Max Springer at the mdw

The year 2027 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Max Springer, a figure who has now almost been forgotten. The aim of this book project is to trace the career of the composer, church musician and teacher Max Springer at what is now the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts, to place him within the context of his workplace, and to situate him as a historical figure of his time.

Springer joined the former academy in 1910 and worked there for over 35 years; amongst other roles, he was Professor of Composition and, from 1927 served as Director of the academy. His career spanning some three and a half decades at what is now the mdw encompasses numerous turning points and epoch-defining events in the history of the first half of the 20th century. Among other things, he represents the close relationship between state and church in the context of music education and was a key figure in the massive political influence on the institution in the First Republic and during Austrofascism. Not least, his membership of the NSDAP raises questions regarding the tension between currying favour, opportunism, (complicity) and (supposed?) victimhood.

Through the figure of Max Springer – his rapid rise thanks to political intervention and his subsequent fall from grace – the turbulent and crisis-ridden history of both the mdw institution and Austria’s (cultural) political landscape in the first half of the 20th century can be recounted.

Severin Matiasovits’s publication is due to appear in 2027.