Degenerate music 1

‘Degenerate music’

(Entartete Musik) was a

term used during the

Third Reich to condemn

composers who were

considered a threat to the

integrity of an ideal

German life.

Shortly after the opening of

the exhibition "Entartete

Kunst" (Degenerate Art), the

Nazis put on another:

"Entartete Musik" (Degenerate

Music) which was staged in

Düsseldorf in 1938. It exhibited

all of the composers the regime

considered 'degenerate' and

therefore worth denouncing.

In the opening speech for the

exhibition, the Cultural Minister,

Adolf Ziegler explained that the

decay of music was "due to the

influence of Judaism and

capitalism".

It is clear that the condemnations

were not artistic or musical, but

based solely on Nazi laws of

racial origin.

Adolf Ziegler

Degenerate

music

might have

been...

...works by

Jewish

composers

Arnold Schoenberg

...works

depicting

Jewish or

African

characters

...written by those

suspected to

support anyone

other than the

Nazi regime

Anton Webern

...influenced

by jazz or

swing

...works deemed

too "avant-garde"

or "modern"

Nearly all of the

musicians affected by

this censorship were

either deported or

killed. This made a

huge impact on

European musical life.

Hanns Eisler (1898–1962)

- Son of Jewish parents - Involved in Marxist groups all of

his life and later became a memberof the Communist Party

- Student of Arnold Schoenberg, thefather of 'modern' music

- Friends with the politicallyradical Bertold Brecht

- Exiled when the Nazis came intopower and was forced to move to

America.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

- Complicated relationship with theNazi regime

- Russian-born with a Jewishbackground

- Ziegler included his music as part ofthe 1938 Entartete Musik exhibition - Despite this, his music achieved a

relatively secured position in thecultural life of the Third Reich, beingmore tonal than most other 'modern'

composers

Erich Korngold (1897-1957)

- Born in Austria; Jewish - Lots of Jewish friends and

colleagues - His music was deemed too modern

and jazzy for the Nazis- He moved to Hollywood to escape the

Third Reich's persecution of Jews- While working in the US, the Nazis

seized his Austrian home and he neverreturned there again