Gustav Mahler Vereinigung

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.

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 presently has more than 170 members and is working on making Hamburg a Mahler city through its publications, lectures, concerts etc. It is in this sense that the society along with Elmar Lampson, the president of the Gustav Mahler Society Hamburg, is proud to present a Gustav Mahler Museum at Komponistenquartier (Peterstraße) since June 2018 under the patronage of Thomas Hampson.