Georg L Kinsky

Georg Ludwig Kinsky (Marienwerder, West Prussia, 1882 – Berlin, 1951) was a German musicologist whose work on instruments, manuscripts and early editions set standards for later research. Although he was self-taught in music, his career centred on libraries, museums and the antiquarian book trade.

After a classical education in his home town, he moved to Berlin in 1898 and worked in a music shop and in a second-hand bookshop. In 1908 he was appointed assistant to A. Klopfermann at the Prussian State Library and, the following year, took over the direction of Wilhelm Heyer's Musikhistorisches Museum in Cologne. There he catalogued and expanded the collection and organised lectures and concerts featuring historical instruments until the museum was dissolved in 1927. Between 1921 and 1932 he taught musicology at the University of Cologne, where he gained his doctorate in 1925 with a thesis on double-reed instruments. After 1932 he worked privately. In 1944, under the Nazi regime, his house, library and collection were confiscated, and he was sentenced to one year of forced labour. Already ill, he settled in Berlin in 1945 and worked on a thematic catalogue of Beethoven's works until his death.

His most lasting contribution lies in his method of describing and classifying instruments and in his study of early manuscripts and printed materials. His catalogues of the Heyer Museum, with their meticulous introductions and abundant illustrations, and the work Geschichte der Musik in Bildern (1929) demonstrated the value of visual evidence for the history of music. Together with Scheurleer, he was a pioneer of musical iconography, and his example influenced the founding of RIdIM in 1970. His Beethoven catalogue, completed by H. Halm, served as the basis for later research, such as that of Willy Hess, and encouraged the performance of little-known works.