Borneman, Ernest (12. April 1915 - 4. Juni 1995), Musikschriftsteller, Drehbuchautor, Fernsehproduzent, Sexualwissenschaftler

Kurzbiografie/ Geschichte der Institution

Born in Berlin in 1915, Borneman studied privately with the founder of the Berlin "Phonogrammarchiv" Erich Moritz v. Hornbostel while attending school in his hometown. After leaving Germany in 1933 (for "racial" as well as political reasons) he settled in London, where he came into close contact with jazz musicians and took advantage of the rich collections of the British Library to compile his first book on jazz in 1940. The 600-page typescript and the separate 200-page bibliography remained unpublished due to the outbreak of war. Borneman was deported to Canada, where he jouined the Canadian Film Board. He also was in contact with Melville J. Herskovits (himself a student of Franz Boas' and a founding father of Afro-American studies) and Richard Waterman at Northwestern University. In 1947 he joined the UNESCO film department in Paris and from 1950-60 worked for the BBC in London as well as private producers. Between 1944 and 1960 he wrote numerous articles for journals such as "Jazz", "Jazz Hot", "Jazz Illustrated", "Jazz Music", "Jazz Record", and "Melody Maker", making him one of the most influential writers in the field. He placed a special emphasis on the influence of Latin American music on jazz. He also wrote and produced radio shows on musical topics. He returned to Germany in 1960 to start a new tv broadcasting system in Germany, and from 1961 he focussed on psychology. In the late 1960s he planned to write a comprehensive history of Afro-American music, but the project was left incomplete. In 1975 he published his classic gender study "Das Patriachat. Ursprung und Zukunft unseres Gesellschaftssystems", which made him a public figure in German-speaking countries. Borneman died in 1995 in Austria.

Beschreibung des Bestandes

Manuskripte ungedruckter Jazzbücher, u. a. "Swing Music. An Encyclopedia of Jazz" und "American Negro Music", Manuskripte und Druckbelege von Aufsätzen, u. a. für "Melody Maker", "Down Beat", "Jazz Review", "Harper's" und "The Record Changer", sowie von Kolumnen, u. a. "The Anthropologist Looks At Jazz", Rezensionen von Schallplatten und Büchern, Manuskripte von Rundfunksendungen und von Aufsätzen zu psychologischen, ethnologischen, kulturkritischen, politischen, historischen, sexualwissenschaftlichen und literarischen Themen, Manuskripte seiner Theaterstücke, Romane sowie Drehbücher für Film und Fernsehen; Arbeitsmaterialien zum Buch "Black Light and White Shadow", zur afroamerikanischen Kultur der USA und zu sexualwissenschaftlichen Themen; Unterlagen zu seiner Zusammenarbeit mit John Grierson am Canadian Film Board und zu seiner Arbeit beim "Freien Fernsehen"; Korrespondenz; biografische Unterlagen, u. a. Kalender; Pressesammlung