Fritz Redlich (1868-1921).

  • Profession: Owner sugar factory, businessman and mayor of Hodonin. Great patron of the arts and collector. Advised by Carl Julius Rudolf Moll (1861-1945).
  • Relation to Mahler: Gustav Mahler and finished the composition of Das Lied von der Erde there. Fritz and Emmy. Friends.
  • Correspondence with Mahler: Very likely.
  • Born: 18-08-1868 Hodonin (Goding, Goeding), Czech Republic.
  • Married to Emmy Redlich-von Taussig (1876-1962).
  • Address: House Redlich and factory in Hodonin, Czech Republic.
  • Died: 15-11-1921 Hodonin, Czech Republic. Aged 54.
  • Buried: 19-11-1921 Hodonin, Czech Republic. (Moravia). Christopher Williams (november 2018): I was told that he is buried in the Jewish cemetery. It is somewhat outside the town proper. I was also told that the cemetery used to be in town, not far from our house. I don’t know when it was moved. There are still a few gravestones near where it used to be. I think that it must really be the Jewish Cemetery because when I was walking there I asked an old man if I was headed in the right direction for the cemetery and he asked me if I was Jewish. The cemetery is actually very nice, well kept and fairly large. When I arrived there on foot and saw its size I wondered how I would find Fritz’s grave. I first spoke with an older woman who was tending a gravesite, but she only spoke Czech. I then found an older man, although he was younger than I am, who spoke German. When I mentioned the grave of Fritz Redlich, he immediately took me there. 

Meetings Gustav Mahler and Fritz Redlich (1868-1921)

  1. Year 1903: May.
  2. Year 1905: September? Gustav Mahler and Alma Mahler (1879-1964) stayed at small baroque Schloss in Hodonin of Fritz Redlich (1868-1921), a few kilometer from the austrian border and a hour and a half from Vienna by train. Alma stayed behind with the children when Mahler, back in Vienna, received a visit from Oskar Fried (1871-1941).
  3. Year 1906: August.
  4. Year 1907?: Remarks on Symphony No. 6.
  5. Year 1907?: Remarks on Symphony No. 7.
  6. Year 1909: Gustav Mahler stayed in September 1909 with Fritz Redlich (1868-1921) in his House Fritz Redlich and finished “Das Lied von der Erde” there.

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921).

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921), owner of a sugar refinery and several other businesses and industries in the Göding (Hodonin) region, was a great patron of the arts and collector, and as such had made the acquaintance of Carl Julius Rudolf Moll (1861-1945), who had advised him on his purchases.

His brother Joseph Redlich (1869-1936) later played an important political role in the Austrian monarchy.

Joseph’s son Hans-Ferdinand Redlich (1903-1968) wrote a pamphlet at the age of 16 entitled “Gustav Mahler: Eine Erkenntnis”, dedicated to his uncle Fritz Redlich (1868-1921), which Joseph Redlich had published in 1919. Hans-Ferdinand Redlich emigrated to England before the Second World War and became a well-known musicologist, author of “Bruckner-Mahler” (Dent, London, 1955). Hans Ferdinant Redlich (1903-1968) was born in Vienna, wherehe privately studied piano with Paul Weingarten and harmony and counterpoint with Hugo Kauder. He was a student of Carl Orff in Munich after 1921. He was a university student in both cities and studied German literature and musicology. Redlich served as répétiteur for the Berlin-Charlottenburg city opera in 1924–1925 and as opera conductor for the Stadttheater Mainz from 1925 to 1929. From 1929 until 1931, Redlich studied musicology at Frankfurt University and completed a dissertation on stylistic changes in Monteverdi’s madrigals. From then until 1937, Redlich resided in Mannheim as a composer and writer. He moved back in 1937 and, two years later, emigrated to Great Britain. In 1953 he was a member of the editorial board for the Hallischen Händel-Ausgabe. In 1966 Redlich was a founding member and the first vice president of the International Alban Berg Society of New York. He died in Manchester, England. The papers and scores of Hans Redlich are held at the University of Lancaster. His scores formed the foundation of the music collection; other items may be accessed through the Lancaster University Library. Redlich contributed a volume to the Master Musician Series 1955: “Bruckner and Mahler”, which was ground-breaking work in English. In the introduction he tells us he met Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) as a child and his father was a friend of Gustav Mahler. Later he knew members of Mahler’s family and published, from 1919 onwards, several studies in German of Mahler and his music. 

