Avenue d'Ouchy & Johannes Brahms'

"Neue Liebeslieder" op.65

Illustrierte Geschichte eines Autographs 1874-2012

 Urs Alfred Müller-Lhotska

Zürich & Prag 2012

Verlag Transslawia.ch

ISBN 3-907045-05-X

55 Seiten / 36 Abbildungen und Grafiken

ABSTRACT

The original hand-written score of the New Love Songs opus 65 composed by Johannes Brahms in 1874 had been considered lost since the 1920s. A list of Brahms’ works published until 1887 mentioned that the manuscript of Opus 65 was in possession of the music publishing company of N. Simrock in Berlin. For decades it has been in a bank safe, originally with Eidgenössische Bank AG (EIBA), since 1945 with Union Bank of Switzerland and today it is in possession of UBS AG. Since 1901, the Brahms’ publisher N. Simrock, Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung in Berlin was mainly owned by Fritz Simrock-Heimann’s (1837–1901) two daughters, Anni von Muralt-Simrock (1864–1932) and Else Auckenthaler-Simrock (1869–1946). The company had a business relationship with EIBA in Zurich in the 1920s. Due to economic difficulties the music publishing business and the company rights were sold in 1929. Part of it, namely estate properties, was transferred to Der Tanz G.m.b.H in Berlin to settle the company’s liquidation. Numerous references in bank documents and statements by contemporary witnesses indicate that the score most probably ended up in a pledged collateral account opened by N. Simrock G.m.b.H. in Liquidation in favour of Der Tanz G.m.b.H at EIBA in 1930.  Substantial outstanding loans of about CHF 200.000 granted in 1925/26 and 1929 to N. Simrock G.m.b.H had to be written off by EIBA in 1930 and 1932. When Der Tanz G.m.b.H. in Liquidation, the successor company to N. Simrock G.m.b.H was wound up in 1938, the hand-written score which was not considered of special value at that time remained at EIBA as a pledge. It must be assumed that this pledge was realized by EIBA at a value of CHF 1.000 and thus became its property. When EIBA was taken over by Union Bank of Switzerland in 1945, the score was entered in the bank’s own safe under the heading Central Securities. The pledged collateral account of Der Tanz G.m.b.H. in Liquidation was dissolved in 1956. 

Familiengrab Simrock - Auckenthaler auf dem Friedhof in Pully VD

Zum Schluss

In seiner Rede anlässlich der feierlichen Übergabe des Brahmsmanuskriptes an die Zentralbibliothek Zürich hielt UBS Verwaltungsratspräsident Kaspar Villiger u.a. folgendes fest:

»Es erfüllt uns mit Freude und Stolz, Ihnen heute im Herzen Ihrer Musikabteilung das Original von Johannes Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder op. 65, zu treuen Händen als Depositum übergeben zu dürfen.

In Ihrer kostbaren Sammlung wird besagte Handschrift zukünftig zum exklusiven Kreis berühmter Werke gehören.

Mehr als sieben Jahrzehnte lag das Brahmsautograph sicher auf-bewahrt im Depot für eigene Wertschriften unserer Vorgängerbanken. Ich habe mich selbstverständlich überzeugen lassen, dass die Art und Weise wie das Autograph in unseren Besitz kam, nachvollziehbar und rechtens war. Einer breiten Öffentlichkeit wurde die Originalhandschrift erstmals Ende der Neunzigerjahre an Ausstellungen in der Schweiz und in Deutschland vorgestellt. Es ist uns daher ein grosses Anliegen, dieses musikgeschichtlich wertvolle Unikat aus seinem Schattendasein zu befreien und es inskünftig in Ihrem renommierten Zürcher Institut der Zentralbibliothek der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und den Freunden klassischer Musik zugänglich zu machen. Der Bezug zu Zürich kommt ja nicht von ungefähr, hat doch der damals 41-jährige Johannes Brahms die Neuen Liebeslieder im Juli 1874 anlässlich eines mehrmonatigen Aufenthaltes in der zürcherischen Seegemeinde Rüschlikon im Haus ›Auf der Höhe‹ komponiert und niedergeschrieben.«

Brahms-Haus im Nidelbad in Rüschlikon am Zürichsee

RÉSUMÉ

Die Publikation behandelt die wissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung der Geschichte einer 1874 entstandenen Liederhandschrift von Johannes Brahms, die rund 70 Jahre lang - zuerst in einem Faustpfand-Depot der Eidgenössischen Bank in Zürich und nach deren Übernahme durch die Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft im September 1945 im SBG-Wertschriftendepot - aufbewahrt wurde.

