The son of a merchant, Rudolf Götz was born on October 21, 1877 in Tannwald (present-day Tanvald, Czech Republic). He attended a German school and studied at the university in Prague. Upon earning his PhD, Götz went to the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Leipzig before following his true passion: music. He studied under Arthur Nikisch in Leipzig and Felix Mottel in Munich. He then volunteered at the Munich State Opera as a solo répétiteur in 1906/07 and served as music director in Kiel in 1907/08, in Regensburg in 1908/09, in Lucerne from 1909 until 1911, in Graz in 1912, and then at the German Theater in Prague. He also served as répétiteur at the Bayreuth Festival in 1911.
After World War I, Götz worked as a freelance conductor, pianist, and accompanist, giving concerts in Hamburg and in the Serbian king’s court, performing on the radio, and accompanying renowned opera singers like Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender and Leo Slezak. In 1939, Slezak lauded him as “a musician of the highest order and a first-class pianist,” recalling “the time in which he led so many of [Slezak’s] concerts to success with the utmost fondness and appreciation.”
However, this successful career came to an end when the Nazis came to power: as a Jew, Rudolf Götz was no longer permitted to perform in public after 1933. His income from piano and voice lessons also dwindled down to nothing, and so, with his livelihood destroyed and he himself facing increasingly brutal persecution, Götz and his wife planned their escape into exile in 1939. Their destination was Uruguay, where their daughter and her husband had already fled to safety, but the escape proved difficult. With war looming, the shipping line paused their operations, and the couple’s scheduled departure on August 29, 1939, was canceled. On September 26, 1939, however, they managed to board an Italian passenger ship in Genoa, leaving Europe and all of their belongings behind.
Exiled in South America, Götz was unable to rebuild a career, and the couple relied on the support of their daughter and her husband in Montevideo in the years that followed. Margarete Götz died there on August 4, 1957, followed by Richard Götz on January 23, 1965.
1877 Tanvald (Tannwald)
1965 Montevideo