Bernhard Sekles
Persecution Under National Socialism
Bernhard Sekles, one of the leading figures in German music in the early twentieth century, became a target of Nazi persecution following Hitler's rise to power in 1933. As a Jewish composer and the director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Sekles faced growing opposition from nationalist circles even before the Nazi takeover.
His establishment of the world's first academic jazz program in 1928 had already provoked accusations of "frivolous mockery of German music" from conservative critics. This innovative program, led by Hungarian-born composer Mátyás Seiber, was described as a "palace revolution" in music education and recognized the practical reality that more than half of professional musicians were performing in jazz ensembles without formal training.
The Nazi seizure of power provided Sekles's critics with the opportunity to remove him from his position. On April 10, 1933, the "Committee for the Reorganization of the Dr. Hoch Conservatory" recommended the dismissal of 14 Jewish or foreign teachers, including Sekles and Seiber, effective August 31, 1933. Those dismissed were immediately banned from entering the conservatory.
Following his dismissal, Sekles's compositions were systematically excluded from German concert halls. Though he remained active in the music committee of the Jewish Cultural Association of Rhine-Main/Frankfurt am Main (founded in spring 1934), his health deteriorated rapidly. Sekles died on December 8, 1934, in a Jewish retirement home in Frankfurt am Main.
Tributes in European and American press (including "La Revue Musical Belge," the London-based "Monthly Musical Record," and the Swiss "Dissonances") attested to Sekles's international recognition as a composer and pedagogue, even as his works were being suppressed in Germany.
After 1933, performances of Sekles's compositions were limited to events within the Jewish Cultural Association. His final composition, Psalm 137 for choir, soprano solo, and organ, "By the Waters of Babylon" (Op. 45), was premiered on October 15, 1935, at Frankfurt's Westend Synagogue—a poignant musical statement from a composer whose works had been silenced by the regime.
The disruption caused by National Socialism prevented Sekles's music from entering the general concert repertoire after 1945. Today, his compositions are performed primarily at commemorative events or concerts specifically dedicated to music by Jewish composers.
Life and Career
Bernhard Sekles was born on June 20, 1872, in Frankfurt am Main. After attending the Philanthropin, the school of the Israelite Community of Frankfurt, he studied at the Hoch Conservatory from 1888 to 1893. His teachers included Lazzaro Uzielli (piano), Iwan Knorr (composition), and Engelbert Humperdinck (instrumentation).
His early career included positions as choir conductor and second conductor at municipal theatres in Heidelberg (1893-1894) and Mainz (1894-1895). In 1895, he returned to Frankfurt to teach music theory at the Hoch Conservatory. In 1906, he established his own composition class, which produced notable students including Paul Hindemith, Max Kowalski, Rudi Stephan, Cyrill Scott, Theodor W. Adorno, and Erich Itor Kahn.
Sekles was known for his teaching approach that allowed students to discover and develop their authentic compositional style rather than imposing a particular aesthetic direction. This pedagogical philosophy was frequently highlighted as one of his defining characteristics as a composition teacher.
In 1924, Sekles was appointed Director of the Hoch Conservatory, a position he held until his forced dismissal in 1933. Despite inheriting significant financial challenges, he initiated important reforms that elevated the institution's educational offerings to match those of state music colleges. During his tenure, Sekles rebuilt the dormant conservatory orchestra and organized prestigious guest conducting engagements by Wilhelm Furtwängler and Erich Kleiber. He completely reorganized orchestral training, founded an opera school in cooperation with municipal theatres, and established a church music department. Additionally, Sekles introduced a private music teachers' seminar whose graduates demonstrated such proficiency in external state examinations that the conservatory gained state recognition for this training. He also ensured that prospective school musicians could study in Frankfurt for four semesters before transferring to state-recognized institutions.
Reflecting on his achievements and sudden dismissal in 1933, Sekles wrote with remarkable restraint in a letter to David Ewen:
"A year ago I had to leave my position as director of Dr. Hoch's conservatory because of the political upheaval in Germany."
This understated description of his forced removal by the Nazi regime reveals both his dignity and the shocking reality of how quickly established careers could be destroyed under National Socialism.
One of four pages of correspondence from Bernhard Sekles to David Ewen, 1934.
Musical Works and Style
Bernhard Sekles composed works across all major genres. Beginning with a late-Romantic-Classical aesthetic, he developed an original, moderately progressive style influenced by Eastern and non-European musical traditions. Critics and audiences often described his music as "exotic."
His compositional output included:
- Four operas, including "Schaharazade" (1917), which was premiered under Wilhelm Furtwängler and subsequently performed at numerous German opera houses
- Orchestral works, including a symphony, "Die Temperamente," "Kleine Suite," and "Passacaglia and Fugue for Large Orchestra and Organ" (Op. 27)
- Chamber music, including two string quartets, a sonata for cello and piano, and the "Capriccio in Four Movements"
- An extensive collection of songs, particularly his cycle "Aus dem Schi-King" based on ancient Chinese poetry
- Ballet and dance compositions, including "The Dwarf and the Infant" based on Oscar Wilde's fairy tale
Contemporary reviews compared his opera "Schaharazade" to works like Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" and Bartók's "Bluebeard's Castle." Sekles's approach to operatic composition was distinctive: he subordinated music to text, avoided conventional "number opera" structure while also limiting the use of Wagnerian leitmotifs, and employed orientalist musical elements (augmented intervals, parallel interval progressions) sparingly but effectively.
His "Serenade for 11 Solo Instruments" (Op. 14) achieved particular acclaim, despite initial resistance from conductors. In a letter to David Ewen, Sekles noted that after its successful performance at the Tonkünstlerfest in Dresden in 1906, the same conductors who had previously rejected it as "unworthy of performance" embraced the work.
"A year earlier," he wrote, "some 100 conductors to whom the publisher had sent the Serenade had returned it as unworthy of performance. After its success in Dresden, these gentlemen changed their minds and almost all of them performed it successfully."
Jazz Education Pioneer
Sekles's most enduring contribution to music education was his establishment of the world's first academic jazz program at the Hoch Conservatory in 1928. This innovative department, led by Mátyás Seiber, represented a pragmatic response to contemporary musical developments and professional requirements.
Sekles recognized that a significant portion of professional musicians were performing in jazz ensembles without formal training. His systematic approach to jazz education reflected a characteristically Germanic view that even improvisational music could be analysed, theorized, and taught through structured pedagogy.
This initiative provoked substantial criticism from nationalist and conservative circles, who viewed jazz as a threat to German musical traditions. The Nazi regime was particularly hostile to jazz as the music of African Americans, which contradicted their racial ideology. Consequently, the jazz department was closed following the Nazi takeover in 1933.
Despite its brief existence, Sekles's jazz program represented a visionary educational innovation that anticipated the later integration of jazz studies into conservatory curricula worldwide.
Sources
Kathrin Massar: Bernhard Sekles, in: Lexicon of persecuted musicians of the Nazi era, Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen (eds.), Hamburg: University of Hamburg, 2009
Haas, M. Bernhard Sekles, Forbidden Music, January 2014 - accessed March 2025
Correspondence from Bernhard Sekles to David Ewen, 1934. Carnegie Hall Rose Archive
