Ernest Borneman
Encyclopedia
Ernst Wilhelm Julius Bornemann (April 12, 1915 – June 4, 1995) was a German
crime writer, filmmaker, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist
, jazz
musician, jazz critic
, psychoanalyst, sexologist, and committed socialist. All these diverse interests, he claimed, had a common root in his lifelong insatiable curiosity
. From 1982-1986 he was president of the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
. In 1990 he was awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal
for sexual science.
—back then "one of the most relaxed, sane, open, cosmopolitan cities in the world"— as the son of "the happiest couple I have ever known", Borneman grew up in relative wealth and says he was "sexually mature at fourteen, politically mature at fifteen, and intellectually mature between fourteen and sixteen". As a pupil he made the acquaintance of Bertolt Brecht
and also worked at the counselling centre for workers established by Wilhelm Reich
's Socialist Association for Sexual Counselling and Research, an organisation Reich had moved from Vienna
to Berlin in 1930.
Another important influence in Borneman's early life was music, especially from overseas. As a ten-year-old, at the world's fair in Paris, France, he had seen musicians from Congo
who had fascinated him. He went to concerts in his native Berlin as soon as they would let him in, listening, among others, to Marlene Dietrich
, the Weintraub Syncopators and jazz saxophonist Sidney Bechet
. A distant relative, the ethnomusicologist Erich von Hornbostel
, introduced him to his field of study, and after school Borneman attended Hornbostel's lecture
s and on weekends helped out in his archive
. It was Hornbostel who finally initiated Borneman into the world of jazz
.
A member of the Communist Party of Germany
, Bornemann was forced to leave the country in 1933, after the Nazis
had come to power. He was smuggled out of the country posing as a member of the Hitler Youth
on his way to England
as an exchange student
. On arriving in England, where he sought, and was granted, political asylum, he anglicized his first name to Ernest and, by dropping the second n, his family name to Borneman. At the time he hardly spoke one word of English
.
A quick learner, Borneman did not just pick up enough English to be able to survive but also to live by his pen. In 1937, Gollancz
published Borneman's "detective story to end detective stories" (Julian Symons
), a novel entitled The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
, which he had completed before turning twenty. In all, until 1968, Borneman wrote six crime novels, all of them in English, under the pseudonym
Cameron McCabe.
In London Borneman met the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Géza Róheim
, through whom he became interested in anthropological problems. He also took a personal analytic treatment under Roheim.
During his London years Borneman was preoccupied with jazz, both theoretically and practically. He went to all concerts of famous musicians touring Britain such as Duke Ellington
and Cab Calloway
. He played the piano
, double bass
and drum
s himself and even went to sea playing in dance bands on transatlantic cruise ship
s. At home in London, he spent countless hours in the British Museum Reading Room
and at other institutions of learning. His notes on the origins and the development of jazz grew steadily, and in 1940 he sent the first version of his study, a 580 page typescript
entitled "Swing Music. An Encyclopaedia of Jazz" to Melville J. Herskovits
, then the most prominent U.S. anthropologist specializing in African American studies
.
In 1940 Borneman was deported to a Canadian prisoner of war camp as an enemy alien
. He was later released to work for the BBC
(British Broadcasting Corporation), and on miscellaneous film projects including one with director Orson Welles
.
After the war in 1960 Borneman was called back to Germany through German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
to build up a state-owned television station
called Freies Fernsehen Gesellschaft (FFG, Free TV Company). However this television station could not go on broadcasting upon a decision of the German federal court. After this breakdown Bornemann began studies on scientific sexology
, a theme that interested him from his earlier days with Wilhelm Reich
and later Géza Roheim
. He received a doctorate in 1976 for a comprehensive study of the origin and future of Patriarchy
("Das Patriarchat"). The study, later published as a book, is regarded as perhaps the most important book about this subject. Borneman made many more important psychological and analytical studies about sexuality, language and power and later was appointed to a professorship at the University of Salzburg (Austria). In the 1980s Borneman was regarded as one of the most important and influential sexologists in the German speaking part of the world. The well known German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
(DGSS, or Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenschaftliche Sexualforschung) honored him in 1990 as the first ever recipient of the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for Sexual Science.
During the final decades of his life Borneman lived in Scharten
, Upper Austria
, where he committed suicide at the age of 80 due to a tragic love-affair.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
crime writer, filmmaker, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician, jazz critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, psychoanalyst, sexologist, and committed socialist. All these diverse interests, he claimed, had a common root in his lifelong insatiable curiosity
Curiosity
Curiosity is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity...
. From 1982-1986 he was president of the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
The German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research [in German: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenschaftliche Sexualforschung ] is a sexuality research and counselling organization . It is primarily devoted to sociological, behavioral, and cultural sexuality research...
. In 1990 he was awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal
Magnus Hirschfeld Medal
The Magnus Hirschfeld Medal is awarded by the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research for outstanding service to sexual science, granted in the categories "Sexual Research" and "Sexual Reform"...
for sexual science.
