Reinhold Adolf Merten (June 6, 1894 in Wiesbaden; August 19, 1943 in Munich[1][2]) was a German conductor and physician.
Coming from a family of musicians, Merten initially attended the conservatory in Wiesbaden, but then studied medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, and served as a medical officer in World War I. After the war, he received his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt with a dissertation on acid-fast, tubercle-like bacilli in wind instruments (1933).
Merten did not work as a doctor, however, but became a solo répétiteur at the Frankfurt Opera in 1920. Together with Paul Hindemith, he founded the Frankfurter Gemeinschaft für Musik in 1922. After the Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG (Radio Frankfurt) began operations in Frankfurt am Main in April 1924, several musicians gathered under Merten’s direction in the station’s studio in the old postal savings bank on Stephanstrasse and played ensemble music. From 1926, he worked in Frankfurt as an organist and pianist. In 1927, he joined the SPD, a party he remained a member of until 1931. On October 1, 1929, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded, with Hans Rosbaud as first and Reinhold Merten as second conductor.
In addition to his musical activities, he was a “music official” at the radio station. On April 1, 1933, he joined the Nazi Party (membership number 1,795,051). In 1934, he was tasked with establishing a sound engineering school in Berlin. In 1938, he became head of the acoustic-musical border areas department of the Central Technical Directorate within the Reich Broadcasting Company in Dresden. In 1939, he moved to the Great Orchestra of the Reichssender Leipzig as chief conductor. He remained there until the station was shut down in 1940 due to the war. He also taught applied musicology at the University of Freiburg.
In 1941, he went to the Reichssender Munich as first Kapellmeister. After a serious illness, he died in Munich in 1943.