Siegfried Mauser

Siegfried Mauser was born in Straubing (Bavaria). He studied piano with Rosl Schmid and Alfons Kontarsky. Through the influence of the Kontarskys in particular, Mauser became a champion of modernist and of contemporary piano music. In Munich and Salzburg, his academic subjects were musicology, philosophy and art history.

From 1981 to 1983 Mauser was lecturer in musicology and piano in Munich, subsequently professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg and of musicology in Salzburg (Austria). At Salzburg, he founded an Institute for Musical Hermeneutics.Wolfgang Gratzer, 'Nachgedanken zum Salzburger Institut für musikalische Hermeneutik' (2008), in: Beiträge zur Interpretationsästhetik und zur Hermeneutik-Diskussion, ed. Claus Bockmaier (Schriften zur musikalischen Hermeneutik 10) (Laaber: Laaber, 2009), pp. 17–20 From 2003 to 2014, Mauser was President of the Hochschule für Musik München.{{cite web| url = http://www.br-online.de/br-alpha/alpha-forum/alpha-forum-siegfried-mauser-gespraech-ID1227714140607.xml| title = Prof. Dr. Siegfried Mauser: Präsident der Musikhochschule München | date = 22 July 2010| publisher = Bayerischer Rundfunk| language = German| access-date = 22 April 2011}} He has been Director of the Music Section of the Bavarian Academy of Arts since 2002.[http://www.badsk.de/direkt.html Bayerische Akademie der schönen Künste, Direktorium]. Accessed on 16 July 2015 Mauser is on the faculty of the State Academy for Design Karlsruhe (Germany).https://www.hfg-karlsruhe.de/lehrende/lehrbeauftragte/dr-siegfried-mauser.html{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in 2011 made a case that "Siegfried Mauser, not [Alexander] Pereira, should have become new director of the [Salzburg] Festival".Peter Sloterdijk, Zeilen und Tage: Notizen 2008 — 2011 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2012): "man hätte Siegfried Mauser, nicht Pereira, zum neuen Leiter der Festspiele berufen [sollen]". In October 2015, the City of Salzburg appointed Mauser director of its festival Biennale.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stadt-salzburg.at/internet/service/aktuell/aussendungen/2015/siegfried_mauser_neuer_kuenstlerischer_l_432301.htm|title=Siegfried Mauser neuer künstlerischer Leiter der Salzburg Biennale – Stadt Salzburg|first=Cay|last=Bubendorfer|website=www.stadt-salzburg.at}} From October 2014 to June 2016, he served as Rector of the University Mozarteum Salzburg; Mauser had to withdraw from his position after charges against him had been substantiated in court.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/salzburg-nach-sexueller-noetigung-siegfried-mauser-verlaesst-das-mozarteum-1.3027400|title=Salzburg – Siegfried Mauser verlässt das Mozarteum|first=Christian|last=Rost|website=Süddeutsche.de|date=9 June 2016 }} A generous severance pay, however, was granted to him by the Mozarteum.Renate Graber, Golden Handshake am Mozarteum. In: Der Standard, Vienna, Austria, 29 November 2017

On 13 May 2016, the Munich District Court ("Amtsgericht München") sentenced Siegfried Mauser to one year and three months' jail on probation and a 25,000 Euro penalty for sexual harassment ("sexuelle Nötigung", § 177 German Criminal Law Code) of one of his colleagues, harpsichordist Christine Schornsheim,Christine Schornsheim, Mein Chef und ich. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 October 2018 at the Hochschule für Musik München.[http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/amtsgericht-mit-verlaub-sie-sind-ein-grapscher-1.2993297 Süddeutsche Zeitung "Mit Verlaub, Sie sind ein Grapscher"], accessed 14 May 2016 Following the verdict, Mauser suffered a nervous breakdown and received psychiatric treatment at the Christian Doppler Clinic within the Salzburg University Hospital.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sn.at/kultur/kunst/rektor-siegfried-mauser-verlaesst-die-universitaet-mozarteum-1372087|title=Rektor Siegfried Mauser verlässt die Universität Mozarteum|first=Salzburger|last=Nachrichten|website=www.sn.at|date=9 June 2016}} Subsequently, he appealed to the Munich Regional Court I ("Landgericht München I"). Here Mauser pleaded that judicial authorities had singled him out for a libertine way of life rather than criminal offence and urged "not to make" him "a victim of zeitgeist" ("kein Zeitgeist-Opfer").{{Cite web|url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/prozess-ex-musikhochschulrektor-bestreitet-sexuelle-noetigung-1.3421642|title=Ex-Musikhochschulrektor bestreitet sexuelle Nötigung|first=Andreas|last=Salch|website=Süddeutsche.de|date=16 March 2017 }} The Regional Court, though, essentially confirmed the District Court's verdict on 26 April 2017; the prison sentence was reduced to nine months on probation.Urteil: Erneut Bewährungsstrafe für Siegfried Mauser [http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.sex-vorwuerfe-gegen-musikprofessor-urteil-erneut-bewaehrungsstrafe-fuer-siegfried-mauser.68cf78bc-65a7-484a-bf4d-f9ae7c7ed5bf.html] Abendzeitung München, 26 April 2017. Already on 19 April 2017 further charges against Mauser had become public, one of (anal) rape and three of sexual harassment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-neue-anklage-gegen-ex-rektor-der-musikhochschule-1.3469576|title=Neue Anklage gegen Ex-Rektor der Musikhochschule|first=Susi|last=Wimmer|website=Süddeutsche.de|date=19 April 2017 }} Regarding these, Mauser was sentenced, on 16 May 2018, to two years and nine months in prison.

