Heyer, Wilhelm (Ferdinand)

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Heyer, Wilhelm (Ferdinand)

Heyer, Wilhelm (Ferdinand), German patron of music; b. Cologne, March 30, 1849; d. there, March 20, 1913. A wealthy co-owner of the wholesale paper manufacturing firm Poensgen & Heyer, he was an enthusiastic amateur and was active in the musical affairs of Cologne in advisory capacities. In 1906 he established a historical musical museum in Cologne, in which he assembled more than 2, 600 instruments with accessories, about 20, 000 autographs of musicians, 3, 700 portraits, and a library of books about music, containing many rare eds. Georg Kinsky, curator of the museum from 1909, publ, an illustrated catalog of the Hey er collections. The museum was dissolved in 1927, and the instruments were acquired by the Univ. of Leipzig but sustained heavy damage during World War II.

Bibliography

G. Kinsky, Musikhistorisches Museum von W. H. in Coin: Katalog (Cologne, Vol. I, 1910; Vol. II, 1912; Vol. IV, 1916).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire