Table Of ContentThe RouTledge handbook To
Music undeR geRMan occupaTion,
1938–1945
Following their entry into Austria and the Sudetenland in the late 1930s, the Germans
attempted to impose a policy of cultural imperialism on the countries they went on to
occupy during World War II. Almost all music institutions in the occupied lands came
under direct German control or were subject to severe scrutiny and censorship, the
prime objective being to change the musical fabric of these nations and force them to
submit to the strictures of Nazi ideology.
This pioneering collection of essays is the first in the English language to look in
more detail at the musical consequences of German occupation during a dark period in
European history. It embraces a wide range of issues, presenting case studies involving
musical activity in a number of occupied European cities, as well as in countries that
were part of the Axis or had established close diplomatic relations with Germany. The
wartime careers and creative outputs of individual musicians who were faced with the
dilemma of either complying with or resisting the impositions of the occupiers are
explored. In addition, there is some reflection on the post-war implications of German
occupation for the musical environment in Europe.
Music under German Occupation is written for all music-lovers, students, professionals
and academics who have particular interests in 20th-century music history and/or the
vicissitudes of European cultural life during World War II.
David Fanning is Professor of Music at the University of Manchester and author
and editor of books, articles and critical editions on Nielsen, Shostakovich, Weinberg,
Expressionism and the 20th-century symphonic tradition. An experienced chamber
music pianist and accompanist, he is also active as a critic for Gramophone and the Daily
Telegraph.
Erik Levi is Visiting Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. He
is author and editor of several books relating to music during the Weimar Republic
and the Third Reich and is active as a broadcaster and critic for BBC Music Magazine.
Amongst his recent publications are Music and Displacement, co-edited with Florian
Scheding (2010); Mozart and the Nazis (2010); The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century
Music (2014); and Hanns Eisler and England (2014).
The RouTledge
handbook To Music
undeR geRMan
occupaTion, 1938–1945
propaganda, Myth and Reality
Edited by David Fanning and Erik Levi
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, David Fanning and Erik Levi;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of David Fanning and Erik Levi to be identified as the author
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-71388-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-23061-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
conTenTs
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
List of appendices xii
List of contributors xiii
List of abbreviations xxi
Introduction: the foundations of Nazi musical imperialism 1
David Fanning and Erik Levi
Section 1
Musical life, resistance and destruction in
occupied european capitals 17
1 Composers as critics in occupied Paris 19
Nigel Simeone
2 The Conservatoire in occupied Kiev (19 September 1941 to
6 November 1943) 33
Elena Zinkevych, translated by Michelle Assay
3 Nazi musical imperialism in occupied Poland 61
Katarzyna Naliwajek
4 Music and musical life in occupied Athens 82
Alexandros Charkiolakis
v
Contents
Section 2
Adaptation and opportunism 101
5 The Rome-Berlin Axis: musical interactions between
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in redrawing a ‘New Order for
European Culture’ 103
Erik Levi
6 In search of a musical identity in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands 122
Dario van Gammeren
7 Symphonic music in occupied Belgium (1940–1944): the role of
‘German-friendly’ music societies 140
Eric Derom
8 Music, culture and the Church in the German-occupied USSR:
the Smolensk area and other provinces 170
Svetlana Zvereva
Section 3
Appropriations and reputations 191
9 Celebrating a Mozart anniversary in occupied Belgium:
the Mozart Herdenking in Vlaanderen (1942) 193
Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis and Cécile Quesney
10 The ambiguous reception of Antonín Dvořák’s music during the
Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren (The Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia), 1939–1945 211
Kateřina Nová, translated by Štěpán Kaňa
11 Celebrating the Nordic tone – fighting for national legacy:
the Grieg Centenary, 1943 231
Michael Custodis and Arnulf Mattes
Section 4
Between two evils 251
12 The song collector, the year of terrors and the catastrophe
that followed: a life in occupied Latvia 253
Kevin C. Karnes
vi
Contents
13 The music of Čiurlionis in the context of resistance and
Lithuanian national identity during the Nazi occupation
(1941–1944) 265
Vytautė Markeliūnienė
14 Power through music: strategies of the German occupation
authorities in Estonia 276
Kristel Pappel and Anu Kõlar
Section 5
the limits of tolerance 301
15 Getting away with Cultural Bolshevism: the first European
performance of Porgy and Bess in Copenhagen, 1943 303
Michael Fjeldsøe
16 Music criticism in the Swedish Nazi daily press: the case
of Dagsposten 319
Henrik Rosengren
Section 6
Damaged careers 337
17 (Re)visiting the (Jewish) archive of Gideon Klein – Terezín,
1941–1944 339
David Fligg
18 Eugeniusz Morawski: life under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw 358
Oskar Łapeta
Section 7
Symphonies of war and resistance 375
19 Religious patriotism and grotesque ridicule: responses to Nazi
oppression in Pavel Haas’s unfinished war-time Symphony 377
Martin Čurda
20 Paul von Klenau’s Ninth Symphony: a case study 399
Niels Krabbe
vii
Contents
21 Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony: music of endurance 418
David Fanning and Michelle Assay
Section 8
complex and uneasy legacies 449
22 Listening in the Grey Zone 451
Michael Beckerman
23 The marketing of backstories: approaches to the legacies of
music composed in fraught circumstances 459
Mirjam Frank
24 Nazism, music and Tyrolean identity 472
Kurt Drexel
25 Bartók against the Nazis: the Italian premieres of Bluebeard’s
Castle (1938) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1942) 489
Nicolò Palazzetti
26 Contemporary music and cultural politics in Switzerland
during World War II: between neutrality and nationalism 511
Simeon Thompson
Index 526
viii
FiguRes
0.1 Map of German-occupied Europe, 1942 8
3.1 Map of occupied Poland, 1939 66
3.2 Map of occupied Poland, 1941 67
4.1 Front cover of the programme book for the 1942 performance of
Strauss’s Elektra in Athens 92
7.1 First and last page of the programme sheet of the eighth concert
organised by the Philharmonie Brussel for the 1942/43 season 146
7.2 Second and third page of the programme sheet of the fifth concert
organised by the Philharmonie Brussel for the 1943/44 season 147
7.3 Advertisement for the sixth concert of the Philharmonisch Orkest
van Antwerpen for the 1943/44 season 152
7.4 First page of the programme sheet of the ninth concert of the
Koninklijke Stadsopera Ghent for the 1942/43 season 156
8.1 Pesennik dobrovol’tsa, title page 179
9.1 The audience at Karl Gustav Fellerer’s lecture in Brussels on
4 May 1942: ‘Mozart, the German’ (‘Mozart, der Deutsche’) 199
9.2 The Brussels Senate Hall during the opening ceremony of the
‘Mozart commemoration in Flanders’ on 3 May 1942 200
9.3 The cover page of De Vlag’s special issue devoted to the ‘Mozart
commemoration in Flanders’ 202
10.1 Otakar Šourek and State President Emil Hácha at the exhibition
‘Antonín Dvořák’ held in Prague’s Central Library, 1940 218
10.2 Otakar Šourek with Aloisie Fialová (née Dvořáková) and President
Hácha at the opening of the Dvořák Jubilee Year in Prague’s
Municipal House, 19 March 1941 219
10.3 Overview of the number of performances of Antonín Dvořák’s
works by the Czech Philharmonic, 1939–1945 223
10.4 Overview of the number of performances of Antonín Dvořák’s
operas at the National Theatre in Prague, 1939–1945 224
11.1 Poster of the Grieg centenary, 1843–1943 235
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