Elmendorff, Karl Eduard Maria (also Carl)

Conductor, General Music Director

born: 25.10.1891 in Düsseldorf

died: 21.10.1962 in Hofheim (Taunus)

Karl Elmendorff was born in Düsseldorf, the son of a merchant. After attending a humanistic grammar school, he first studied classical philology, German studies and dentistry in Freiburg, Munich and Münster. He then studied musicology in Cologne and Bonn under Fritz Steinbach (1855-1916) and Hermann Abendroth (1883-1956). In 1916 he became Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf, in 1920 he moved to Mainz, for a season to Hagen and then became Music Director in Aachen. In 1925, the Munich State Opera appointed him First Kapellmeister and later General Music Director. In 1932, he became General Music Director at the Nassauisches Landestheater Wiesbaden. Here he conducted Verdi's "Aida" and "Macbeth", Wagner's "Ring", Strauss' "Rosenkavalier" and several symphony concerts. There were also modern operas such as Eduard Künneke's "Nadja" and Wolf-Ferrari's "Schalkhafte Witwe". In 1936, Elmendorff went to the Mannheim National Theater and in 1938 he was also appointed Kapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera. In 1938, he was appointed Staatskapellmeister by Adolf Hitler. In 1942, Elmendorff succeeded Karl Böhm (1894-1984) at the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Semperoper. Here he was appointed Music Director of the Dresden State Opera in 1943.

In 1926, Karl Elmendorff took part in the German Festival in Weimar and caught the eye of the Bayreuth Festival director Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930), from which a close relationship developed. Wagner introduced him to Bayreuth circles, where Elmendorff had been actively recruiting artists for the "Kampfbund für Deutsche Kultur" since 1928. Elmendorff conducted the "Ring des Nibelungen" and other well-known operas by Richard Wagner several times in Bayreuth. He conducted the Bayreuth Festival a total of 81 times. During the 1939-42 war festival, he conducted the "Flying Dutchman." When the Festival reopened in 1951, Wagner's grandsons decided not to allow him to take part again.

Elmendorff's closeness to the Wagner family and his commitment to the Bayreuth Festival contributed to his conducting a festive performance of "Die Meistersinger" in Nuremberg in 1933 on the occasion of the NSDAP-Reichsparteitag. The conductor was engaged at Adolf Hitler's special request. The director of the Bayreuth Festival, Winifred Wagner, organized the performance. Elmendorff later maintained close contacts with the top echelons of the Nazi regime and used them to advance his career. In particular, Elmendorff used his close relationship with Gerdy Troost, the wife of architect Paul Ludwig Troost and close confidant of Hitler, to repeatedly put himself in the running for awards or high-ranking positions. His aim was to assert and assert himself against professional rivals such as the conductors Furtwangler and Herbert von Karajan, which he achieved in particular when it came to filling the position of music director in Dresden. Karl Elmendorff joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1937. Due to his profession, he was a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture.

Artistically, Elmendorff was regarded at home and abroad as one of the most important and distinguished Wagner interpreters. His professional success is also reflected in the size of his income. This rose from RM 14,000 a year in 1932 to RM 40,000 in 1937. His professional success, which was also made possible by his proximity to the regime, not only made Elmendorff financially independent, but also enabled him to perform abroad. Elmendorff supported the Nazi regime in particular by performing in the territories occupied by Germany. The conductor regularly performed in occupied and unoccupied parts of France as well as in Belgium and fascist Italy. In 1943, he was awarded the War Merit Cross II Class without Swords.

After the end of the Second World War, Elmendorff was music director of the Staatstheater Kassel from 1948 to 1951. He returned to Wiesbaden in 1951 and was Musical Director of the Wiesbaden State Theater until 1955. From 1955, he worked as a music advisor to the magistrate of the state capital of Wiesbaden. In his second period in Wiesbaden, Elmendorff also cultivated operas by Wagner, Verdi, Beethoven and Bizet. Other works included Pfitzner's "Palestrina", the opera "Der Jakobiner" by Dvořák, which he particularly appreciated, and the world premiere of Hans Vogt's (1911-1992) and Hermann Kasack's (1896-1966) "Die Stadt hinter dem Strom". He performed almost 500 times in the orchestra pit of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

Karl Elmendorff was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse in 1956. He received the Richard Strauss Medal and the Leuschner Prize.
Karl Elmendorff died on October 21, 1962 in Hofheim am Taunus. He was buried in Wiesbaden's North Cemetery. A bust of Elmendorff, created by Ernst Dostal, stands in the staircase to the first tier of the Wiesbaden State Theater. A street in Wiesbaden was named after him in 1965. Due to an appearance at the Reich Party Congress in 1933 and the associated effective support of the Nazi movement, Karl Elmendorff made a noticeable commitment to National Socialism as a political movement and to the Nazi regime. Due to his close relationship with the top echelons of the Nazi regime, he achieved well-paid positions and thus benefited materially from the regime. For this reason, the Historical Expert Commission appointed by resolution of the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming the street named after Karl Elmendorff in the south-east district in 2023. His membership of the NSDAP and his profession in the Reich Chamber of Culture also led to the recommendation of the Historical Commission.

[This text was created in 2012 by Holger Reiner Stunz for the printed version of the Wiesbaden City Dictionary and revised and supplemented by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024].