Eduard Rosé was born in Romania under the name Eduard Rosenblum into a prosperous and musically gifted Jewish family. In 1867 he began studying cello at the conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and studied under Anton Bruckner and Eduard Hanslick at the university. In 1882 he began performing in the string quartet founded by his brother Arnold, already a celebrated violinist at the time. Over the following years, the ensemble would become one of the world’s leading chamber music groups. It was during this period that both brothers adopted the professional surname Rosé. In 1884, Eduard Rosé was appointed principal solo cellist of the Royal Opera in Budapest. After embarking on concert tours beginning in 1887, he was eventually engaged by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1891. While based in Boston, he was engaged continuously as a cellist at the Bayreuth Festival from 1892 through 1897.
In 1898, Rosé married Emma Mahler, a sister of his friend Gustav Mahler, with whom he had studied. The renowned and influential conductor helped him secure a position at the Weimar Hoftheater, where he was appointed concertmaster effective September 1, 1900. Despite frequent frustrations with an orchestra that he felt performed below his own artistic standards, Rosé remained in the post until his retirement in 1926. At the same time, he taught at the Weimar Orchestral School from 1911 to 1924.
By the 1920s, Weimar, the capital of Thuringia, had already become a stronghold of anti-Semitism and an important center of the Nazi movement. After the Nazis came to power, Rosé watched as his livelihood, dignity, and family were gradually stripped away. Increasing numbers of his relatives fled into exile. In 1939, when all Jews in Germany were ordered to surrender their radios, the measure struck Rosé particularly hard. Since the death of his wife, he had spent much of his time listening to broadcasts. Beginning in September of 1941, all Jews were required to wear the yellow Star of David. Failing to grasp the full gravity of the situation, Rosé wrote to the police president in protest. He explained that, as an 82-year-old widower, he depended on eating his meals in public restaurants and that the mandatory badge would make this impossible: “I therefore most respectfully request that I be kindly exempted from wearing the aforementioned star, since I would otherwise encounter insurmountable difficulties when obtaining my daily nourishment.” Rosé was subsequently arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. His home was searched, and he was subjected to hostile legal proceedings. In December of 1941, he was forced to vacate his apartment and move into one of the so-called “Jewish houses”, ghetto-like residences established to concentrate the Jewish population. Beginning in May of 1942, Jews from across Thuringia were assembled in Weimar for deportation to concentration and extermination camps. On September 20, 1942, Rosé himself was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he died on January 24, 1943.
1859 Jassy
1943 Theresienstadt (Concentration Camp)