Dr. med.; Dr. phil. Hugo Daffner

Hugo Daffner was the only child of the retired medical officer Dr. Franz Daffner and his wife, Josefine. After graduating from secondary school, he attended the Munich State Academy of Music and at the same time pursued training as a concert pianist. In 1904 he completed his doctoral dissertation on the development of the piano concerto. In the years that followed, Hugo Daffner worked as a music editor in newspapers in Königsberg, East Prussia and in Dresden. In 1914 he re-established the Weimar-based German Dante Society, which had been dissolved due to a paucity of members. He was very active in the society for many years, as chairman, secretary, treasurer, and yearbook editor. During World War I Hugo Daffner studied medicine and earned his second doctorate in 1920. He lived in Berlin from 1922 to 1933, and was listed in the city’s medical register. It is not possible to determine from existing sources whether he had a specialization. In the mid-1920s Hugo Daffner likely sought treatment in a clinic, probably for manic depression. He returned to Munich in 1933, where he worked from his home in Ickstattstraße 17, solely composing music. His career and lifestyle as a composer were a thorn in the side of the National Socialist authorities. At the prompting of the Munich City District Welfare Association, Hugo Daffner was committed to the Dachau concentration camp on December 20, 1935, with the aim of “making him aware of his duties to the national community… through strictly regulated work and tough discipline.” He died there on October 9, 1936. The exact circumstances surrounding his death are unknown. (text Ruppert Renz , editor C. Fritsche, translation T. Axelrod)