Placing das Volk: Music, Nazi Volksgemeinschaft and the Construct of ‘Place’ (original) (raw)
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Wagner in the "Cult of Art in Nazi Germany
2013
In his book on aesthetics and Nazi politics, translated in 2004 as The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany, Eric Michaud, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, wrote that National Socialist attention to the arts was intended "to present the broken [German] Volk with an image of its 'eternal Geist' and to hold up to it a mirror capable of restoring to it the strength to love itself." 1 I came upon this, among other ideas of Michaud, when preparing the conceptual framework for my own book, Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture, just released by Cambridge University Press. Considering his book last year, I found a number of Michaud's concepts very intriguing, but only made general references to them in my Introduction and Conclusion. The gist of these ideas will be familiar to readers of George Mosse, whom Michaud should have cited more vigorously. However, I found that Michaud put some of the key concepts of the History of Nazi Culture more strongly than I have read elsewhere, and also that they seemed to resonate with much of the material I uncovered in my research. Above all, Michaud insisted that Nazi cultural politics was not just a matter of "propagandizing" the party platform in cultural terms. Instead, he insisted that it was a central component of the National Socialist world view, with an active, not merely reflective, role in the life and actions of the Nazi party and regime. As Michaud put it, we cannot "account for this phenomenon by simply resorting to the term propaganda" and assuming that Nazism was just "making art serve its political ends." 2 To see what Mosse termed "Nazi culture" as mere propaganda is an underestimation of its seminal function in the workings of National Socialism. In Michaud's words, again, through Nazi representations of Cultural History-"the Geist, the internal or spiritual Reich, was phenomenalized. .. Hitler was convinced that German art contained the power that. .. could save the sick Germans. In answer to party militants who [questioned] the need to 'sacrifice so much to art,'.. . he retorted confidently that what had to be achieved was no less than the 'strengthening of the protective moral armor of the nation."' 3 Thus did references to the History of Western Humanities-as constructed according to a fairly longstanding "Germanic" point of view-have an formative function in the Nazi program. Through them, the Volk would, as Michaud wrote, "fabricate its own ideal image. .. that would constitute the model and guide capable of propelling it toward its own salvation. Neither
2012
In his book on aesthetics and Nazi politics, translated as The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany, Eric Michaud wrote that the National Socialist attention to the arts was intended "to present the broken Volk with an image of its 'eternal Geist' and to hold up to it a mirror capable of restoring to it the strength to love itself." 1 In preparing the conceptual framework for my own book, just released by Cambridge University Press, I came upon this, among other ideas of Michaud, who is Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, somewhat late in the game. His book was originally published by Gallimard in 1996, and then translated into English in 2004. Considering it last year, I found a number of his concepts very intriguing, but was only able to make general references to them in my Introduction and Conclusion. Many of these ideas will be familiar to readers of George L. Mosse, whom Michaud should have cited more vigorously. However, I found that Michaud put some of the key concepts of the History of Nazi Culture more strongly than I have read elsewhere, and also that they seemed to resonate with much of the material I uncovered in my research.
'Richard Wagner and the Third Reich'
Long before Richard Wagner emerged as a political and theatrical figure around the time of Bismarck’s 1871 German unification, which gave full citizenship to Germany’s Jewish minority, antisemitism was already ubiquitous and entrenched. Martin Luther in his 1543 treatise 'On Jews and their Lies', had urged that rabbis be forbidden to preach, their prayer books destroyed, Jewish synagogues, schools and homes set afire, and that the Jews’ money and property should be confiscated. They should be shown neither kindness nor mercy, nor should they be afforded legal protection. Luther wrote that “these poisonous envenomed worms" should be either permanently expelled or drafted into forced labour. When he wrote, "we are at fault in not slaying them" however, Luther was in effect advocating genocide. Against this iniquitous background, Wagner’s antisemitism is comprehensively set, not only in contemporary literature, but by himself in his twice published treatise 'Das Judenthum in der Musik', alongside other writings and personal correspondence. Nevertheless, prominent Jews numbered amongst Wagner’s closest friends, for example, his favourite conductor, Hermann Levi, who conducted 'ParsifaI', Wagner’s paean to Christianity, and who was invited to be a pallbearer at the master’s funeral. In light of his toxic and verbose animus towards all things Jewish, what sort of intimate conversations could Richard Wagner possibly be expected to have been able to have with Jews in his circle of friends, and what sort of discourse might he have enjoyed with the likes of his great admirer, Adolf Hitler? Would Wagner have approved of the Third Reich and all it connoted?
