16 Facts About Hermann Deiters

Hermann Deiters was a German writer about music, and educator.

Hermann Deiters is known for his writings about Ludwig van Beethoven, publishing the composer's first major biography as a translation of Alexander Wheelock Thayer's work.

Hermann Deiters was the son of the Bonn lawyer and politician Peter Franz Ignaz Deiters.

Hermann Deiters received his doctorate on 28 July 1858 with a dissertation on Hesiod's Aspis.

Hermann Deiters laid down technical, methodological-didactic, and pedagogical principles, as he was used to them from Bonn, and set up student libraries and collections of teaching materials.

Hermann Deiters became Provinzialschulrat in Koblenz in 1885, responsible for teacher training and school equipment in the Rhine Province.

Hermann Deiters carried out his duties with great commitment and considerable success, and received several awards: in 1891 he was appointed Geheimrat, and later he received the Order of the Crown and the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd Class.

For health reasons, Hermann Deiters retired on 1 October 1903, and he died in Koblenz on 11 May 1907 at the age of 73.

Hermann Deiters was married first to Agnes Burkart, who died in 1884, and from 1886 to Sibylla Heimsoeth, the daughter of the philologist and musicologist Friedrich Heimsoeth.

However, the main focus of his research became the music itself, which Hermann Deiters had been involved with since his childhood.

Hermann Deiters abandoned his plan to become a composer or pianist before he began his studies, but the history, development and practice of music occupied him throughout his life.

At the beginning of his career, Hermann Deiters wrote music reviews and reports for various newspapers and magazines, including the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.

Hermann Deiters venerated Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, and of contemporary composers especially Johannes Brahms, who was his close friend from the 1860s.

Hermann Deiters rigorously rejected Wagner and his massive innovations in musical practice.

Hermann Deiters corresponded with the American researcher Alexander Wheelock Thayer, who was working on a major Beethoven biography.

Hermann Deiters translated the work into German and accompanied the publication of the first three volumes.