Interdisciplinary Institute for Political Music and Power

Thesis:

Robert Schumann's Düsseldorf Piano Works: Continuity and Change in Their Reception

Robert Schumann's creative work in Düsseldorf was shaped by his role as City Music Director, resulting primarily in large-scale orchestral and choral compositions. At the same time, he composed a number of works for solo piano that long remained in the shadow of his early piano music and only gradually – and only in part – entered the concert repertoire during the second half of the twentieth century. One reason for this is that the works from Schumann's final creative period were long viewed through the lens of his mental illness.

The limited reception of these works and the assumption that they were of inferior quality – often attributed to this perceived "illness" – led to their widespread neglect within musicology. At the same time, the political appropriation of the Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23, by the National Socialists demonstrates that, beyond the stigma attached to Schumann's late works, political instrumentalisation also played a significant role in shaping their reception, a topic that has received comparatively little scholarly attention.

Drawing on scholarly publications, research literature, and the general press up to 1956, the project traces continuities and changes in the reception of Schumann's Düsseldorf piano works. Its aim is to uncover the factors underlying shifts in Schumann's public image. By examining the period from the works' composition to the Schumann Year of 1956, the thesis explores their reception across different political systems, including the post-war period, in order to identify forms of reception shaped by political agendas.

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ohannes Moser studied Music Education and Classical Philology at the Mozarteum University Salzburg (Department of Music Education in Innsbruck) and the University of Innsbruck (2013–2020), qualifying as a secondary-school teacher. From 2016 onwards, he also pursued a bachelor's degree in Piano Pedagogy in Innsbruck before completing a master's degree under Prof. Claudius Tanski at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Since 2024, he has been pursuing a doctorate in musicology at the same institution under the supervision of Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Yvonne Wasserloos, M.A., with the project Robert Schumann's Düsseldorf Piano Works: Continuity and Change in Their Reception.

He currently teaches piano and Latin at high schools in Salzburg. In addition to occasional concert appearances as a soloist, he works as a lieder accompanist and rehearsal pianist.

His research focuses on the reception of music in sociopolitical contexts, particularly the discourse surrounding "German" and "degenerate" music during the Nazi era.

Musical Cultures in a Society Under Dual Transformation: On the Role of East Prussian Displaced Persons in Germany, 1943–1961

This thesis explores music as a catalyst for social change during the period from the beginning of the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship to the construction of the Berlin Wall—a time of profound political, social, and cultural transformation. The dual-transition society that emerged through refugee movements consisted, until the division of Germany, of East Prussian displaced persons and the native population of postwar Germany. Following the establishment of two political systems in 1949, these communities developed in different ways in East and West Germany.

Drawing on archival sources and interviews with contemporary witnesses, the study examines music and musical practices through a corpus of musical materials. Using musicological and philological approaches alongside the historical method of oral history, it investigates the composition and functions of this corpus, as well as its continuities and discontinuities. Particular attention is paid to the musical mechanisms that promoted or hindered integration and segregation between the different communities.

The thesis asks whether and to what extent encounters through music took place, and how the music and musical practices of East Prussian displaced persons and the native population contributed to the development of the new political systems and to processes of social integration, with a particular focus on the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ)/German Democratic Republic (GDR).

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Josephina Strößner studied teacher training in Music Education and French at the Rostock University of Music and Drama and the University of Rostock (2014–2020). During the winter semester of 2017, she studied abroad through the Erasmus programme at the Pôle Aliénor and the Université de Poitiers in France. Following her First State Examination, she began her doctoral studies in December 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Yvonne Wasserloos, M.A., working on the project Musical Cultures in a Society Under Dual Transformation: On the Role of East Prussian Displaced Persons in Germany, 1943–1961. She was initially based at the Rostock University of Music and Drama before transferring to the Mozarteum University Salzburg in October 2022. From 2021 to 2022, she was supported by a scholarship from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Graduate Funding Programme. Her thesis is co-supervised by Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Sabine Mecking (Philipps University of Marburg).

Her research focuses on the musicology of displacement, the relationship between music and political structures, and musical memory.