Ludwig Dietz

Ludwig Dietz was born on 27 July 1909 in Strasbourg (at that time German Empire, today France). The family later moved to Darmstadt, where he was a student of the composer Hermann Heiß, an early advocate of the twelve-tone technique. Ludwig Dietz finished school in 1928 and moved to Leipzig where he studied under Otto Weinreich (piano) and Max Hochkofler (conducting). He completed his studies in 1932.
At first Ludwig Dietz was kapellmeister and choir master at the Landestheater in Gotha, then at the Stadttheater in Göttingen and in 1934 he became conductor of the Akademische Orchestervereinigung (AOV) Göttingen, a position he held until 1937. Then Ludwig Dietz moved to Berlin and fulfilled an unknown musical position in the Wehrmacht. After World War II Ludwig Dietz returned to the AOV Göttingen as a choirmaster, but only a year later became music teacher at the Humboldtschule in Hannover. There he worked as a Studienrat until his retirement in 1980.
Beside this activity Ludwig Dietz founded the Jugendblasorchester Hannover in 1959 and was choir master of the Kleefelder Männergesangsverein since the early 1958. He expanded the Kleefeld choir society with a children's choir (in 1961), a youth choir (in 1964) and a mixed choir (in 1978). In 1972 he was named a "Chordirektor ADC".
Ludwig Dietz died on 30 August 1989 in Hannover (Germany).

According to the daughter of Ludwig Dietz, there are no known compositions by him. It seems that Ludwig Dietz focused on a career as a conductor and teacher and put no time into composing.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the "Trio for 2 violins and viola" by Ludwig Dietz. The work was composed in March 1929, at a time when he just had started his studies in Leipzig. The composition shows the use of twelve-tone technique which is no surprise as Hermann Heiß was the first teacher of Ludwig Dietz. That also means that this composition is quite an early example of the use of this technique.