Nach der Fusion der SBG in Zürich mit dem Schweizerischen Bankverein (SBV) in Basel im Dezember 1997 zur "UBS AG", wurde die Provenienz-Geschichte des Autographs im Rahmen der Untersuchung Schweiz - II. Weltkrieg  eingehend erforscht und aufgearbeitet. Im Frühling 2010 entschloss sich die Leitung der UBS AG, das mittlerweile auf rund 3.5 Mio Franken geschätzte Manuskript der Musikabteilung der Zentralbibliothek Zürich als Dauerleihgabe zu treuen Händen zu übergeben und damit der Musik-Forschung zugänglich zu machen.

Da Brahms diese 15 Liebeslieder im Sommer 1874 in Rüschlikon am Zürichsee komponiert hatte und sein Verleger, das Berliner Musikhaus Simrock mit der Eidgenössischen Bank in Zürich eine Bankverbindung eingegangen war, entstand eine enge Verbindung zur schweizerischen Musik- und Bankenszene sowie rund 50 Jahre später zur Frage nachrichtenloser Vermögenswerte in unserem Lande.

Eine besondere Beziehung zur Schweiz pflegte die Familie Simrock, deren beide Töchter mit Schweizer Ärzten verheiratet waren. Zentrum der Begegnung bildete dabei die Kulturstadt Lausanne am Lac Léman, wo sich der junge Simrock in Ouchy an einem unter der Leitung der Familie Auckenthaler stehenden Institut zu Beginn der 1850er Jahre während zweier Jahre weitergebildet hatte. Das gemeinsame Familiengrab Simrock-Auckenthaler ist bis heute im wunderschön gelegenen Friedhof in der Nachbargemeinde Pully erhalten geblieben.

Johannes Brahms 1874, Neue Liebeslieder op. 65, Lied Nr. 15, Blatt 1, "Zum Schluss". Aus Alexis und Dora von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832):

»Nun, ihr Musen, genug! Vergebens strebt ihr zu schildern,

wie sich Jammer und Glück wechseln in liebender Brust.

Heilen könnet die Wunden ihr nicht, die Amor geschlagen;

aber Linderung kommet einzig, ihr Guten, von euch.«

FOREWORD

"Saint Gotthard - Life Stream in the Heart of Europe"

The Swiss Confederation was founded in the beginning of August 1291 on the so called "Rütli Meadow" (small area of rooted land) on the shore of Lake Lucerne in the central part of Switzerland. Representatives of the free peasants' communitites of Uri, Schwyz (= Switzerland) and Unterwalden renewed a contract in which they promised to help one another in freeing their homelands from Habsburg servitude. The first contract had been signed in 1270, when Prince Rudolf I of Habsburg was elected King of the German Empire. After a period of peace for more than twenty years, the people from the "forest cantons" (Waldstätte) feared to loose their sovereignty and were not willing to accept anymore foreign laws and judges in the future time.

The main reason why these free farmers from the mountainous parts of our country struggled for independence was the fact that they were located along the northern parts of the great imperial highway of Saint Gotthard (San Gottardo), the shortest road across the Alps from Germany to Italy. Once this pass way had been opened in the second half of the 12th century, the Family of Hohenstaufen, rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, began to manifest their lively interests in the remote Swiss mountain valleys in order to control trade and to secure their strategic passage to their Italian soles.

The Hohenstaufen provided the free men of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden with the privilege being under direct imperial rule. However, the protection offered to the Swiss people by the House of Hohenstaufen was purely theoretical, since the Royals were preoccupied with their own struggle against the Papacy in Italy.

