Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934)

No photo.

Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934).

• Profession: school teacher, opera critic Neue Hamburger Zeitung.
• Residences: Hamburg
• Relation to Mahler: Music and bicycle enthusiast.
• Address: Bundesstrasse No. 9/IV, Hamburg. Mahler lived across the street: 1892-1892 House Gustav Mahler Hamburg – Bundesstrasse No. 10/III.
• Correspondence with Mahler: Yes.
  1. 31-03-1893 Year 1893 Hamburg: Business card for Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). About meeting at 1893 Concert Hamburg 31-03-1893.
  2. 23-04-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Postcard to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). ‘When will velocipede lessons commence?’
  3. 00-05-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Postcard to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). From the 1895-1895 House Gustav Mahler Hamburg – Oberstrasse No. 87. ‘When is our first excursion?’ April or May.
  4. 00-05-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Postcard to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). From the 1895-1895 House Gustav Mahler Hamburg – Oberstrasse No. 87. ‘I have still not decided on a bicycle’, ‘I have heard that English bicycles (Premier for ex.) only cost 250 marks’ ‘Could you call me on Sunday?’ April of May.
  5. 00-05-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Postcard to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). From the 1895-1895 House Gustav Mahler Hamburg – Oberstrasse No. 87. ‘My bicycle is being assembled tomorrow’, ‘Shall I see you again’. “I go for a ride each morning at 8.30!’. April of May.
  6. 30-05-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Letter to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). ‘I am leaving tomorrow’. ‘Yours most sincerely, Gustav Mahler, Bicy-Clerk and Road Hogger’. 
  7. 31-05-1895 Year 1895 Hamburg: Postcard to Wilhelm Zinne (1858-1934). Before 31-05-1895. 
• Born: 00-00-1858 Hanover, Germany.
• Died: 00-00-1934 Hamburg, Germany. Obituary 26-07-1934.
• Buried: 00-00-0000

Carl Wilhelm Zinne.

Admirer of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and enthusiastoc cyclist. Corresponded with Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).

Wilhelm Zinne hearded Mahler for the first time at 1892 Concert Hamburg 15-04-1892.

The communication of Mahler with Zinne deal with the purchase of a bicycle and the cycle trips they took together. Bicycles had been manufactured in Germany since 1881. A bicycle was called Velociped at the time.

In a letter to Hermann Behn (1857-1927) of 05-02-1895, Gustav Mahler describes him as ‘critic of my Frankfurt period’.

Mahler lived in 1895-1895 House Gustav Mahler Hamburg – Oberstrasse No. 87 at the time: Bicycle purchase and first driving lessons from Wilhelm Zinne.

Two possible bicycle types (1895 Model England):

1. A ‘Pyramidal’ Nr. 41153. Made by H. Reeck GmbH, Hohe Bleichen No. 40 Hths. P. 36, Shop: Admiralitatsstrasse Ni. 81 or
2. A Seidel & Naumann (Dresden).

Bicycle owned by the Gustav Mahler Vereinigung Hamburg (1895 Model England).

Mahler had his bicycle forwarded to Steinbach am Attersee, where he was holidaying, and cycled through the Salzkammergut in the summer of Year 1896. Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858-1921) mentioned several trips to Untersach and an outing from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden. He also visited Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) in Ischl on his bicycle (07-1896, Year 1896).

Mahler addressed him initially as ‘Dear Herr Zinne’ and finally as ‘Dear Friend’.

An essay by Zinne, published in 1925, gives a concise description of Mahler as an operatic conductor in Hamburg. He calls Mahler ‘a hothead and an honest, pure artist of genius’.

Zinne made his correspondence available to Alma Mahler, but almost certainly after the letters were published in 1924 (second impression 1925), because Alma Mahler wrote to Zinne from Breitenstein on 16-07-1926: ‘the cards are delightful in their cheerful, harmless tone, which Mahler adopted with few correspondents and very rarely. They will be included in a later edition of Mahler’s letters, i.e. in the next’.  It was not to be.