By MARY CONSEUR
Southbury resident Martha Hinrichsen, an owner/shareholder in the world-renowned music publishing company C.F. Peters, has good reason to be proud. In October, she returned to her family roots in Leipzig, Germany, to give a speech at the re-opening ceremony of her family’s business, which had been confiscated by the Nazis 76 years ago.
Hinrichsen’s story is one of triumph and tragedy, of affluence and financial ruin, of perseverance and despair. The C.F. Peters Corp. and the building at Talstrasse 10 in Leipzig in which it is housed, date from the 19th century. The Hinrichsen family acquired the business in 1863 and ran it successfully until Nov. 9, 1938, “Krystallnacht,” when the Nazis confiscated it and destroyed much of the sheet music and many musical instruments. The Nazis then executed a forced sale of some 40 works in the Hinrichsens’ art collection; only eight of them have been restituted since then.
The Hinrichsens were well-known in Leipzig, not only for their business acumen, but also for their philanthropy. They funded the first college for women in Leipzig. They donated to their city a collection of some 2,600 musical instruments. They opened the first music library that contained original manuscripts from famous composers. And they financially supported many composers, including the Norwegian Edvard Grieg, who kept a room in their apartment, located on the second and third floors of Talstrasse 10.
In 1936, Hinrichsen’s father, Henri Hinrichsen, immigrated to the U.S. to escape the Nazis. In New York, he opened the American branch of C.F. Peters. Henri’s brother Max immigrated to London, where he opened another branch of C.F. Peters. The youngest child in the family, Robert, was sent to England in the hope he would find safe haven there.
Most of the members of the Hinrichsen family who chose to remain in mainland Europe did not fare as well. Martha’s grandfather and her uncle Paul were gassed at Auschwitz. Her uncle Hans died of typhoid fever in a concentration camp in France. Her aunt Charlotte was sent to a concentration camp, but was mercifully rescued by a Christian organization. Martha’s grandmother died of diabetes because the Nazis refused her medical treatment. Martha’s aunt Ilse, though interned in five different concentration camps, somehow managed to survive and rebuild her life.
“I had no idea what happened to my father’s relatives until I was 15 years old,” Hinrichsen said. “My friends at school finally told me the truth. I didn’t even know my father was Jewish. I had been brought up in the Presbyterian Church because my mother was Presbyterian. I just knew that I was not allowed to talk about World War II or ask any questions about my father’s relatives.”
Following the Nazi takeover in 1938, C.F. Peters was again confiscated after World War II, this time by the Communists (Leipzig is located in what became East Germany.) The Hinrichsens’ building at Talstrasse 10 in Leipzig fell into disrepair and suffered severe water damage. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a physician purchased the building and spent the next 10 years meticulously restoring it to its original grandeur.
Today C.F. Peters Corp. in Germany is once again owned by the Hinrichsen family and housed in its original building at Talstrasse 10 in Leipzig. “My journey has often been long, and sometimes tedious, emotionally painful, and expensive,” said Hinrichsen, “but I am proud and privileged to be a part of this legacy.”
