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The Berlin Academy of Music
The Academy for Church and School Music
The Music Department at the Central Institute for Education and Instruction
The Kroll Opera
From 1923 on, music schools were founded as institutions to furnish a broad general education. Every music school had its own concept and set up its own course of instruction. All shared the fundamental philosophy of the German Jugendmusikbewegung, or youth music movement. The first music school was established in Berlin-Charlottenburg and directed by Fritz Jöde, the central figure of the youth music movement.
A focus of Kestenberg's music policy was the comprehensive reform of the Berlin Academy of Music, and the reforms and appointments he carried out substantially augmented the institution's worldwide reputation. Moreover, the newly established Seminar for Music Education trained music teachers, their ranks for the first time including women, to provide elementary school instruction.
In addition, Kestenberg expanded the Berlin Academy for Church Music into an Academy for Church and School Music. The newly introduced course of study in "school music" led to the diploma - state qualification to teach in secondary schools. The first seven examinations for this diploma were conducted in Kestenberg's presence.
Both institutions, the Academy of Music and the Academy for Church and School Music, were forerunners of today's department of music at the Berlin University of the Arts.
The Music Department at the Central Institute for Education and Instruction made it possible for Kestenberg also to become active at the level of the Republic. It organized the first School Music Weeks (Schulmusikwochen); from 1921 to 1928, these offered further education for music teachers throughout Germany. They have continued, since 1955, as the Federal School Music Weeks of the Association of German School Musicians (Bundesschulmusikwochen vom Verband Deutscher Schulmusiker - VDS). Since 1988, the Kestenberg Medal in recognition of "special contributions to the fostering of school music education" is awarded biennially at these sessions.
The Kroll Opera (formerly located opposite the Reichstag building, now the seat of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, between Paul-Löbe-Allee, Scheidemannstraße and Großer Querallee) was where the avant-garde of the German music and opera world came together between 1927 and 1931. Artists such as the conductor Otto Klemperer, the composers Arnold Schönberg, Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky, the director Natalja Saz, the set designers Ewald Dülberg and Llaszlo Moholy Nagy and others left their mark on this cultural phase, which the director Hans Curjel in 1928 described as the "Krolloper experiment".
This experiment failed, first financially, then politically: significant factors were the economic crisis, shortages of space due to the opera's temporary closure, and the lack of acceptance of the performances on the part of the working people who, through the Volksbühnenverein [People's Theatre Association], were the intended audience. In the end, the financial failure offered those opposed to the project the opportunity to politically storm the Kroll Opera, which was closed in 1931 as the National Socialists were ascending to power.
Cf. (German and French): http://www.krolloper-berlin-paris.com/html/das_projekt.html
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