Günter Raphael

The composer Günter Raphael (1903–1960) was offered a teaching position at the conservatorium in Leipzig at the age of 23. Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted the premiere of his first symphony. National socialist legislation led to the loss of his position in 1934. His Father’s Jewish descent was their justification for this. His attempts to emigrate fail, and he is hemmed in by an occupational and performance ban in 1939 that was without exception. His tuberculosis and pleurisy frequently prevent the SS from collecting him and he survives until the end of the war. After a number of operations and various stays at sanatoriums, he is deemed cured in 1952 and can apply for teaching positions. Two years before his death, he is appointed professor for composition at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. He left more than 300 works for orchestra, piano, organ, string and wind instruments along with chamber music and vocal works from which many have been recorded and performed both in Germany and abroad.