Mauser's case stirred public controversy in Germany. Taking issue with the District Court's verdict, poet and writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger claimed that a professor had taken revenge after Mauser had blocked (or at least not promoted) her career: "Ladies whose advances are rejected are like treacherous anti-tank mines. Their thirst for revenge should never be underestimated."Hans Magnus Enzensberger, 'Tückische Tellerminen', Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27 May 2016: "Damen, deren Avancen zurückgewiesen werden, gleichen tückischen Tellerminen. Ihre Rachsucht sollte man nie unterschätzen." In response, author {{Ill|Patrick Bahners|de}} argued that the jury had taken into account testimony by 16 witnesses; mere personal acquaintance, Bahners maintained, hardly placed Enzensberger and other friends of Mauser in a superior position to judge the events.Patrick Bahners, 'Tückische Tellerminen', Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 31 May 2016. In a similar vein: Christine Lemke-Matwey, 'Spezl unter Spezln. Warum Bayerns Intellektuelle der Justiz an den Karren fahren', Die Zeit no. 24, 2 June 2016 Peter Sloterdijk, in a spoken statement at the high-profile philosophy festival {{ill|phil.cologne|de}}[http://www.philcologne.de/startseite/ Phil.Cologne Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605165321/http://www.philcologne.de/startseite/ |date=5 June 2016 }}. Mauser served as one of the models for the character Mösenlechzner in Peter Sloterdijk's second, semi-autobiographical novel Das Schelling-Projekt [The Schelling Project] (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2016), first presented in extracts at Phil.Cologne 2016. on 21 May 2016, described the District Court's decision as a stark symptom of contemporary neo-Puritan ("neopuritanische") prudery, a social and political trend eroding the achievements of sexual liberation in Germany since the 1960s.In contrary spirit, Susanne Kübler, Culture Editor of Der Tagesanzeiger (Zurich, Switzerland), argued that Mauser's supporters held a view of women pre-dating the 1960s and 1970s emancipation: http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/diverses/Damen--gleichen-tueckischen-Tellerminen/story/22809338 Reacting to Mauser's case,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nmz.de/artikel/belastende-situation-fuer-die-muenchner-musikhochschule|title=Belastende Situation für die Münchner Musikhochschule | Ausgabe: 7/16 | nmz – neue musikzeitung|website=www.nmz.de|date=4 July 2016 }} the Hochschule für Musik München committed itself to stricter measures (both precautionary and in terms of sanctions) against sexual harassment.{{cite web| url = https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/prozess-mauser-muenchen-sexuelle-uebergriffe-musikhochschulen-100.html| title = Music Schools in Germany: Measures against Sexual Harassment | publisher = Bayerischer Rundfunk| language = German| access-date = 15 June 2016}}

• 2009: Austrian Cross of Honours for Science and Art
• 2010: Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany{{Cite web|url=http://www.bayern.de/terminhinweis-ministerpraesident-seehofer-haendigt-bayerischen-verdienstorden-und-bundesverdienstkreuz-an-verdiente-persoenlichkeiten-aus-2/|title=Press Communication, accessed 10 June 2016}}
• 2012: King Maximilian Medal of the Federal State of Bavaria{{Cite web |url=http://www.bayern.de/seehofer-zeichnet-zehn-verdiente-persoenlichkeiten-mit-dem-bayerischen-maximiliansorden-fuer-wissenschaft-und-kunst-aus/ |title=Press Communication of the Government of Bavaria, accessed 8 December 2012 |access-date=10 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209073256/http://www.bayern.de/seehofer-zeichnet-zehn-verdiente-persoenlichkeiten-mit-dem-bayerischen-maximiliansorden-fuer-wissenschaft-und-kunst-aus/ |archive-date=9 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}

• [http://website.musikhochschule-muenchen.de/de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118 Personal page at the Musikhochschule München] {{in lang|de}}
• [https://www.uni-mozarteum.at/people.php?p=50772 Personal page at the University Mozarteum Salzburg] {{in lang|de}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1954 births

Category:People from Straubing

Category:Contemporary classical music performers

Category:German pianists

Category:21st-century German pianists

Category:Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg

Category:Academic staff of the University of Music and Theatre Munich

Category:Rectors of universities in Austria

Category:Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Category:German prisoners and detainees