Max Trapp

Who was Max Trapp?

Hermann Emil Alfred Max Trapp was a German composer and teacher. A prestigious figure in the Berlin cultural scene during the 1930s, Trapp, amongst others in the Nazi influenced scene, was regularly invited to contribute to concert programs and competitions.

Trapp was born in Berlin and attended the Berlin Hochschule für Musik where he studied under Paul Juon and Ernő Dohnányi. After the completion of his studies, he did not have regular employment and worked as an itinerant pianist. In 1920, however, he obtained a post as lecturer at the Berlin conservatoire, becoming a professor there in 1926. His best-known pupils include Josef Tal, Saburō Moroi and Günter Raphael.

Between 1926 and 1930, Trapp offered a master class in composition at the music conservatoire in Dortmund. In 1932 he joined the NSDAP. In June 1933, Trapp joined the National Socialist movement through an "Appeal to the Creative". In 1934, he stepped down from the Berlin conservatoire and became the director of a masterclass in composition at the Berlin Academy of Arts. Here from 1936-9 he taught Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. In 1940, Trapp received the national composition prize. From 1950 to 1953, he was a teacher at Berlin's Städtischen Konservatorium.