Max von Schillings (April 19, 1868 – July 24, 1933) was a Germanconductor,composer and theatre director. He was chief conductor at theBerlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925.

Schillings'operaMona Lisa (1915) was internationally successful and was performed at theMetropolitan Opera. The composer marriedBarbara Kemp, the soprano who sang the title role. BeforeMona Lisa, Schillings had already written three operas:Ingwelde (1894),Der Pfeifertag (1899) andDer Moloch (1906).

Born inDüren, Max von Schillings was brother to the photographerCarl Georg Schillings. He received his first musical training inviolin,piano andtheory at the same time as his formal education inBonn. His teachers wereCaspar Joseph Brambach andOtto von Königslow. Schillings later studiedjurisprudence,philosophy,literature andart history at theUniversity of Munich. On October 1, 1892, he married his cousin Caroline Josefa Peill inRömlinghoven. They were divorced in 1923, and on June 11, 1923, he married the opera singer Barbara Kemp inBerlin-Charlottenburg.

Max Schillings was given a professorship by the RoyalBavarian Ministry of the Interior (Königliches Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern) on February 16, 1903. In October 1911, he was named an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy by the PhilosophyFaculty at theUniversity of Heidelberg. He was awarded theEhrenkreuz (Ger. honorary cross), the fifth highest rank awarded, by theOrder of the Württemberg Crown, the highest order of chivalry inWürttemberg. With this honor, he was allowed to use the name Maxvon Schillings. InDüren, the street between Goethestraße and Aachener Straße was renamed "Schillingsstraße".

As early as the 1890s, he was given a position as an assistant at theBayreuth Festival; later he was engaged as a conductor and music teacher in Munich. Between 1908 and 1918 he was the Intendant at theKöniglichen Hoftheater (Royal Court Theatre) inStuttgart, for which he received the honor mentioned above. From 1918 to 1925, he succeededRichard Strauss as intendant of the State Opera inBerlin, whilst concurrently being the musical director of the summer-timeZoppot Forest Opera. In the second half of this decade, he undertook concert tours which took him through Europe and to the USA.

Having returned to Germany, he took over the job of President of thePrussian Academy of the Arts in 1932, succeedingMax Liebermann. From March 1933 until his death, Schillings was also the artistic director of theStädtische Oper Berlin. He died in 1933 from apulmonary embolism in Berlin. His ashes were entombed at Frankfurt-am-Main.

His composition work includes several operas, melodramas, choral works, chamber music pieces, violin and piano concertos, symphonic poems and works for stage (see list below). His most important work is undoubtedly his operaMona Lisa (first performed on September 26, 1915, in Stuttgart), which became one of the most-performed operas in Germany until his death. He stands besideEngelbert Humperdinck and Richard Strauss as one of the composers who re-established the music form of melodrama at the start of the 20th century. Schillings was renowned as a music educator – one of his more famous students wasWilhelm Furtwängler. He was the dedicatee of "Sea Drift" byFrederick Delius.

Schillings was an opponent of theWeimar Republic and a declaredanti-Semite. The expulsion and exclusion of importantJewish and free-thinking artists from the Prussian Academy of the Arts began during his time as the Academy's President – smong the many artists affected wereKäthe Kollwitz,Heinrich Mann,Ricarda Huch,Alfred Döblin,Thomas Mann,Max Liebermann,Alfons Paquet,Franz Werfel andJakob Wassermann. He laid offArnold Schoenberg from the teaching staff of the Academy, in contravention of Schoenberg's contract and in 1933, he orderedFranz Schreker, the leader of masterclasses in composition at the Academy, into early retirement.

• Ingwelde
• Der Pfeifertag
• Moloch op. 20
• Mona Lisa (1913/15, libretto byBeatrice von Dovsky)

• Das Hexenlied, op. 15
• Kassandra
• Das Eleusische Fest

• Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 25

• String quartet in E minor
• String quintet, op. 32

• Glockenlieder ("Bell Songs"), op. 22
• Meergruß und Seemorgen (Sea Greeting and Lake Morning), op. 6
• Vier liederen aus der Wanderzeit ("Four Songs from the Wandering Time"), op.2

• Gedenkschrift Prof. Dr. phil. h.c. Max von Schillings, Komponist und Dirigent, Zum 100. Geburtstag 19. April 1968, J. Geuenich + K. Strahn, Düren 1968
• Max von Schillings, Der Kampf eines deutschen Künstlers (Max von Schillings, The struggles of a German artist), Wilhelm Raup, Hanseatische Verlaganstalt Hamburg, 1935.
• Max von Schillings. August Richard, Drei-Masken-Verlag München, 1922
• Max von Schillings, Gesamtverzeichnis seiner Werke (Max von Schillings, A Summary of his Works), Joachim Beck

Letters by Max von Schillings held by the State Archives in Leipzig, company archives of the Music Publishing House C.F.Peters (Leipzig).

1. Levi, Erik: 'Schillings, Max von', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed [June 21, 2006]),Grove Music.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMax von Schillings.

• Max von Schillings String Quartet Soundbites and discussion of work
• Free scores by Max von Schillings at theInternational Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Newspaper clippings about Max von Schillings in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

• 1868 births
• 1933 deaths
• 20th-century German classical composers
• 20th-century German conductors (music)
• 20th-century German male musicians
• German opera composers
• German male conductors (music)
• German opera directors
• German male opera composers
• General directors of the Berlin State Opera
• Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
• People from Düren
• Pupils of Josef Rheinberger

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Composers with IMSLP links
• Articles with International Music Score Library Project links