History
   

It was exactly 111 years before the German reunification, that is, on October 3rd in 1879, 
when the tradition of the Liedertafel style choirs established by Friedrich Zelter in 1808 
found its way to the market town of Dachau: 38 friends of choral singing founded the 
all-male choral club they called “Liedertafel Dachau”. Even though the name 
“Liedertafel” (a free translation would be “song and feast”) makes one think that the 
sumptuous meal would, at least, be as important as the songs sung after dinner, 
every potential member of the choir had to submit himself to a qualifying test held by 
the choirmaster, a fact that leaves no doubt that the club's aims were devoted to art. 
Only two months after the founding assembly, the 31 active singers, conducted by 
Jakob Fromberger, appeared on stage for the first time. During the following 
years, the Liedertafel's members were continuously increasing in number; the 
association being open to all social strata and professions. The register of members 
lists barons and counts as well as lawyers, doctors, artisans and simple workers. 
But there were also visual artists such as the painters Hermann Stockmann, 
Felix Bürgers, August Pfaltz, Julius Beda and Hans von Hayek and the sculptors 
Walter von Ruckteschell and Wilhelm Neuhäuser who were looking for leisure and 
edification through choral singing, and we may well believe that the author 
Ludwig Thoma was thinking about his own experience in Dachau when he was 
describing a choir in his “Brat Stories” (“Lausbubengeschichten”). And we must 
not forget other prominent members, amongst them the former Bavarian Minister for 
Culture, Josef Schwalber, one of the founding fathers of the German Basic 
Constitutional Law, Dachau's former mayor Hans Zauner and the unforgettable 
Prelate Pfanzelt.

During the last peaceful decades of the 19th century, the young Liedertafel had plenty 
of time to take root. The association staged spring, winter and fund raising concerts, 
Christmas parties, balls and outings, provided the appropriate music for special 
holidays and, on the occasion of special birthdays, honoured members as well as
the city's dignitaries with serenades. There were also frequent participations in 
supra-regional events, and the Liedertafel became a member of the Isar-Ilm-Sängerkreis 
that had been founded in 1912. Due to the fact that most active singers had to 
report for duty during the First World War (four members died in action), social life at 
the choir stagnated, but the year 1919 saw the beginnings of a new artistic chapter in the 
Liedertafel's history. A bigger orchestra conducted by a Mr Zaska as well as Dachau's 
Association for Music and Drama, whose mixed choir had specialized in theatrical 
performances, joined the Liedertafel. According to the local paper Amper-Bote,
this association made it possible to “not only cultivate the art of singing more 
intensively, but also to feature something extraordinary”. During the twenties of the 
last century, the reinforced Liedertafel performed, amongst others, the operettas 
“The Merry Peasant” by Leo Fall, “Das Glücksmädel” (“The Lucky Girl”)by Robert Stolz 
and “The Laughing Groom” by Edmund Eysler, all performances taking place at the 
then Katholisches Gesellschaftshaus, nowadays called the Ludwig-Thoma-Haus.

During the Third Reich, the Liedertafel's independence was challenged several times. 
They  accepted the renaming of the Committee with bad grace, the new name being 
“Vereinsführer”.  Shortly after Hitler's takeover of power, however, the idea of 
transforming the Liedertafel into an association affiliated to the Party was rejected 
unanimously as well as the idea of joining the KdF (*"Strength Through Joy”) ring. 
In 1934, when Dachau's Arbeitergesangsverein (Workmen's Choir Association) was 
threatened by dissolution, its singers were integrated into the Liedertafel, the female 
singers having to accept that there was no permanent mixed choir. In 1941, the KdF 
called upon the people to form national socialist choral associations, causing 
Dachau's singer and alderman Franz Klug to send a letter to the Mayor: in his opinion, 
there were better things to do than to disturb the population. During the 
Second World War, the Liedertafel lost again four members at the front.

