Settling Scores: German Music, Denazification, And The Americans, 1945-1953 - Hardcover

Monod, David

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9780807829448: Settling Scores: German Music, Denazification, And The Americans, 1945-1953

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807829447 ISBN 13: 9780807829448

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr, 2005

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Classical music was central to German national identity in the early twentieth century. The preeminence of composers such as Bach and Beethoven and artists such as conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler and pianist Walter Gieseking was cited by the Nazis as justification for German expansionism and as evidence of Aryan superiority. In the minds of many Americans, further German aggression could be prevented only if the population's faith in its moral and cultural superiority was shattered. In Settling Scores, David Monod examines the attempted "denazification" of the German music world by the Music Control Branch of the Information Control Division of Military Government.

The occupying American forces barred from the stage and concert hall all former Nazi Party members and even anyone deemed to display an "authoritarian personality." They also imported European and American music. These actions, however, divided American officials and outraged German audiences and performers. Nonetheless, the long-term effects were greater than has been previously recognized, as German government officials regained local control and voluntarily limited their involvement in artistic life while promoting "new" (anti-Nazi) music.

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Book Description:

"This insightful book is clearly organized and elegantly written. . . . Engaging, authoritative . . . poised to become required reading for all historians and musicologists interested in cultural rebirth amidst the postwar ruins of occupied Germany."-- American Studies

From the Inside Flap:

Monod examines the attempts by the occupying U.S. Army at the "denazification" of the German music community. Drawing on interviews and archives in both Germany and the United States, the author explores the attempt to purge and rebuild one dimension of German cultural life.

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