2011
Recent scholarship on Nazi music policy pays little attention to the main party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, or comparable publications for the general public. Most work concentrates on publications Nazis targeted at expert audiences, in this case music journals. But to think our histories of Nazi music politics are complete without comprehensive analysis of the party daily is premature. One learns from this resource precisely what Nazi propagandists wanted average party members and Germans in general, not just top-level officials and scholars, to think-even about music. Therein, we see how contributors placed a Nazi "spin" on music history and composer's biographies.
2010
Recent scholarship on Nazi music policy pays little attention to the main party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, or comparable publications for the general public. Most work concentrates on publications Nazis targeted at expert audiences, in this case music journals. But to think our histories of Nazi music politics are complete without comprehensive analysis of the party daily is premature. One learns from this resource precisely what Nazi propagandists wanted average party members and Germans in general, not just top-level officials and scholars, to think-even about music. Therein, we see how contributors placed a Nazi "spin" on music history and composer's biographies. Using heretofore untranslated materials, this article will fill part of this gap in our historiography of Nazi music policy. It will first detail Völkischer Beobachter attacks on prominent representatives of musical modernism in the Weimar era. Thereafter, this presentation will cover "acceptable" alternatives to Weimar decadence that the Völkischer Beobachter posited from the so-called Era of Struggle [Kampfzeit ] through the Third Reich. With the war, however, the theme most emphasized in Völkischer Beobachter cultural coverage was militarism. My paper will conclude with a survey of how revered figures such as Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner were scrutinized for indications that they could serve as inspiration for the German Volk at war. "WEIMAR MUSIC" IN THE VÖLKISCHER BEOBACHTER With its outlook so strongly rooted in the romantic German music tradition, what the Völkischer Beobachter found most disgraceful in Weimar culture was cultivation of musical modernism, the whole of which it referred to as, at best, the "farcical imitation of a carnival barker selling a tent full of musical freaks,"[1] and, at worst, " Jewish terror in music."[2] The newspaper stood firm in its rejection of works by "Jews and assorted foreigners" or Germans who supposedly associated with "international, Jewish circles"[3]-applauding "brave acts of resistance" such as when a lone Nazi [Hakenkreuzler] stood up and shouted "pfui" at a concert of Schoenberg, Bartok, Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Bartok.[4] The "musical foreigner" whom the Völkischer Beobachter derided most was Igor Stravinsky. While an early attack identified him as a "spiritual Polack," [5] Fritz Stege described Stravinsky as a "Russian composer with half-Asiatic instincts hidden under the cover of French civilization" who simply knew how to
Deutscher Werkbund: The Nazi Influence
Germany was in a state of despair at the turn of the 20th century. Its economy was not up to par with the rest of the European nations due to the negligence of the Weimar Republic. As the attaché for the German Embassy in Great Britain, Hermann Muthesius studied the Arts and Crafts movement that was occurring in England and noticed the quality of the production due to the movement’s ideals. He brought back the movement’s ideals to Germany through his book, Das Englische Haus, but added technology to the formula, effectively leading to mass production of goods with high quality. The ideals that Muthesius studied and applied in Germany were then formed into what is now known as the Deutscher Werkbund. The ideals of the Werkbund aided in the advancement of Germany and the stabilization of its once weak economy. Parallel to this occurrence, political movements were also developing; different political parties were emerging after the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The National Socialists German Workers’ Party emerged onto the scene. This party had similar economical ideals to the Werkbund as it sought out a greater and technologically advanced Germany.