Most German of the arts: musicology and society from the Weimar Republic to the end of Hitler's Reich

Abstract

Most of Arts: Musicology and Society from Weimar Republic to End of Hitler's ReichHalf a century after end or World War II, Pamela Potter has offered first full-length study of musicology during Third Reich. Her pioneering contribution, based on her doctoral dissertation at Yale University, breaks through intense public silence surrounding this topic. For decades, most channels of information were padded with rumor and gossip. None of colleagues who lived during time in question -- whether they were born before or after World War I, whether German, non-German, or emigre scholars -- undertook to reflect publicly upon their discipline's involvement under Hitler's rule.The author explicitly states that her intention was not to offer a general history of musicology from 1918 to 1945 or to list accomplishments of individual musicologists in field, but rather to provide a glimpse into musicologists' actions and preoccupations in light of economic, political, and social developments during one of Germany's most tumultuous periods (p. xv). Aspects considered are outlined in eight chapters, including academic personnel, institutions (universities and other research organizations), methodology, and topics dealt with by musicologists. Special emphasis is given to questions relevant at that time, such as racial research in music (musikalische Rassenkunde), how musicologists were engaged in SS-Ahnenerbe, Rosenberg Bureau and his Sonderstab Musik, how composer Georg Friedrich Handel was viewed, and then rabid quest for Germanness in music, which, after all, may be regarded as a variation on racial theme.Nazi ideology could profit from enormous and world-wide prestige of German music; music, and therefore musicology, had many offerings of thanksgiving from a rich harvest to bring to Reich's altar. In spite of strong impact music by composers had on culture, it proved to be more difficult to establish musicology as an equally respected discipline within universities than in comparable case of art history. In general, Nazi period helped still young and modest academic discipline of twenties to prosper (p. 87: the overall financial and organizational backing it [the Nazi regime] offered to field far exceeded support from prior administrations). That music was the most of arts gradually became a common belief among musicians, audiences, and musicologists and coincided with increasing nationalism in Europe since mid-nineteenth century. Nazi ideology easily employed and exploited this trademark. Likewise, society felt comfortable with a solely German-centered ideology.As with many other academic disciplines, forced exodus of Jewish scholars strengthened field of musicology elsewhere, particularly in North America. After World War II some emigre scholars, especially those having ties to socialism or communism, returned to East Germany. None of them, it appears, reinstated themselves in West Germany. Was this due to an aging generation or to a general unwillingness to return? In any case, there were apparently no efforts made on part of Germany to get them back. When major academic positions between 1945 and 1960 opened up, those who had remained in Germany were appointed, and neither concept of reeducation nor idea of change was embraced within discipline. Instead of an ideological conversion, only symbolic gestures of purging musicology of National Socialist thought or initiative were made (p. 256). This is Potter's main conclusion: Musicology slipped into Third Reich and slipped out of it again without deeper changes to its face. …