Negermusik
Encyclopedia
Negermusik was a pejorative term used by the Nazi's during Third Reich Germany
to signify musical styles and performances by African-Americans that were of the Jazz
and Swing
music genres. They viewed these musical styles in a racist fashion as inferior works
belonging to an "inferior race" and therefore prohibitive. The term, at that same time, was also applied to indigenous music styles of black Africans. In post-war 1950s Germany the musical genre of rock 'n' roll
still carried this same association.
during 1927, Ernst Krenek
's opera of Jonny spielt auf
(Jonny Strikes Up) contained jazz musical performances that caused protests among some right-wing ethnic-nationalist
groups in Germany at the time. In 1930, the American musician Henry Cowell wrote in the Melos journal that jazz interpreted a mixture of African-American and Jewish elements, stating that:
Such views were readily picked up by the Nazis. Their criticisms have included "gratuitous use of syncopation" and "orgies of drums". More statements from the Nazis included such things as "artistic licentiousness" and "corruption seed in the musical expression" with "indecent dance forms". They went on to scrutinize all modern music of the 1930s as a "political weapon of the Jews". On 4 May 1930, Wilhelm Frick
, the Reich's newly appointed Minister of the Interior and Education for Thuringia
made a decree called "Against the Negro Culture — For Our German Heritage".
In 1932 the national government under Franz von Papen
pandered to the Nazis by banning all public performances by black musicians. After Adolf Hitler
gained "seizure of power
" in 1933, the Reich's Music Chamber
was also created in that same year. This was then followed by a full legal ban on this music on October 12, 1935 across all German national radio. This ban was spearheaded by the Reich transmission conductor, Eugen Hadamovsky
, who purportedly publicly stated "Mit dem heutigen Tag spreche ich ein endgültiges Verbot des Niggerjazz für den gesamten Deutschen Rundfunk aus." (in English- "As of today I am speaking from a definitive ban on the Nigger jazz for the entire German Radio."). In addition, it is interesting to note that the archaic German word for Negro/Black person ' Neger ' has phonetic similarity to that of the word ' Nigger '; the ethnic slur used in English.
In 1938, the Nazis organized the 'Entartete Musik
' public exhibition in Germany, mainly in Düsseldorf
. This exhibition included a poster displaying a caricature
of an African-American male playing on a saxophone with the Star of David
on his tuxedo lapel. The overall theme of the exhibition was that of a defamation of contemporary American music as "Negro music" and as another Jewish 'plot' upon German culture.
" (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg
(St. Pauli
) and Berlin
. They were mainly composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls. They defied National Socialism (Nazism) by listening and dancing to this same banned music in private quarters, clubs, rented halls and vacant cafés. Jazz music was offensive to Nazi ideology, because it was often performed by blacks and a number of Jewish musicians. The Swing Kids gave the impression of being apolitical
, similar to their zoot suit
er counterparts in North America.
On 18 August 1941, in a brutal police operation, over 300 Swing kids were arrested. The measures against them ranged from cutting their hair and sending them back to school under close monitoring, to the deportation of their leaders to concentration camps.
The 1993 movie, Swing Kids
, gives a fictional portrayal of these same youths in that period in Germany.
, Joseph Goebbels
's Reich propaganda ministry
published pamphlets written in Dutch named 'Greetings from England - The Coming Invasion'. These pamphlets contained statements in-between, such as "old jazz-records" and a further full statement declaring "at the celebration of liberation your daughters and wives will be dancing in the arms of real Negroes". This further equated Jazz music with blackness at that time to stir up racism
and anti-Allied propaganda within occupied Europe.
Ironically Goebbels managed to create a Nazi-sponsored German swing band named Charlie and his Orchestra
whose propagandistic
purpose was to win over support and sympathy from British and American listeners through Shortwave
radio.
