Arno Nadel papers, 1839, 1860-1941 (bulk: 1913-1941).

Format:

Other

Author/Creator:

Nadel, Arno, 1878-1943, creator.

Language:

Dutch

English

German

Hebrew

Multiple languages

Russian

Yiddish

Subjects (All):

Gemeindeblatt der Judischen Gemeinde zu Berlin.

Jüdische Rundschau.

Music.

Jewish composers.

Songs, Yiddish.

Songs, Hebrew.

Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.).

Cantors (Judaism).

Jews.

Jews--Europe, Eastern.

Music--Manuscripts.

Genre:

newspapers

sheet music

concert programs

correspondence

articles

drafts (documents)

writings (documents)

Penn Provenance:

Gift of Gratz College (part of the Gratz College-Eric Mandell Jewish Music Collection gift), 2023.

Physical Description:

3 boxes (1.2 linear feet)

Arrangement:

Organized into three series: I. Arno Nadel's personal materials, II. Writings by Arno Nadel, and III. Sheet music.

Place of Publication:

1839, 1860-1941

Language Note:

In German, Hebrew, Dutch; Flemish, English, Yiddish, and Russian.

Biography/History:

Arno Nadel was born in 1878 in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. According to the academic Yuval Shaked, Nadel was a "poet, playwright, translator, painter, composer, collector of Jewish folk and synagogal music, synagogue musician, arranger, pianist musicologist, and music journalist" (79). At the age of 12, Nadel left home to study at the Burgerschule with composer Robert Schwalm. Around this time, Nadel sang in the choir of the Königsberg Synagogue, which was conducted by the composer Eduard Birnbaum, with whom Nadel had a close relationship with. As a result of this close relationship with Birnbaum, Arno Nadel collected many of his musical compositions, which can be found in the Eric Mandell collection of Jewish music material at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1895, Nadel went to study at the Judische Lehrer-Bildungsanstalt in Berlin where he completed school in 1900. Nadel also studied with Ludwig Mendelssohn and Max Julius Loewengard after his graduation. In 1903, Arno Nadel married Anna Beate Guhrauer in Berlin. After the completion of his education, Arno Nadel began a long career writing about and reviewing Jewish music for various newspapers and journals such as: Ost und West, Vossische Zeitung, Vorwärts, Freiheit, Die Musik, Gemeindeblatt der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin, and Der Jude. According to Shaked, Nadel also "wrote for the Jüdisches Lexikon and entries for the German Encyclopedia Judaica (including one on the Akzente , the te'amim, cantillation markings)" (86). From 1916 to 1931, Nadel served as the choir conductor at the Fraenkelufer Synagogue (formally known as the Synagogue at Kottbusser Ufer). In 1931, Nadel began a career as the choir conductor and organist at the multiple synagogues in the Berlin area including: "the Alte Synagogue (Old Synagogue) in Heidereutergasse in Berlin-Mitte, at the Pestalozzistraße Synagogue, and finally at the synagogue in Münchener Straße in Schöneberg" (Shaked, 81). In 1923, the Berlin Congregation Community asked Nadel to compile a seven-volume anthology of synagogue music which Nadel completed in 1938, though the books were never published. According to Shaked, Nadel drafted the title of this anthology as, " Hallelujah - gesänge für den jüdischen Gottesdienst von Arno Nadel. Zugleich eine systematische Auswahl bedeutender Synagogenkomponisten. (Hallelujah - Chants for the Jewish Service by Arno Nadel; and a Systematic Selection of Important Synagogue Composers)" (82). In addition to Arno Nadel's work in the Jewish community as a choir director and composer, he had a career as a publisher of poetry and plays, and as a painter of expressionist art. In his career as a published writer, he published books of poetry entitled Aus vorletzten und letzten Gruenden (1909), Rot und gluehend ist das Auge des Juden (1920), Der Suendenfall (1920), Der Ton (1921), Juedische Volkslieder (1923), and Der weissagende Dionysos (1925), according to articles by the Jewish Music Research Centre and Tina Frühauf. In 1917, Nadel published a play titled Adam and he translated S. An-sky's famous play The Dybbuk into German. Arno Nadel started his painting career in 1918, with his works appearing in art exhibitions in Berlin in October and November of 1933 and in 1935 (Shaked, 82). According to Tina Frühauf, Nadel created a collection of paintings titled Vierzig Gestalten der Bibel which translates to "Forty Biblical Characters." Some of his paintings and drawings are digitized at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Leo Baeck Institute. During the early years of Nazi rule, Arno Nadel worked with the Jüdischer Kulturbund in Deutschland, which was a group of Jewish artists who continued to perform together for the Jewish people of Berlin, allowed so by the Nazi government until it was dissolved in 1941. The Kulturbund performed and recorded many of Nadel's compositions and arrangements at their concerts including 'Chad Gadya' in 1934, "L'man Jirbu" and "Elouheinu W'lohei" in 1936 and "Elohai Ad Schelo Nozarti." Nadel also created the music for a film commissioned by the Reichsverband der judischen Kulturbunde in Deutschland entitled "Schir Iwri (Hebräische Melodie)" (Shaked, 83). On November 11, 1938, only a day after Kristallnacht, Germans arrested Nadel and took him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp along with other members of the Jewish community of Berlin. According to Astrid Ley, deputy director of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, Nadel was given the prisoner No. 9133 and housed in Block 38 of the camp. On November 29, 1938, Arno Nadel was released from Sachsenhausen. Much like his friend Erich Mandell, Nadel was able to obtain an exit visa to England, but, after spending time in the camp, he was not fit to travel and stayed in Berlin with his wife. After returning home from the camp, he worked as the organist and choir director for the Münchenerstrasse Synagogue until 1941. In October 1941, Arno Nadel became a Jewish forced laborer for the Nazis, working in their Jüdische Bibliothek Amt VII of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, where he cataloged books looted by the Nazis from Jewish people all over Europe. According to Birgit R. Erdle, who examined Nadel's diaries from this time, Nadel used the code "G-U" in his writings to refer to his job as a forced laborer. According to Shaked, on March 10, 1943, Nadel came home to an empty apartment after the Gestapo arrested Anna, his wife. Nadel, himself, was rounded up at the Alexanderplatz and deported to Auschwitz on December 12, 1943. Arno Nadel was murdered at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 64.

