Gottfried von Einem was born on 24 January 1918 in Bern and died on 12 July 1996 in Oberdürnbach in Lower Austria. After working at the Bayreuther Festspiele, from 1938 as assistant to Heinz Tietjen, and as house composer of the Dresdner Staatsoper, he lived in Austria from 1946 and studied with Boris Blacher. His operas “Dantons Tod” (1947) and “Der Prozeß” (1953) were premiered at the Salzburger Festspiele, “Der Besuch der alten Dame” in 1971 at the Wiener Staatsoper; further operas are “Der Zerrissene” (1964) and “Kabale und Liebe” (1976). From 1948 to 1951 he was a member of the board of the Salzburger Festspiele, taught from 1963 to 1973 at the Vienna Academy of Music and was president of the AKM from 1965 to 1970. In 2002 Yad Vashem honoured him as Righteous Among the Nations.
Gottfried von Einem
Composer