For this reason, the Swiss mountain dwellers had to build up their own peasant force which was from the beginning very successful in battling the traditional armies of knights led by the feudal families. In the 14th century Swiss soldiers built up their reputation of being unique in Europe as infantry men. Until the first half of the 19th century many Swiss gained their living in the tough business of freebooting.

In 1882, a 15km long railway tunnel and in 1980, a tunnel for automobiles were inaugurated on this famous passage of Saint Gotthard. As in medieval times this vital connection in the central part of the Swiss Alps between German and Italian speaking peoples ist still of great importance. Therefore, one of the main tasks for our army is to keep this life stream in the very heart of Europe open and to defend it against foreign forces and acts of terrorism.

I would like to dedicate this work to the People on the Korean Peninsula situated between the Chinese and Japanese speaking spheres. Similar to Switzerland the Koreans always had to struggle for their sovereignty and independence. For South Korea and its American allies this struggle will be going on until all Koreans are reunited and free. May this goal be achieved through peaceful means and in the Spirit of the Free World.

       Seoul, August 1996

Col Urs Alfred Müller-Lhotska   

  Swiss Alternate Member to NNSC

Saint Gotthard road on top of the Devil's gorge. Wood construction along the rockface of the  "Chilchberg" in Ursern, county of Uri, 12th-17th century.

Drawing by Klaus Oberli, Wabern BE, 1990. 

By 1708, the wooden bridge was replaced by a 64m long, 2.4m high and 2.1 m wide tunnel, the so-called "Urnerloch". In the background the so-called "Devil's Wall". At the center of the gorge there is the road chapel of Saint Anthony's, which has been abandoned in 1893 when the road was widened.

The first bridge (span = 13m) for porters and mules was probably built at the beginning of the 12th century.

The last mule track bridge built around 1800  collapsed in 1888 after the thrust blocks had been severely damaged by the construction of the telephone line. 

Drawing by W.H. Bartlett, engraving by G. Richardson, published in London, May 1, 1834.

Beyond the "Urnerloch", two generations of "Devil's Bridges" built around 1800, respectively 1830, are crossing the thundering Reuss torrent on top of the "Schoellenen Gorge" (lat. "scalinae = stone stairs).

"The Haederli's bridge" around 1890; oil painting by Jost Muheim.

One of the most attractive pack-animal trail bridges on the Saint Gotthard passroad is the so-called "Haederli's bridge" ("Haederli" = conflict). It is situated on the border line between the counties of Uri and Ursern in the lower part of the Schoellenen gorge. The big arch (span = 23m) was destroyed by the great flooding of 1987 and rebuilt in 1990/91.

"THEY ALSO SERVE...". (excerpt, pp.VI-IX)

Introduction by Prof. Dr. Allan Reed Millett

As he lapsed into old age and blindness, the 17th Century English poet John Milton wrote one of his classic sonnets, "On His Blindness", reflecting on his inability to do much more than breath and talk, which for some younger literary figures fulfills most needs. Milton, however, had been an activist all his life in literature and politics, and his new role did not suit him. He concluded, however, that, "they also serve who only stand and wait".

Although the Swiss members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission have done more riding and walking than standing in the Republic of Korea, their lives have been much like Milton's, interested observers and occasional referees for combats actual and rhetorical between two irreconcilable parts of the Korean people, divided since 1945. One must travel widely to find anything quite like the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Now that the "Iron Curtain" between the two Germanies is gone, the wire and concrete turned into souvenirs, the only other border I've seen like the DMZ is on the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel. It is no accicent that there is now talk of putting Americans on the Golan. If so we hope the Swiss and Swedes will meet us there to help keep the peace.

