* 1898, † 1944,

       He was born on 1.1.1898 in Cieszyn, son of the soldier Maksymilian and Malvina, of the house of Billitzer. His father, who came from a family of Jewish factory owners from Igława, had already been christened in a Catholic church. Viktor was born in a house on Górna Street, near the barracks where his father served. He attended primary school in Cieszyn and was brought up by his mother, with whom he moved to Vienna in 1909. There he finished secondary school, at the same time as studying music theory under Dr. Josef Pohlaneur. After the war, he trained as a pianist under Edward Steuermann and enrolled in the training school for composers run by Arnold Schönberg. In May 1919, after marrying his Jewish wife Martha Koref, he relocated to her home town of Prague where among other occupations he was a conductor in the New German Theatre. It was during this time that Ullmann composed his first works, including “The Schönberg Variations” whose preview at the 1929 Geneva Music Festival attracted critical attention to his talent. From 1929 – 31, he worked as a composer and conductor in Zurich, and then for the next two years ran an anthroposophic bookshop in Stuttgart. He returned to Prague in 1933, where he worked as a musical pedagogue and journalist, while continuing to compose.
       After Hitler occupied Bohemie and Moravia, Ullmann was subject to the same restrictions as all those of Jewish extraction. In 1942, he and his family were deported to the concentration camp in Terezin, where the Nazis sent most Czech Jews. Here he carried on his musical activities, composing works which friends saved from destruction. On 16.10.1944 he was transported to Auschwitz where he perished in a gas chamber two days later.
Viktor Ullmann is currently regarded as one of the world’s greatest composers of contemporary music.

www.viktorullmannfoundation.org.uk