History of the Institute

The University of Hamburg, which celebrated its 100th anniversary and was granted the status of “University of Excellence“ in 2019, is one of the largest institutes of musicology in Germany. Five professors, 23 research assistants and numerous other colleagues represent the subject in research, teaching and administration.

But every beginning is difficult. In Hamburg, despite various efforts by individual researchers, it initially took 30 years until the institute was officially founded in 1949. Since then, the institute has been restructured several times in terms of personnel and content, including the division of historical and systematic musicology into two independent institutes in 2013.

In the winter semester of 2016/2017, students from the Institutes for Systematic and Historical Musicology devoted themselves to the history of their institutes in a project seminar. The results of their research can be found on the blog History of the Institutes for Historical and Systematic Musicology at the University of Hamburg. „Geschichte der Institute für Historische und Systematische Musikwissenschaft an der Universität Hamburg“.