Hans-Heinz Dräger

Born in Stralsund, Dräger attended the secondary school in Stralsund from 1920 to 1931. From 1931 to 1937 he studied musicology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with Friedrich Blume, Curt Sachs, Arnold Schering, Georg Schünemann and Erich Schumann. In addition, he studied art history with Albert Erich Brinckmann and Wilhelm Pinder, philosophy with Max Dessoir and Nicolai Hartmann and German literature with Herrmann.

After obtaining his doctorate in 1937 he was offered a post as an assistant at the State Institute for Music Research. In 1938 he became assistant to the director of the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. In 1939 he was appointed acting director of the museum.

After the Second World War he went to the University of Kiel where he was habilitated in 1946. In 1947 he was appointed professor at the University of Greifswald, after which he taught at the University of Rostock until 1949. Afterwards he was professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin until 1953. Then he left the German Democratic Republic and was professor at the Free University of Berlin until 1961. In 1955 he was employed by RIAS as a music specialist and expert in musicology. From September 1955 to May 1956 he was a visiting professor at Stanford University as part of the Fulbright Program. In 1961 he accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Texas at Austin. There he took over the chair for systematic musicology in 1963.

In 1966 Draeger received the Citizenship of the United States. He was chairman of the Texan section of the American Musicological Society.

Draeger's main subject was description and musical instrument classification. For this purpose, he developed a set of tables in his habilitation thesis, in which all musical instruments were to be sorted according to a constant sequence of questions.

Dräger died in Austin (Texas) at age 67.

• Die Entwicklung des Streichbogens und seine Anwendung in Europa.[1] (Promotion) Bärenreiter, Kassel 1937
• Article Amati, Blasinstrumentenbau, Bogen, Buhle, Casals, Dräger, Drehleier, Dynamik, Fidel, Gagliano Familie, Gasparo da Salò, Geige, Familie Grancino, Groblicz, Hackbrett, Instrumentenkunde, Janko, Kontrabaß, Mersenne, Monochord, Musette, Musik-Ästhetik A, Psalterium A and Tourte in Friedrich Blume (ed.): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1949–1966
• Prinzip einer Systematik der Musikinstrumente.[2] Bärenreiter, Kassel 1948

• Dräger, Hans-Heinz. In Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie. K. G. Saur, Berlin, Boston 2011. (Verlag Walter de Gruyter Online, 9 August 2015).
• Michael S. Morawski: Draeger, Hans-Heinz. In Laurie E. Jasinski (ed.): Handbook of Texas Music. Texas A&M University Press, 2012, ISBN 9780876112977, (Google Books).
• University of Texas (Publ.): In memoriam Hans-Heinz Draeger. Austin 1968, (Online, PDF).

• Literature about Hans-Heinz Dräger in the State Bibliography (Landesbibliographie) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

• Hans-Heinz Dräger on Texas State Historical Association