point was the 'cellist Ernst Silberstein who was a member of the Klingler string quartet.[9] Klingler received a succession of warnings and threats from Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Popular Enlightenment, probably backed up by communications from Herbert Gerigk, the top music administrator in Nazi Germany. The Jewish 'cellist must be replaced. Klingler had actually met Adolf Hitler, albeit briefly, at a musical event set up by President Hindenburg back in March 1934, and now he wrote personally to Adolf Hitler, a letter dated 22 November 1934, hoping that the leader would be appreciative of the artistic and German qualities of the Klingler Quartet including its Jewish 'cellist. Silberstein continued to play the 'cello in the quartet till its final appearance on 17 March 1936 despite opposition from the Public Enlightenment Ministry, thanks to a succession of "Special Permits" issued by the National Culture Agency. Nevertheless, between 1933 and 1936 the quartet's performances were greatly diminished in number, and revenues were more precarious than before 1933.[4]

On 9 March 1936, in the presence of several students, Klingler protested at the university when he discovered that a bust of his (Jewish) mentor, Joseph Joachim, had been removed. At this point the university management suggested early retirement: his retirement on "health grounds" was accepted on 7 April 1936. Between 1 May 1936 and the end of the war he was in receipt of a modest civil service pension. It was probably on the recommendation of the university director, Fritz Stein, that directly following his retirement Klingler went abroad with his wife and daughters, staying for several months in Arosa where, according to recollections shared later by his daughter, Charlotte von Contas, he grew a beard in order to avoid being recognised.[4]

Back in Germany, and served with a travel ban, he went into "internal emigration". He was able to devote himself to composition, producing a large work for choir, soloist and piano. He formed a friendship with the physicist Max Planck: the two of them engaged in deep discussions concerning certain problems in geometry.[2] Nevertheless, Klingler was not completely written out of public life. In January 1938 he performed in a trio with his elder brother Fridolin Klingler and the flautist Gustav Scheck at a Chamber Music evening organised by the Bremen Philharmonic Society. In May 1940 he was issued with a "Special permit" on "artistic grounds" from the National Culture Agency, but it is not clear from surviving sources what the permit was for.[4] There is mention in one source of his having been "used for much-needed troop entertainment".[9]

In 1943 the family home in Berlin was rendered uninhabitable by an air raid and the Klinglers moved permanently to the small country estate at Krumke, just outside Osterburg (Altmark), which Margarethe had inherited after her father died in 1931. While they were living here Karl Klingler's desk was searched by the Gestapo and he was interrogated about his friends Max Planck and Erich Vagts. His address book was confiscated: it included contact details for his friend's son Erwin Planck, who around this time was sentenced to death for involvement in a widely reported conspiracy to assassinate the leader. According to testimony of former local government officials, Klingler's mail was subject to police monitoring while he was living in Krumke. As the war drew to an end he became the subject of a Gestapo arrest warrant because he was identified as a "flight risk", but the warrant could not be executed before the area was over-run by allied forces as the war ended, formally in May 1945.[4]

As the war ended the family home at Krumke was requisitioned and had to be vacated, first in order to accommodate US soldiers and then to accommodate British ones. By June 1945 the region was being administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone. The country estate was permanently confiscated under the auspices of the 1945 land reforms and was converted for use as a tuberculosis sanatorium. The Klinglers had managed to move briefly to a little forest house, having rescued some of their furniture and necessities. In June they managed to make their way to nearby Gartow where they were accommodated in a house owned by the von Bernstoff family. A month later they reached Kirchrode on the southside of Hanover where they were reunited with their son, Wolfgang, recently released from a stint as a prisoner of war. The Klingler's other son, Arthur, had also survived. In Hanover Karl Klingler recruited some former students, Agnes Ritter, Friedrich Hausmann and Otto Garvens, to reform the Klingler string quartet, but by this time Karl Klingler himself was past retirement age.[2]

In Autumn 1949 Karl Klingler relocated with his family from Hanover to Munich. He was still able to write chamber music, and also published some prose books on musical themes. Ernst Silberstein had emigrated to the United States, and although they continued to correspond, they never saw one another again. Karl Klingler died a few months after of his 91st birthday on 18 March 1971. Until very shortly before his death he continued to play sonatas regularly with his wife, and chamber music with family and friends.[2]