Rubble Music: Occupying the Ruins of Postwar Berlin, 1945–1950 Abby Anderton

Abstract

In her sophisticated and thoroughly researched book, the historical musicologist Abby Anderton investigates the classical music culture in Berlin after the Second World War and explores how compromised musicians, ensembles, and performance venues worked through the trauma of social destruction and the Allied occupation. ‘Rubble music’, according to the author, was ‘the sound of civilian suffering after urban catastrophe’ (p. 5) and this concise volume provides a persuasive account of how the German capital’s musical scene was reconstructed over the ruins and devastation of the war. The first chapter concentrates on how Berlin was divided into four sectors in 1945 and the ways in which the Americans, Soviets, British, and French implemented their respective music policies and denazification programmes. Anderton demonstrates convincingly how each of the four Allies’ occupation of Berlin (and Germany) was governed by their different political agendas and also some of the ironies arising from these policies. The Soviets, despite explicitly aiming to ‘[mobilize] the German artistic community in the service of Communism’, were by far the most lenient of the occupiers (p. 19). They recognized the importance of cultural endeavours in German society, worked closely with German artists to rebuild Berlin’s musical scene, and did not ban former Nazi members from participating in the post-war cultural life, nor did they prohibit any compositions to be performed. The Americans, on the other hand, strove for a thorough denazification process and re-education programme in the hope of purging Germany of all traces of Nazism. Music, for them, was a ‘dangerous entity that should be carefully monitored and regulated’ and this brought the contradiction that the Americans ‘[promoted] democracy through censorship and governmental control’ (pp. 21 and 23). Along with the British, who were more interested in other forms of mass media such as books and films, the Americans banned a considerable number of musical compositions, including those associated with the Nazi regime and those by overtly Nazi composers. The French, meanwhile, were interested in bringing their own artistic products to small German towns to make links between the two countries and to further goodwill.