Summary:

The Arno Nadel collection of Jewish music material contains mostly sheet music written and collected by Arno Nadel, along with personal correspondence, newspaper articles and materials collected by Nadel, dating mostly from 1913 to 1941. Most of the sheet music found in this collection is complimentary to that in the Eric Mandell collection of Jewish music material, as the collections share the sheet music of eighteen composers. A significant amount of the sheet music in this collection is in manuscript form, with only a few printed scores available. The Arno Nadel collection of Jewish music material is arranged into three series: I. Arno Nadel's personal materials, Writings by Arno Nadel, and III. Sheet music. At some point, the materials of Arno Nadel, which was part of the original Mandell collection, was split up and sent to the Leo Baeck Institute. Therefore, the second part of the Arno Nadel collection of Jewish music material can be found at the Leo Baeck Institute, as noted in the related collections note, and online on the Internet Archive. In various biographies, it stated that Arno Nadel collected sheet music from his mentor Eduard Birnbaum and kept it in his library. In the Eric Mandell collection of Jewish music material, there are three folders of Eduard Birnbaum's sheet music. Three of these pieces of sheet music have written notes from Birnbaum to Nadel or a note from Mandell of Nadel's handwriting. Therefore, in the many years since Mandell acquired Arno Nadel's collection, some of the Birnbaum sheet music that Nadel kept might now be in the Eric Mandell collection of Jewish music material.

OCLC:

1505920067