A photograph from around 1896 depicts the musical senate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Ten professors in distinguished academic attire, a...

A photograph from around 1896 depicts the musical senate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Ten professors in distinguished academic attire, a who’s who of the contemporary German compositional scene, pose for the camera, including Ernst Rudorff (1840-1916), today the most forgotten among them. As a composer Rudorff remained a romanticist through and through – also in his love of nature. He believed industrialization posed an increasing threat to nature and decided to take action, becoming an important precursor of conservation practices by groups organized in societies.