As two-year veteran (1994-1996) of service in the NNSC, Dr. Urs A. Mueller-Lhotska had ample opportunity to learn a great deal about the matters of heart and mind that separate the two Koreas. Unlike many Europeans and Americans who journey the Republic of Korea, he made an exceptional effort not just to work out, lose weight, and perfect his hobbies (in his case Marathon runs and pop music by voice and guitar), but to learn something about the Korean people. He and I had opportunities to meet in Korea in 1995 and 1996, and he twice arranged for me to visit the NNSC camp in the Joint Security Area to dine with his comrades (including the Polish delegation) and exchange views on conflict in Korea. On a banquet circuit we call this "singing for your supper", in this case lunch and much better food than I ever found in U.S. Marine Corps messes in my own thirty-years of service as a reserve officer. I found Urs A. Mueller an astute student of Korean affairs and someone who took his assignement seriously, even though it had many comic and absurd aspects. I always believed the NNSC delegates would find themselves at ease in Oz [magical country] if they were swept away by a Kansas tornado.

Colonel Mueller has written a short history of modern Korea, not just a history of one quarter of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. His economical account of modern Korean political history should make clear to even the most optimistic and obtuse students of Asian affairs that the possiblilities for another war in Korea are rich indeed. We know that the North Korean invasion in June, 1950 was the result of triangular negotiations between Kim Il Sung, Mao Zedong, and Josef Stalin whose calculations on risk and relative advantage seemed so reasonable to them and so wrong. Can we be confident that Kim Jong Il, isolated and megalomanical, the absolute ruler of a people and army that can grow nuclear weapons but not rice, will use any reason at all in a crisis? His father actually waged another war along the DMZ in 1967-1976 under the illusion that he was assisting Communists in Vietnam and punishing the American South Korean armies for fighting the Vietnamese. During those dangerous years, American soldiers and South Koreans died in combat with the In Min Gun (People's Army) along the DMZ. During a tour of the Imjin River valley in July, 1996 I found a monument to a dead American sergeant ambushed in 1967 in the zone of the ROK 5th Division. His name will not be found on the black wall of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., but he, too, is a casualty of that conflict. Although Americans might recognize the names of Major Bonifas and Lieutenant Barrett, victims of the JSA axe murders of 1976, they woud be surprised to learn that these officers did not die alone.

The principal role of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission is to referee the conflict along the DMZ between the ROK army and the In Min Gun, investigating charges of violations of the Military Armistice Agreement and attempting to persuade the Military Armistice Commission to negotiate away misunderstandings and accidents. This is a demanding task since so little of the conflict along the DMZ (which American troops no longer patrol) is accidental. Instead it is an extension of a low intensity conflict that has continued unabated since 1953 and represents a struggle for legitimacy between competing revolutionary movements that is not settled. In ideological terms the South Koreans represent the vision of human destiny shaped by Martin Luther, Buddha, John Calvin, Adam Smith, Oliver Cromwell, and Andrew Carnegie while the North Koreans represent the collectivist theories of Karl Marx. V.I. Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Il Sung. Both sides are also ardent Korean nationalists. Democratic theory plays a small role in this conflict. Any European would immediately seen familiar values in South Korea: the importance of industry, family, reverence for the past and ancestors, exercise and good health, good eating, and social discipline. He or she might not see the fatalism, the anxiety, the fear of the future, and the sense of impending tragedy that characterizes life in South Korea, a country where per capita income has doubled to over US$ 10'000 in just the last decade. Can we be comfortable when the pitiful regime in Pyoengyang resists complete inspection by the International Atomic Agency and refuses to let international investigators survey its very real disease and starvation problems?

Like Milton, the officers of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission must be present to bear witness to great events that do not involve them except as observers. Their observation, however, will be essential to collective action (military or otherwise) by the European members of the United Nations should the Koreans again go to war. I doubt that American explanations of events will suffice now in the way they did in 1950 - nor should they. Instead Europeans of all walks of life - much admired in South Korea as a welcome option to dealing with Americans - can exert their influence for peace and prosperity, even if it means taking the initiative in dealing with Pyoenyang. The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission represents one important example of European mediation of Korean conflict, so the story of that effort is well worth knowing. Colonel Mueller has made a major contribution to our overdue attention to Korean politics.

Allan Reed Millett, *1937

Former Fulbright Distinguished Professor,

Korean National Defense College, 1991.

One of the 1291 markers along the Military Demarcation Line on the 38th parallel in Korea. Stretched out between the country's east and west coast, the line is 250 km long.