During the 19th century, significant collections of musical instruments were established at major European conservatories. The Musée de la musique in Paris, now part of the Cité de la musique, preserves instruments that were originally assembled at the Conservatoire. Similarly, the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels developed from a collection founded at the local conservatory in 1877. Italian conservatories, such as the one in Milan, also owned valuable historical instruments. Berlin followed suit, albeit with a slight delay compared to its European neighbors: in 1888, a valuable collection was acquired for the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, forming the foundation of what is now the Musical Instrument Museum. For nearly half a century, the collection remained under the Hochschule’s stewardship until 1935, when the Nazi regime transferred it to the newly established State Institute for German Music Research—today’s State Institute for Music Research of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Architectural traces of the collection’s former home at the Hochschule remain visible in the music faculty building on Fasanenstraße. The skylight in the current chamber music hall and the separate entrance, which once allowed visitors to access the collection directly from the vestibule without passing through instructional areas, reflect its previous museological function. When the building was inaugurated in 1902, its design already included space for a museum-like facility.

As historian Alfred Berner noted, the initiative to establish the collection originated from a loan request from London. In March 1885, the chairman of the music committee of the upcoming International Inventions Exhibition assumed that Berlin’s Hochschule possessed suitable items for display—though it did not. This embarrassing realization spurred the Prussian Ministry of Culture to rectify the situation. In 1888, the state acquired a collection from Leipzig, assembled by cellist, publisher, and collector Paul de Wit, an expert in both historical and modern instruments and editor of the Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau. De Wit had opened his Museum of Historical Musical Instruments in 1887, and by early 1888, negotiations with Prussia had resulted in a successful acquisition, as evidenced by a letter from musicologist Philipp Spitta.

Spitta, biographer of Johann Sebastian Bach and music historian at the Hochschule, likely played a key role. After publishing the first volume of his Bach biography in 1873, he joined the Academy of Arts in Berlin as Second Secretary in 1875, assuming administrative responsibility for the Hochschule.

The initial de Wit collection included 240 objects. Additional donations and transfers—such as items from the Museum of Decorative Arts, contributions from Spitta, Joseph Joachim, and the Mendelssohn family—quickly expanded the holdings. The State Library's music department transferred Beethoven’s string quartet instruments, although Joachim later permanently loaned them to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. In 1890, the Prussian state acquired a second collection from de Wit, comprising 282 items, including a double-manual harpsichord reputed to have belonged to Johann Sebastian Bach.

The instruments’ first home in Berlin was the Bauakademie near the imperial palace at Schinkelplatz. Spitta appointed his student Oskar Fleischer as curator, who published a guide to the collection in 1892. The collection opened to the public the following year, with free access on Tuesdays and Fridays from 12 to 2 p.m.

In autumn 1902, the collection moved to the new Hochschule building on Fasanenstraße—though the space was soon inadequate, as the acquisition of César Snoeck’s collection from Ghent followed shortly thereafter. According to Fleischer, it was “the finest of all private collections” in the field. Funded by Kaiser Wilhelm II’s discretionary fund, the purchase required five railway cars to transport over 1,145 additional objects, as well as a specialized library, to Berlin. The combined holdings now totaled approximately 3,000 instruments. Despite some being stored in an unheated attic, the closer integration with the Hochschule allowed new educational uses. The 1909/10 annual report notes that Fleischer, as collection director, began offering lectures on individual instruments and instrument groups. In 1914/15, a repair workshop was established.

In 1914, art historian and musicologist Curt Sachs, a leading authority on musical instruments, submitted an expert report to the Prussian Ministry of Culture. He concluded that the collection presented no significant gaps in its coverage of European art music from 1650 to 1850, describing it as occupying a “unique position as the largest and richest museum of Western musical instruments in the world.” After earning his habilitation in 1919, Sachs took over the collection and published a detailed catalog in 1922. In the following year, the Hochschule also assumed responsibility for the Phonogram Archive, founded at the University of Berlin by Carl Stumpf and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel. This unique archive of global traditional music recordings, begun in 1900, became an important counterpart to the instrument collection. When the experimental broadcasting center was established in spring 1928, Hochschule deputy director Georg Schünemann emphasized that the collection would be crucial for the planned experiments.

Immediately after the Nazi rise to power, Sachs was dismissed due to his Jewish heritage and emigrated via Paris to New York. Schünemann, after being ousted as Hochschule director, briefly assumed leadership of the collection. He organized early music concerts using instruments from the holdings, with participation from Paul Hindemith. In February 1935, Schünemann was transferred to the music division of the Prussian State Library, and the collection was removed from the Hochschule’s authority.

The valuable instruments currently owned by the Universität der Künste, including a Stradivarius, do not originate from the earlier museum collection. They were instead bequeathed to the Hochschule in 1943 by Aloys Lautenschläger, a wealthy physician and art collector. His testament also generously supported the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin. Today, select students and faculty have the opportunity to play these exceptional instruments. Those wishing to view the historic collection begun in 1888, however, will find it housed in the modern museum building adjacent to the Berlin Philharmonic. The State Institute for Music Research, which administers the museum, honors its pre-1933 director with the Curt Sachs Hall.

Author: Dr. Dietmar Schenk, ehem. Leiter des Universitätsarchivs