German librarian and curator.

Career Summary

Kopfermann joined the Royal Library, Berlin in 1878, and was made Professor and Director of its Music Division in 1908, a post which he held until 1914 (when succeeded by Wilhelm Altmann). (Georg Kinsky became his assistant at the Library in 1908, and then in 1909 became curator at the Heyer Musikhistorisches Museum in Cologne.) Kopfermann edited several previously unknown compositions, a Beethoven Adagio for Mechanical Clock, WoO 33 No. 1 (1902), and the spurious Mozart violin concerto in D, K. 271a/271i (1907). He published relatively little, and had a reputation for kindness and for tireless efforts on behalf of other scholars that is reflected in Schenker's own remarks about him to other people.

Correspondence with Schenker

The correspondence between Kopfermann and Schenker concerned entirely the Beethoven source materials in the Royal Library's collections, and particularly the obtaining of photographic copies (some of which are preserved in OC). The letters from Kopfermann to Schenker survive as OC B/174-179 (October 31, 1912 to December 22, 1913); those from Schenker to Kopfermann are not known to survive.

Kopfermann at one point wrote a letter to Schenker that the latter planned to use as a supporting letter in his application to the Heyer Museum re: Beethoven Op.111.