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921).

Painting is of Fritz Redlich (1868-1921). It is the painting that hangs in the Hodonin town hall. All of the paintings of former mayors are in a room that is locked and not generally available to the public. 

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921) obituary. Dr. h. c. Fritz Redlich.

Grave Fritz Redlich (1868-1921).

Christopher Williams, when asked about the Redlich family and Gustav Mahler:

“The first thing that occurred to me is a chapter in the journals of my grandfather, Josef Redlich, which were published most recently under the title “Schicksals Jahre Oesterreichs” by the Boehlau Verlag in Vienna. The 76 page chapter is titled “Aus dem alten Oesterreich. Erinnerungen und Einsichten”.

The chapter is devoted to the early childhood of Fritz Redlich (1868-1921) and Josef Redlich in Hodonin. My grandfather went on to become a professor of law in Austria and the United States, a historian, member of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament, a Geheimrat and the last finance minister of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921), on the other hand, ran the family sugar beet and brick factories in Hodonin and served for a time as the mayor of Hodonin. A painting of my uncle still hangs in the Hodonin town hall.

Gustav Mahler spent some time in my uncle’s house finishing “Das Lied von der Erde”.

It might shed some light on life in the Austro-Hungarian provinces in the latter part of the 19th century, though it is obviously focused on Moravia rather than Bohemia. There are also numerous references to Gustav Mahler in my grandfather’s journals as my grandfather and Mahler were friends and traveled in some of the same social circles.”

Christopher Williams (grandson of Josef Redlich, the brother of Fritz Redlich), November 2018.

    

Covers of the three volumes of the journals of Josef Redlich (1869-1936).

Fritz Redlich (1868-1921), Großindustrieller und Politiker. Bruder des Folgenden, Cousin des Bauunternehmers Karl R. (s. d.); sein Großvater, der Schankwirt Nathan R., begründete den späteren Reichtum der Familie durch Erwerb der herrschaftlichen Dampfmühle in Göding, sein Vater, Adolf R. (1839-1896), und dessen Bruder, Ignaz Leopold R. (1836–91), erwarben gem. mit ihrem Schwager Berger die Gödinger Zukkerfabrik und gründeten das Bauunternehmen Brüder R. & Berger in Wien. R. stud. 1885–88 an der Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Wien Landwirtschaft, 1889 Diplomlandwirt. Nach dem Tod seines Vaters übernahm er die Gödinger Fa., die er großzügig ausbaute. Er betrieb auf Pachtgründen in der Slowakei umfangreichen Zukkerrübenanbau und errichtete große Ziegelwerke in der Umgebung Gödings. 1910 Präs. der AG für Zuckerind. Göding. 1896-1919 gehörte R., der viele gemeinnützige Projekte finanzierte oder unterstützte, der Gemeindevertretung von Göding an und hatte ab 1913 als Bürgermeister (Dt.-fortschrittliche Partei) entscheidenden Anteil an der Entwicklung Gödings zur Ind.-Stadt. 1902-1909 Mitgl. der Brünner Handels- und Gewerbekammer, 1908 Kommerzialrat. Wegen seiner hervorragenden Verdienste um die Land- und Forstwirtschaft sowie um die Förderung und Ausgestaltung der Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Wien 1921 Dr. h. c. der Hochschule für Bodenkultur.

L.: Gödinger Ztg. vom 20-01-1913; N. Fr. Pr. vom 16-11-1921 (Abendausg.); Kosch, Kath. Deutschland; Sudetendt. Lebensbilder, hrsg. von E. Gierach, 2, 1930, S. 314 ff.; Schicksalsjahre Österr. 1908-1919. Das polit. Tagebuch J. Redlichs, bearb. von F. Fellner, 1–2 ( = Veröff. der Komm., für neuere Geschichte Österr. 39-40), 1953-1954, s. Reg.

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