Life and work
Born and raised in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
—back then "one of the most relaxed, sane, open, cosmopolitan cities in the world"— as the son of "the happiest couple I have ever known", Borneman grew up in relative wealth and says he was "sexually mature at fourteen, politically mature at fifteen, and intellectually mature between fourteen and sixteen". As a pupil he made the acquaintance of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
and also worked at the counselling centre for workers established by Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
's Socialist Association for Sexual Counselling and Research, an organisation Reich had moved from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to Berlin in 1930.
Another important influence in Borneman's early life was music, especially from overseas. As a ten-year-old, at the world's fair in Paris, France, he had seen musicians from Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
who had fascinated him. He went to concerts in his native Berlin as soon as they would let him in, listening, among others, to Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, the Weintraub Syncopators and jazz saxophonist Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
. A distant relative, the ethnomusicologist Erich von Hornbostel
Erich von Hornbostel
Erich Moritz von Hornbostel was an Austrian ethnomusicologist and scholar of music. He is remembered for his pioneering work in the field of ethnomusicology, and for the Sachs–Hornbostel system of musical instrument classification which he co-authored with Curt Sachs.-Life:Hornbostel was born in...
, introduced him to his field of study, and after school Borneman attended Hornbostel's lecture
Lecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s and on weekends helped out in his archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
. It was Hornbostel who finally initiated Borneman into the world of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
A member of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
, Bornemann was forced to leave the country in 1933, after the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
had come to power. He was smuggled out of the country posing as a member of the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
on his way to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
as an exchange student
Student exchange program
A student exchange program generally could be defined as a program where students from secondary school or university choose to study abroad in partner institutions...
. On arriving in England, where he sought, and was granted, political asylum, he anglicized his first name to Ernest and, by dropping the second n, his family name to Borneman. At the time he hardly spoke one word of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
A quick learner, Borneman did not just pick up enough English to be able to survive but also to live by his pen. In 1937, Gollancz
Victor Gollancz Ltd
Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership...
published Borneman's "detective story to end detective stories" (Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
), a novel entitled The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor is a 1937 crime novel by Ernest Borneman writing as Cameron McCabe. It was first published in London. The book makes use of the false document technique: It pretends to be the true story of a 38-year-old Scotsman called Cameron McCabe who writes about a crucial...
, which he had completed before turning twenty. In all, until 1968, Borneman wrote six crime novels, all of them in English, under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Cameron McCabe.
In London Borneman met the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Géza Róheim
Géza Róheim
Géza Róheim was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and anthropologist. Originally based in Budapest, he is often credited with founding the field of psychoanalytic anthropology, since he was the first psychoanalytically trained anthropologist to do fieldwork...
, through whom he became interested in anthropological problems. He also took a personal analytic treatment under Roheim.
During his London years Borneman was preoccupied with jazz, both theoretically and practically. He went to all concerts of famous musicians touring Britain such as Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
. He played the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
and drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s himself and even went to sea playing in dance bands on transatlantic cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
s. At home in London, he spent countless hours in the British Museum Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside...
and at other institutions of learning. His notes on the origins and the development of jazz grew steadily, and in 1940 he sent the first version of his study, a 580 page typescript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
entitled "Swing Music. An Encyclopaedia of Jazz" to Melville J. Herskovits
Melville J. Herskovits
Melville Jean Herskovits was an American anthropologist who firmly established African and African American studies in American academia. The son of Jewish immigrants, he obtained a Bachelor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1923 and obtained his Master's and Ph.D...
, then the most prominent U.S. anthropologist specializing in African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
.
In 1940 Borneman was deported to a Canadian prisoner of war camp as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
. He was later released to work for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
(British Broadcasting Corporation), and on miscellaneous film projects including one with director Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
.
After the war in 1960 Borneman was called back to Germany through German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
to build up a state-owned television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
called Freies Fernsehen Gesellschaft (FFG, Free TV Company). However this television station could not go on broadcasting upon a decision of the German federal court. After this breakdown Bornemann began studies on scientific sexology
Sexology
Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behavior, and function. The term does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sex, such as political analysis or social criticism....
, a theme that interested him from his earlier days with Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
and later Géza Roheim
Géza Róheim
Géza Róheim was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and anthropologist. Originally based in Budapest, he is often credited with founding the field of psychoanalytic anthropology, since he was the first psychoanalytically trained anthropologist to do fieldwork...
. He received a doctorate in 1976 for a comprehensive study of the origin and future of Patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
("Das Patriarchat"). The study, later published as a book, is regarded as perhaps the most important book about this subject. Borneman made many more important psychological and analytical studies about sexuality, language and power and later was appointed to a professorship at the University of Salzburg (Austria). In the 1980s Borneman was regarded as one of the most important and influential sexologists in the German speaking part of the world. The well known German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research
The German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research [in German: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenschaftliche Sexualforschung ] is a sexuality research and counselling organization . It is primarily devoted to sociological, behavioral, and cultural sexuality research...
(DGSS, or Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenschaftliche Sexualforschung) honored him in 1990 as the first ever recipient of the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for Sexual Science.
During the final decades of his life Borneman lived in Scharten
Scharten
Scharten is a municipality in the district Eferding in Upper Austria, Austria....
, Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, where he committed suicide at the age of 80 due to a tragic love-affair.
External links
- Borneman the jazz fan (in German)
- Über Ernest Borneman, Wilhelm-Reich-Blätter, Heft 3, No.4 (1979), pp. 74–86 (in German).