Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Foundations of Nazi Cultural History
- Part II Blind to the Light
- 6 Classicism Romanticized
- 7 Intolerance toward Enlightenment
- 8 Forging Steel Romanticism
- 9 Romantic Music as “Our Greatest Legacy”
- Part III Modern Dilemmas
- Part IV “Holy” War and Weimar “Crisis”
- Part V Nazi “Solutions”
- Notes
- Index
9 - Romantic Music as “Our Greatest Legacy”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Foundations of Nazi Cultural History
- Part II Blind to the Light
- 6 Classicism Romanticized
- 7 Intolerance toward Enlightenment
- 8 Forging Steel Romanticism
- 9 Romantic Music as “Our Greatest Legacy”
- Part III Modern Dilemmas
- Part IV “Holy” War and Weimar “Crisis”
- Part V Nazi “Solutions”
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The above has made clear that the Völkischer Beobachter worked strenuously to establish that German composers of the Baroque and Classical ages had expressed in music Germanic, volkish, patriotic, and anti-Semitic ideals that came to full realization under National Socialism. Given the general attitude that music was the “most German of the arts” – and its command integral to any worthwhile definition of Bildung – it was a priority for Nazi publicists to continue establishing close associations with the great composers of the nineteenth century. Consistent with their proclivity toward romantic culture as a whole, music of that period – which, from their perspective, reached its zenith in Wagner’s operatic body of work – was presented as the greatest jewel in the cultural legacy of the Third Reich and as the aesthetic wellspring for any music that would henceforth emerge from the Nazi experience.
Goebbels put these ideas forth in a speech opening the Reich Music Days in Düsseldorf in 1938. Pleading that “the fame of Germany as the nation of music be once again revealed and substantiated,” he spoke on the development of a Nazi music tradition as a whole, to the point of specifying the fundamentally romantic features it would have to maintain: “may the principles that have since time immemorial been the source and the driving force behind our German music again be set forth and recognized.” By such “principles,” Goebbels clearly meant romantic notions of music as the deepest expression of spirit and emotion:
Music is the most sensual of the arts and for this reason appeals more to the heart and the emotions than to the intellect . . . The language of musical tones is sometimes more effective than the language of words. For this reason, the great masters of the past represent the true majesty of our people and are deserving of reverence and respect. And as children of our Volk they are the true monarchs of our people by God’s grace and are destined to receive the fame and honor of our nation.
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- Information
- InhumanitiesNazi Interpretations of Western Culture, pp. 198 - 218Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012