Paul Hirsch (bibliophile)

Paul Adolf Hirsch (24 February 1881 in Frankfurt am Main – 25 November 1951 in Cambridge, England)[1] was a German industrialist.

After completing school, Paul Hirsch entered the family business, training in England and France, which also broadened his acquaintance with musicians and collectors.

[5] Hirsch, an accomplished violinist who had studied with Adolf Rebner,[1] took a keen interest in publications concerning all aspects of music—performance, history and theory.

[6] In 1922 Hirsch hired musicologist Kathi Meyer (later Meyer-Baer) as a research assistant and opened the library to the public two days a week.

The visitor register for the years 1923 to 1935 lists many people well known in Frankfurt's musical circles, including Licco Amar, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, conductor and music critic Artur Holde, Erich Itor Kahn, pianist Emma Lübbecke-Job, singer Carl Rehfuss, Ludwig Rottenberg, Hermann Scherchen, Mátyás Seiber and Helmut Walcha.

He had some forty operas by Lulli, all Mozart's in the first editions issued in full score in all important countries, and some Rossini rarities, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il Guglielmo Tell, L'Inganno felice, Matilde Shabran, Maometto secondo, Mosè in Egitto, Ricciardo e Zoraide, Semiramide, all printed in handsome oblong folio by lithography by Ratti & Cencetti in Rome, between c. 1816 and 1825.

[note 5] Equally impressive were the sumptuously bound folio scores of nine operas and ballets by Richard Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos (in both versions), Der Bürger als Edelmann, Elektra, Feuersnot, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Guntram, Josephs Legende, Der Rosenkavalier, and Salome.

The same restriction had originally applied to the full score of the younger Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus, one of Hirsch's most cherished operas, and to another rarity, Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla.Between 1922 and 1934 Hirsch issued facsimile editions of some library items, edited by Johannes Wolf and published by Martin Breslauer.

The Bibliophile Societies came under the control of the Reich Chamber of Culture, where Jews could no longer hold board positions.

[13] Despite efforts by Frankfurt mayor Friedrich Krebs to prevent export or to confiscate the music library,[1] Hirsch was able to transfer almost all of it to Cambridge in several train cars.