Additionally counter-propaganda was used by Allied forces which played upon the fears of the Nazi's banned music. One such example is Glenn Miller
, who was a White American Jazz musician, that initially provided Jazz music, through radio, to Allied combat soldiers for the purposes of entertainment and morale. His same music was used as counter-propaganda by the Allies to denounce Nazi criminality and fight fascist oppression with even Miller once stating himself:
genre with such acts like Elvis and Chuck Berry
gaining new popularity amongst youth. This attitude also continued right up into the 1960s carrying the same derogatory term that not only maintained its resentment by older generations and conservatives but also was an aggressive defense against a then new contemporary American culture.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
to signify musical styles and performances by African-Americans that were of the Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
music genres. They viewed these musical styles in a racist fashion as inferior works
Degenerate art
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
belonging to an "inferior race" and therefore prohibitive. The term, at that same time, was also applied to indigenous music styles of black Africans. In post-war 1950s Germany the musical genre of rock 'n' roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
still carried this same association.
Nazi Germany
At the time of the Weimar RepublicWeimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
during 1927, Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
's opera of Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf is an opera with words and music by Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the 'golden era' of the Weimar Republic.-Performance history:...
(Jonny Strikes Up) contained jazz musical performances that caused protests among some right-wing ethnic-nationalist
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
groups in Germany at the time. In 1930, the American musician Henry Cowell wrote in the Melos journal that jazz interpreted a mixture of African-American and Jewish elements, stating that:
"The fundamentals of jazz are the syncopation and rhythmic accents of the Negro. Their modernization is the work of New York Jews [...] So Jazz is Negro music seen through the eyes of the Jews."
Such views were readily picked up by the Nazis. Their criticisms have included "gratuitous use of syncopation" and "orgies of drums". More statements from the Nazis included such things as "artistic licentiousness" and "corruption seed in the musical expression" with "indecent dance forms". They went on to scrutinize all modern music of the 1930s as a "political weapon of the Jews". On 4 May 1930, Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick was a prominent German Nazi official serving as Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich. After the end of World War II, he was tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed...
, the Reich's newly appointed Minister of the Interior and Education for Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
made a decree called "Against the Negro Culture — For Our German Heritage".
In 1932 the national government under Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
pandered to the Nazis by banning all public performances by black musicians. After Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
gained "seizure of power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
" in 1933, the Reich's Music Chamber
Reichsmusikkammer
The Reichsmusikkammer was a Nazi institution. It promoted "good German music" which was composed by Aryans and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals, while suppressing other, "degenerate" music, which included atonal music, jazz, and music by Jewish composers...
was also created in that same year. This was then followed by a full legal ban on this music on October 12, 1935 across all German national radio. This ban was spearheaded by the Reich transmission conductor, Eugen Hadamovsky
Eugen Hadamovsky
Eugen Hadamovsky was a radio production director for Nazi Germany.Hadamovsky was born in Berlin, Brandenburg. He was an early Nazi supporter, who helped organize Nazi radio listeners and handled the technical details at many of Hitler's mass rallies...
, who purportedly publicly stated "Mit dem heutigen Tag spreche ich ein endgültiges Verbot des Niggerjazz für den gesamten Deutschen Rundfunk aus." (in English- "As of today I am speaking from a definitive ban on the Nigger jazz for the entire German Radio."). In addition, it is interesting to note that the archaic German word for Negro/Black person ' Neger ' has phonetic similarity to that of the word ' Nigger '; the ethnic slur used in English.
In 1938, the Nazis organized the 'Entartete Musik
Degenerate music
Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
' public exhibition in Germany, mainly in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. This exhibition included a poster displaying a caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
of an African-American male playing on a saxophone with the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
on his tuxedo lapel. The overall theme of the exhibition was that of a defamation of contemporary American music as "Negro music" and as another Jewish 'plot' upon German culture.
Swing kids
The "Swing KidsSwing Kids
The Swing Kids were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well...
" (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
(St. Pauli
St. Pauli
St. Pauli , located in the Hamburg-Mitte borough, is one of the 105 quarters of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the Landungsbrücken are a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. Pauli contains a world famous red light district around the street Reeperbahn...
) and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. They were mainly composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls. They defied National Socialism (Nazism) by listening and dancing to this same banned music in private quarters, clubs, rented halls and vacant cafés. Jazz music was offensive to Nazi ideology, because it was often performed by blacks and a number of Jewish musicians. The Swing Kids gave the impression of being apolitical
Apolitical
The state or quality of being apolitical can be the apathy and/or the antipathy towards all political affiliations. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position in regard to political matters.-References:...
