Music Of The Third Reich Analysis

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Music of the Third Reich During the Nazi regime, Hitler and his party members used propaganda as an integral method to promote the philosophies of the Third Reich. Due to Hitler’s lifelong passion for it, music became one of the essential avenues of Hitler’s propaganda messages. Bruckner, Beethoven and most Notably Wagner were just a few of the many composers whom were glorified by Hitler. Through a discriminant handpicking of composers, the Nazi regime was able to rewrite German music history and efficaciously promote and produce music that paralleled the ideas of the party. Prior to the Nazi Regime music had an extensive record of tradition and success in Germany. This success is most famously represented by the timeless pieces of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, and Wagner. German pride in their music was strong and many believed it to be the most German of all the arts. When Hitler seized power, he, being a music enthusiast himself, knew he could not withhold this art from the German people without losing their support. Hitler had to strike a difficult balance: protect the creative liberties of music production in Germany, while also limiting the existence of entartete music (Degenerate music) that could potentially damage the support of his followers and, as a result, weaken the entire regime. This campaign to balance censorship and creativity in music would be one felt in full force by the German people. “The first three months of Nazi Rule in 1933 bore witness to one of the most tumultuous changes in German Musical Life”(Mozart 16). Promptly upon Hitler’s seize of power he began operations in an attempt to “purify” German music. Storm troopers forcefully removed Fritz Busch from the opera house and urged his departure from the country. Via Nazi press encouragement Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee was removed from theatres. Bruno Walter was refused a guarantee of public safety if he chose to proceed to perform his concert. A multitude of scare tactics were used by the regime in strife to achieve Gleichschaltung, a policy that meant all music had to conform to the Nazi Ideal. Other exiled composers included Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer for their Jewish ethnicity, and Shoenberg for his radical music which was not classically German in the mind of Hitler. On April 7, 1933 the Gesets zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums (Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service) was enacted and served as a final blow to unsatisfactory musicians of the Third Reich by terminating their employment contracts. (Mozart 16-19) Although German music’s portfolio had been decreased by the Nazi regime, it was still of immense pride to the Third Reich and they determined it’s success would be survived through the works of Bruckner, Beethoven and Wagner among others. As either nationalists, or favorable lyricists in the eyes of Nazis, the aforementioned musicians were spared their careers and liberty. Anton Bruckner was an Austrian born musician who lived from 1824 to 1896 As a result of Bruckner’s use of harmony, polyphonic character, and …show more content…
Beethoven was German born and then moved to Vienna in his twenties to study with Haydn. Beethoven served as a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras in western art. But where does Beethoven fit into the Regime’s repurposing of German music? Beethoven once said “strength is the morality of the man who stands out from the rest” representing a German spirit that Hitler identified with. This attitude accompanied with an overwhelming love of Beethoven by the German people made him a member of the elite group of Hitler’s glorified …show more content…
Hitler had a clear and concise opinion on the purpose of propaganda: to implement Nazi policies and ideals, maintain power, appeal to the feelings of the German people, and to justify the extermination of Jews and other inferiors. Music for the Nazi’s had the same purpose in achieving the goals of the party, and because of its rich history, could be used more effectively than other methods of propaganda. The Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels summarized this by saying, “music affects the heart and emotions more than the intellect. Where then could the heart of a nation beat stronger than in the huge masses, in which the heart of a nation has found its true home?” (Gilbert,

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