Walther Hermann Vetter (10 May 1891 – 1 April 1967) was a German musicologist. From 1946 to 1958, he was professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Life Born in Berlin, Vetter, Lutheran, was the son of the Kapellmeister Johannes Vetter (1860–1928), a founding member of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1897 the family moved to Greiz in the Principality of Reuss-Greiz (today: Thuringia), where the father founded an orchestra. Vetter first attended the and then, until the Abitur, the Latina (Old school) of the Francke Foundations in Halle an der Saale. From 1910, he studied musicology, art history and philosophy at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and conducting at the Leipzig Conservatory (with Hans Sitt, Stephan Krehl and Richard Hofmann). In 1914 he passed the conducting examination. During World War I, he served in an army music corps (1914/15) and as an army soldier among others at Hartmannswillerkopf and before Verdun on the Western Front (1915–1918).
He then continued his studies of musicology at the University of Halle. He also studied art history (with Wilhelm Waetzoldt) as well as philosophy and psychology (with Theodor Ziehen and Felix Krueger). From his academic teacher Hermann Abert, he received inspiration for his later research work, which ranged from music of ancient Greece to the composers of the 19th century. In 1920 he was awarded a Dr. phil. at the University of Leipzig with the dissertation Die Arie bei Christoph Willibald Gluck. After his studies, Vetter worked briefly as a music critic for the Hallische Zeitung, in 1921 he changed to a teacher at an adult education centre, music editor of the and music advisor to the Senate of the Free City of Danzig. In 1927, he received his habilitation from Max Schneider with the thesis Über Ausgewählte Kapitel aus der Entwicklungsgeschichte und Ästhetik des ein- und mehrstimmigen deutschen Kunstliedes im 17. Jahrhundert at the University of Breslau for Musicology and then received a private lectureship there. In 1928 he was appointed professor and provisional director of the musicological institute in Halle. From 1929, he was lecturer at the University of Hamburg.
Although he initially continued to work after the Machtergreifung by the Nazis, his re-habilitation attempt to Hamburg in 1934 was unsuccessful.Peter Petersen: Musicology in Hamburg 1933 to 1945. In Eckhart Krause, Ludwig Huber, (ed.): Everyday university life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933–1945 (Hamburg Contributions to the History of Science. Vol. 3). part 2: Faculty of Philosophy, Law and Political Science. Reimer, Berlin among others 1991, , here In mid-1934, Vetter was offered a non-permanent extraordinary professorship at the University of Breslau, where Arnold Schmitz held the chair at the time. In 1936, Vetter succeeded Hans Engel as head of the musicology department and in 1939 he was appointed as a regular director at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald. In the course of the appointment process in Berlin, in which he was named third after Friedrich Blume and Rudolf Gerber, the local Gaudozentenbundsführer Willi Willing described him as a "musicologist of medium format".Burkhard Meischein: "The first musicological chair in Germany". Events around the succession of Arnold Schering 1941–1946. In Rüdiger vom Bruch (ed.): The Berlin University in the NS period. Vol 2: Departments and Faculties. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, , , here: pp. 168f. In April 1941 he went to the newly founded occupied Poland and National Socialist-oriented: The "Reichsuniversität Posen" 1941–1945. prehistory, National Socialist foundation, resistance and Polish new beginning (Symbolae Slavicae. Vol. 29). Lang, Frankfurt among others 2010, , p. 9f. , where he received a civil servant extraordinary ordinariate and became director of the Musicological Institute.Harry Waibel: Servant of many masters. Former NS functionaries in the SBZ/GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. o. 2011, , }. He probably owed this position to Herman-Walther Frey, speaker on university matters in the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture.Oliver Bordin: Herman-Walther Frey's significance for science policy – a sketch. In Michael Custodis (ed.): Herman-Walter Frey. Ministerial Councillor, scientist, networker. NS-University Policy and the Consequences (Münster Writings on Contemporary Music. Vol. 2). Waxmann, Münster among others. 2014, , , here ; cf. Michael Custodis: Continuity and Loyalty – Frey's Academic Network. In Michael Custodis (ed.): Herman-Walter Frey. Ministerial Councillor, scientist, networker. NS university policy and the consequences. Münster among others. 2014, . For Frey's denazification proceedings in 1947, Vetter then issued his acquaintance with a Persil Certificate.Friedrich Geiger: Podium discussion on the influence of Herman-Walther Frey on musicology . In Michael Custodis (ed.): Herman-Walter Frey. Ministerial Councillor, scientist, networker. NS-University Policy and the Consequences (Münster Writings on Contemporary Music. Vol. 2). Waxmann, Münster among others 2014, , , here: p. 145. Only at the end of the Second World War, in January 1945,Anselm Gerhard: Musikwissenschaft. In Frank-Rutger Hausmann (ed.): The role of the humanities in the Third Reich 1933–1945 (Writings of the Historical College. Colloquia 53). Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, , , here . Vetter became the Volkssturm (banns I) have been called up. Most recently he served as clerk of a supply regiment in the Wehrmacht.