, similar to their zoot suit
Zoot suit
A zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s...
er counterparts in North America.
On 18 August 1941, in a brutal police operation, over 300 Swing kids were arrested. The measures against them ranged from cutting their hair and sending them back to school under close monitoring, to the deportation of their leaders to concentration camps.
The 1993 movie, Swing Kids
Swing Kids (film)
Swing Kids is a film produced in 1993, directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Kenneth Branagh. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s...
, gives a fictional portrayal of these same youths in that period in Germany.
World War II
Prior to the D-Day landings, during the German occupation of the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
's Reich propaganda ministry
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
published pamphlets written in Dutch named 'Greetings from England - The Coming Invasion'. These pamphlets contained statements in-between, such as "old jazz-records" and a further full statement declaring "at the celebration of liberation your daughters and wives will be dancing in the arms of real Negroes". This further equated Jazz music with blackness at that time to stir up racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and anti-Allied propaganda within occupied Europe.
Ironically Goebbels managed to create a Nazi-sponsored German swing band named Charlie and his Orchestra
Charlie and his Orchestra
Charlie and his Orchestra were a Nazi-sponsored German propaganda swing band...
whose propagandistic
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
purpose was to win over support and sympathy from British and American listeners through Shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
radio.
Additionally counter-propaganda was used by Allied forces which played upon the fears of the Nazi's banned music. One such example is Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
, who was a White American Jazz musician, that initially provided Jazz music, through radio, to Allied combat soldiers for the purposes of entertainment and morale. His same music was used as counter-propaganda by the Allies to denounce Nazi criminality and fight fascist oppression with even Miller once stating himself:
"America means freedom and theres no expression of freedom quite so sincere as music".-Glenn Miller
Post-War period
Even in the Post–World War II years in 1950's Germany, there were some protests from churches, school authorities and politicians against the "obscene Negro music" of the newly emerging rock 'n' rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
genre with such acts like Elvis and Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
gaining new popularity amongst youth. This attitude also continued right up into the 1960s carrying the same derogatory term that not only maintained its resentment by older generations and conservatives but also was an aggressive defense against a then new contemporary American culture.
Literature
- Michael H. KaterMichael H. KaterMichael Hans Kater is a Canadian-based historian, academic and author of several books on Nazi Germany.He moved to Canada as a teenager where he first studied at St. Michael's college before eventually going onto the University of Toronto where he earned his BA degree in 1959 and then his MA in...
(2003): Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195165531 - Mike ZwerinMike ZwerinMike Zwerin was an American cool jazz musician and author. Zwerin as a musician played the trombone and bass trumpet within various jazz ensembles. He was active within the jazz and prog. jazz musical community as a session musician...
(2000): Swing Under the Nazis: Jazz as a Metaphor for Freedom. Cooper Square Publishers, ISBN 978-0815410751 - Clarence LusaneClarence LusaneClarence Lusane is an African-American author, activist, lecturer and free-lance journalist. His most recent major work has been the publication of his book The Black History of the White House.-Background:...
(2003): Hitler's black victims: the historical experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi era. Routledge, ISBN 978-0415932950
External links
- Hitler's black victims: the ... - Clarence Lusane (pages. 199-200) - Google Books
- Degenerate Music - Holocaust - Florida Center for Instructional Technology
- Ebony | March 1966 | magazine | (page. 111) - Google Books
- The Music Survives! Degenerate Music: Music Suppressed by the Third Reich
- The Chronicle - Blacks: forgotten target of Europe's hate and love
- Melos (1920-1934) - RIPM Journal Information
- Music and the Holocaust: Swing Kids Behind Barbed Wire
- Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain (George McKay) - Academia.edu
- GSB-Hamburg: World in Touch 10e (1999-2001), Politik & Geschichte
- Django-World War II
- Label of love: Blue Note | Music | guardian.co.uk
- Offensive English translation of Arnold Schwarzenegger's last name? - Straight Dope Message Board
- Is the German word "Neger" a pejorative?
- Case Study: Swing Kids - Resources - HMD Trust