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Gustav Mahler in Hamburg
The Gustav Mahler Vereinigung e. V., Hamburg - Gustav Mahler Society Hamburg - was founded in 1988 in memory of the most celebrated non-native born Hamburg musician to live and work here, whose merits had not been honoured up until this time by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. During Gustav Mahler’s six years in Hamburg, he composed his second and third symphonies. The second symphony later became known as the “Resurrection Symphony” and is uniquely connected with Hamburg’s old landmark - the Michel (St. Michael’s Church). Mahler had not yet become well-known as a composer and said ironically of himself: “very un-famous and very un-performed”. His fame as an opera conductor, however, was all the greater. As First Conductor at the then Hamburg Municipal Theatre, the brilliant young musician raised the level of performance to such heights that his spectacular conducting of Wagner at the guest performances of the Hamburg opera in London in 1892 made both Mahler and his house world-famous.
The founder of the Gustav Mahler Vereinigung Hamburg (GMVH), Georg Borchardt, won the renowned Mahler musicologist Constantin Floros as the first and Leonard Bernstein as the honorary president of the society. At the dedication of the Gustav Mahler Platz (Gustav Mahler Square) in 1991, which took place on the initiation of the Hamburg Mahler Society, Borchardt’s exhibit “Gustav Mahler’s Hamburg Years 1891-1897” was shown for the first time in the foyer of the Hamburg State Opera. A bust of Mahler by Milan Knobloch can also be seen here, another one is now in the Laeiszhalle. A bronze plaque, the hitherto largest Mahler memorial in Hamburg, was attached to the outer façade of the building of the Hamburg State Opera. Another plaque is situated at the house Bundesstrasse 10, where Mahler once lived. This is the only remaining quarters in which Mahler lived during his Hamburg years. The Gustav Mahler Society hopes to open a Gustav-Mahler-Museum here. The society presently has more than 200 members and is working on making Hamburg a Mahler city through its publications, lectures, etc. It is in this sense that the society along with Elmar Lampson, the president of the Gustav Mahler Society Hamburg, are in favour of naming the large concert hall of the new Elbphilharmonie Gustav-Mahler-Saal - Gustav Mahler Hall.
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