Already in December 1933 he publicly admitted his leaning to the Nazis, although he never became a NSDAP party member. The musicologist Hans Huchzermeyer (2012) criticised Vetter for his "National Socialist and anti-Jewish statements" during the Nazi era. His lecture on Folk characteristics in Mozart's operas from 1938 can be taken as an example.Annkatrin Dahm: The Topos of the Jews. Studies on the history of anti-Semitism in German-language musical literature ( Jewish Religion, History and Culture. Vol. 7). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, , pp. 345f. Vetter was a member of the National Socialist Teachers League (1 May 1936 to 15 October 1937),Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945. 2nd editinon, Kopf, Kiel 2009, , p. 7856. in National Socialist Motor Corps. (1939 to 1941) and in National Socialist People's Welfare.Henrik Eberle: "A valuable instrument". The University of Greifswald under National Socialism. Böhlau Verlag, Köln u. a. 2015, , . Furthermore, until 1941 he was the municipal music commissioner for Greifswald. In 1942 he found himself in the NS-Dozentenbund.Burkhard Meischein: "Der erste musikwissenschaftliche Lehrstuhl Deutschlands". Vorgänge um die Nachfolge Arnold Scherings 1941–1946. In Rüdiger vom Bruch (ed.): Die Berliner Universität in der NS-Zeit. Volume 2: Fachbereiche und Fakultäten. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, , , here: .
After the end of the war in May 1945, Vetter took up residence in the Soviet Occupation Zone, later the GDR, and in March 1946, after a year-long appointment procedure, was offered the full chair of musicology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, which had been vacant since the death of Arnold Schering in 1941. Vetter's research focused on various genres and epochs of historical musicology. He wrote studies and systematic manuals on ancient music, on Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert and Christoph Willibald Gluck. He also published encyclopedia articles for the Pauly-Wissowa (from 1927), the Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (from 1949) and the Neue Deutsche BiographieAuthor: Walther Vetter, deutsche-biographie.de, retrieved 23 August 2020. From 1948 to 1961, he was co-editor of Die Musikforschung, from 1956 to 1966, together with Rudolf Eller. Editor of the German Yearbook of Musicology. From 1948 to 1958, he was vice president and from 1961 honorary member of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, from 1950 to 1960, board member of the . He became a member of the German Bach Committee, which was constituted in 1949.Bettina Hinterthür: Noten nach Plan. The music publishers in the SBZ, DDR. Censorship system, central planned economy and German-German relations until the early 1960s (Contributions to the history of the company. Vol. 23). Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, , . In 1950, he took over the direction of the scientific Bach conference in Leipzig. From 1952, he was then a member of the editorial board of the New Bach Edition, remaining until his death.Johann Sebastian Bach Institute, Bach Archive Leipzig. (ed.): The new Bach edition 1954–2007. A documentary. Presented at the conclusion of Johann Sebastian Bach's new edition of all his works. Bärenreiter, Kassel among others 2007, p. 28f. He was also an advisory board for musicology at the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education (East Germany).Richard Baum, Friedrich Blume, Walter Gerstenberg: Notice to all members of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung. In Die Musikforschung 15 (1962) 4, , here . He retired emeritus in 1958. His academic students included among others Kurt Gudewill (PhD, Hamburg 1935)PhDs with Walther Vetter, institutsgeschichte-muwi.blogs.uni-hamburg.de, retrieved 23 August 2020. and Herbert Kelletat (Habilitation, Poznan 1944).Hans Huchzermeyer: Contributions to the life and work of the church musician Ernst Maschke (1867–1940) and to the history of the institutes of church music in Königsberg, Prussia (1824–1945). Dissertation, University of Paderborn 2012, . From 1949 to 1951 Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht was . Assistant Vetters in Berlin.Albrecht Riethmüller: Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht in memory. In Die Musikforschung 53 (2000) 1, p. 1-3, here p. 1.
Vetter, who was a member of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Germany, was highly esteemed in his field in the GDR.Martin Geck, Peter Schleuning: "Written on Bonaparte". Beethoven's "Eroica". Revolution, reaction, reception. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, , . He thus received the National Prize of the GDR in 1957 III. class for science and technology