Skip to main content

Hanns Eisler papers

 Collection
Identifier: 0207

  • Staff Only
  • Select an item to initiate a request

Scope and Content

Collection contains Hanns Eisler's extensive personal and business correspondence from his years in Southern California (1942-48). In addition the archive contains a few biographical documents and photographs. The collection also contains several recordings for films on records by Hanns Eisler. The records have been digitalized and transfered to CDs.

Dates

  • Creation: 1942-1948

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The collection contains published materials; researchers are reminded of the copyright restrictions imposed by publishers on reusing their articles and parts of books. It is the responsibility of researchers to acquire permission from publishers when reusing such materials. The copyright to unpublished materials belongs to the heirs of the writers. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Exile Studies Librarian at ullmann@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical/Historical note

Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) was a German composer. His family moved to Vienna in 1902, and Eisler grew up and studied there, most notably with Arnold Schoenberg in the early 1920s. He moved to Berlin in 1925. Due to his strongly Marxist political convictions Eisler left Nazi Germany in 1933, and travelled extensively for four years. He began teaching at the New School for Social Research in New York in 1938. Four years later he moved to Los Angeles, where he taught composition at UCLA, worked closely with Bertolt Brecht, wrote scores for motion pictures, and co-authored with Theodor Adorno, "Composing for the Films." He was expelled from the United States because of his Communist sympathies in March 1948, and settled in East Berlin for the rest of his life, where he was professor at the Berlin Hochschule fuer Musik and continued to write for films, compose songs and concert works.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (7 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This rich collection contains Hanns Eisler's personal and business correspondence from his years in Southern California (1942-48). In addition the archive contains a few biographical documents and photographs. The collection also contains several recordings for films on records by Hanns Eisler.

Acquisition

Included in the Lion Feuchtwanger estate which was given to USC by Marta Feuchtwanger.

Title
Finding Aid for Hanns Eisler papers
Status
Completed
Author
Michaela Ullmann
Date
2010
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English, German

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States