After the end of the Second World War, the American Military Government's laws decreed 
a short compulsory break in the choir's activities. As nobody knew if and when the 
association would be allowed to continue with, the newly founded Dachauer Volkschor's 
offer to join the choir was accepted in 1946. In 1951, however, a political argument resulted 
in a break-up. It was during a meeting on June the 22nd – similar to the situation in 1879 at 
the Gasthaus Hörhammer – when 36 singers decided to break up with the Volkschor and to 
revive the Liedertafel with Martin Windele as President and Hans Haegler as choirmaster.
From then on, the Liedertafel followed its own independent paths, the repertoire being 
increased consequently. Between 1952 and 1957, a smaller choir which called itself first 
Doppelquartett (Double Quartet), later Kammerchor (Chamber Choir), dedicated itself to 
sophisticated choral music. A permanent mixed choir, which had been foreseen by the 
statutes but only performed sporadically due to the men's elitist attitude which accepted
women only as passive members, established finally under choirmaster 
Paul Peter Winkler and especially under Martin Gerer (a short historical anecdote: 
the founding fathers foresaw that the active female singers had to be either widows or 
singles – in plain English: married women weren't allowed to join the association!). 
Finally, in 1966, the all-male choir of the Liedertafel coexisted with a mixed choir. 
In 1974, Martin Gerer created a third choir, the Rhythmus-Choir which existed till 2001 and 
became famous for its repertoire of operettas, musicals and especially the gospel masses 
which were performed in Nürnberg, Ingolstadt and Reit im Winkl etc. At the end of his 
eighteen years as a choirmaster, which saw the recording of two tapes as well as the 
transmission of seven songs for the radio programme “Bayerische Chöre singen”, 
the association's centennial celebrations and the bestowal of the Zelter decoration by the 
then German President Walter Scheel, Martin Gerer was appointed Honorary Choirmaster 
of the Liedertafel Dachau.

During the last decades, it was, above all, thanks to the initiative of the two committee 
members Ernst Nitsche and Hermann Windele which made it possible for the Liedertafel 
to weave bonds with several choirs from Germany and from abroad. The Liedertafel even 
paid return visits to some of these choirs, amongst them Klagenfurt's choir of the Kärntner 
Landsmannschaft, Austria, Bad Salzig's “Frohsinn”Choir, and the Monadnock Chorus 
of Peterborough, USA. For many others, especially from the USA, the choir is organizing 
regularly concerts in Dachau, which are always followed by get-togethers, thus winning 
new friends from all over the world for the City of Dachau.

It was during the presidency of Hermann Windele, who was appointed honorary member
after having handed over his office to Brigitte Hinterscheid, that the Liedertafel took a great
leap forward in the development of its musical skills due to Choirmaster Peter Frank, who
took over from Arno Reichenberger and Karl Grimm in 1987. With a sharp eye for necessary
changes, the new choirmaster forged new paths by introducing the choir to the great choral
works. Since 1989, the Liedertafel Dachau has performed Marc Antoine Charpentier's
Te Deum and other sacred music composed by Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Antonio Salieri and Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as the Zigeunerlieder by Johannes Brahms,
the Oratorios The Creation and The Seasons by Joseph Haydn, Mozart's Requiem and
Davide penitente, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Saint John’s Passion, Mendelssohn
Bartholdy's Oratorio Elias and Gioachino Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, all in the
Renaissance Banqueting Hall of Dachau Palace. On the occasion of a Passion Concert at
Heilig Kreuz Church, the Liedertafel performed sacred music written by César Franck and
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. In 2003, the choir participated with Johannes Brahms's
A German Requiem in a Memorial Concert of Dachau's choirs which took place at the Dachau
Concentration Camp Memorial Site. On the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of the City of
Dachau in 2005, Peter Frank conducted Dachau's choirs (amongst others, the Liedertafel)
performing Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in the Court Garden. But the Liedertafel's repertoire
includes also a cappella works, for example music dating from German Romanticism as well as
sacred choral music.  In 2004, the year of its 125th anniversary, the Liedertafel Dachau was
awarded the Kron-Maus-Culture Prize.

In April 2010, the Liedertafel went on a 10-day tour to Ireland on the occasion of Cork’s
Fleischmann-Festival which took place to commemorate the successful careers of two
members of the Fleischmann family, whose roots lie in Dachau, old bonds existing between
the musicians and the Liedertafel. With a mass as well as several concerts (at Muckross House,
Killarney, amongst others) and appearances, all under conductor Peter Frank, the choir
contributed to the “Aloys Fleischmann Centenary” as well as to the 56th Cork International
Coral Festival, where the Liedertafel joined the Fleischmann Choir in the performance of
Professor Aloys Fleischmann’s Song of the Provinces.
On the occasion of the Fleischmann Choir’s return visit in October 2010, almost all of
Aloys Fleischmann’s grandchildren came from abroad to attend several concerts, with the
Irish Choir and the Liedertafel either performing jointly or taking turns in a mass, concerts
at St. Jakob’s Church and Dachau Palace. Ruth Fleischmann emphasized that they all were
very moved by the encounter with their family’s roots and the honours bestowed upon their
grandfather during Aloys-Fleischmann-Week in Dachau.

Ingrid Zellner, July 2010
Translation: Brigitte Wirth, July 2010