BANNED
BY THE NAZIS:
"Entartete Musik"
Reconstruction of the Nazi exhibition Düsseldorf 1938
created by Albrecht Dümling and Peter Girth
I. GERMAN VERSION
Whereas the Nazi exhibition "Entartete Kunst" has after the war several times been reconstructed (in Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf), the music exhibition of Düsseldorf 1938 was nearly forgotten. Nobody seemed to remember that this industrial town on river Rhine was designed to be the second musical center of Nazi-Germany. Peter Girth, formerly executive director of the Berlin Philharmonic, then musical director of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, initiated the reconstruction of this "Degenerate Music" exhibition.
Besides the reconstruction the new exhibit discusses
the destruction of the musical life of the Weimar republic. It also tries to
give an overview of German musical life in the Thirties, including the
"research" of prominent German musicologists on racist topics as
presented in Düsseldorf in 1938.
The new exhibition opened
in 1988 to commemorate its 50th anniversary in the Tonhalle, the main
concert-hall of Düsseldorf. It traveled around Europe, to more than 40 cities,
including Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Hamburg,
Munich, Bremen, Luxembourg, Nuremberg, Cologne, Stuttgart and Dresden.
FROM THE PRESS:
This exhibition (plus catalogue and documentation of
sound) should belong to the intellectual luggage of everyone, who today is
dealing with music of these times and wants to be watchful, that
"Entartung" will remain a term, that belongs to the past.
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, MUNICH
II. AMERICAN
VERSION
Created by Albrecht Dümling
Designer: Joseph Brubaker and Peter Girth
Translation: Ernestine Kahn and Daniel Smith, Los
Angeles
The American version,
created for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, has been shown at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center Los Angeles (1991), at the Bard
Music Festival New York (1992), the Brandeis University Boston (1994), the
Royal Festival Hall London (1995/96), at the Auditori Concert Hall in Barcelona
(2000),
in Miami (Symphony of the West, 2004/05) and at the Ravinia Festival Chicago
(2005).
"This
exhibit must lead not to criticism of others and condemnation of others
but to criticism of ourselves and to a keener awareness of our own
responsibilities."
Lord YEHUDI
MENUHIN
"It is a mere 60 years since the cultural
brutality represented in the exhibition 'Entartete Musik' destroyed so much of
the European musical landscape, and it would be a conceit to say it could not
happen again."
Sir GEORG SOLTI
The exhibit consists of
a) 44 panels (each one 48 inches wide and 56 inches high, which have to be hung on walls),
b) video and
sound installations with English subtitles or translations,
c) documents for up to 30 vitrines
d) the German catalogue (279 pages, 300
illustrations), third enlarged edition, March 1993 (now out of print),
e) a small English catalogue (48 pages), with contributions by Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Georg Solti,
Berthold Goldschmidt and Erik Levi. London 1995
f) the documentation of sound "Entartete Musik", consisting of
four CDs, with booklets in English.
g) A film
"Verbotene Klänge. Musik unter dem Hakenkreuz"
(80 minutes) has been produced
with support of the City of Düsseldorf and the Kulturstiftung der Länder
(German National Endowment of the Arts). Emigrants like Ernst Krenek
(Vienna/Palm Springs), Herbert Zipper (Pacific Palisades) and Berthold
Goldschmidt (Berlin/London) are being portrayed.
English video version (VHS)
with subtitles available.
Idea:
Albrecht Dümling, Producer: Wolfgang
Pfeiffer, Berlin
Director and Camera: Norbert Bunge, Berlin
From the Press:
"Degenerate
Art" and "Degenerate Music" are extremely important and timely
exhibitions.
ANGELES.
THE ART OF LIVING IN L.A.
It
was a chilling reminder that such a thing could happen. I only wish we could
have had this exhibit last year. It could have been a reminder of what happens
when a government starts making artistic judgments.
LOS
ANGELES TIMES
A
landmark exhibition.
WOODSTOCK
TIMES
The
exhibit documents the Nazi's scurrilous, illogical slander of musicians as
disparate as Krenek, Bruno Walter, Richard Tauber and Josephine Baker, and shows
with sickening clarity how susceptible music is to political ideology. As an
audio tape plays, you tap your foot to a catchy march until you realize it was
composed for some brownshirt rally. Then a chill goes up your spine.
THE
WALL STREET JOURNAL
The
exhibition's posters vilify composers whose music, in the Nazis' views, did not
represent pure German values and would corrupt the morals of children. Music
lovers are exhorted to reject those dangerous currents and protest against them.
A
visitor taking in the exhibition just two days after the Republican National
Convention could not help but notice a similarity between this rhetoric and that
of the American right wing.
THE
NEW YORK TIMES
That
some of the abused composers have now been restored to concert and record
circulation - Ullmann, Schulhoff, Krasa -
is a tribute to this exhibition.
THE
DAILY TELEGRAPH, London
The
exhibition stands as a worthy tribute to a lost epoch of music and a reminder
that freedom of the arts cannot be taken lightly
THE
JEWISH CHRONICLE,
London