The Marteau Archive of the Bezirk Oberfranken comprises a partial estate of the violinist and composer Henri Marteau (1874-1934), his second wife Blanche Marteau (1887-1977), and their son Eugen Henrik Marteau (1922-1942).
In addition, the Marteau Archive still contains the remains of the musical estate of Hubert Léonard (1819-1890), which his widow left to Henri Marteau, as well as documents that came about through contact between family archivist Georg Munzert (1903-1988) and the Marteau daughter Mona Linsmayer (1910-2012).
In order to make the holdings, which are relevant to musicology and regional studies, accessible for research, the estate was completely indexed in 2020/21 in a project at the Institute for Franconian Regional History at the Universities of Bamberg and Bayreuth, funded by the Upper Franconia Foundation. The resulting database offers a good starting point for research on the violinist’s life, the history of the Marteau house in Lichtenberg, Marteau’s importance for the region, musicological issues of the 19th and 20th centuries, and much more.
The database is currently not yet open to the public. The archives are stored at the Bezirk Oberfranken, at the department Kultur- und Heimatpflege, and can be viewed on request if there is a justified interest. You can reach the Marteau Archive at the following e-mail address: archiv[at]haus-marteau.de
Other parts of Henri Marteau’s estate – mainly sheet music and correspondence – are held by the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
