Music as a weapon of Nazi propaganda: a book by historian Isabelle Mity explores the soundtrack of the Third Reich

In his book The blackmailers of the Third Reichpublished by Éditions Perrin in April, the teacher and historian Isabelle Mity offers a unique insight into the soundtrack of National Socialism, a regime which exploited music to make it a tool of education, conquest, control, seduction, but also dehumanization.

Subtitled Music and musicians under Nazism”, Â the fascinating work written by Isabelle Mity, teacher, historian and contributor to the magazine Historyauthor in 2022 of the book Actresses of the Third Reich. Splendors and miseries of the icons of Nazi Hollywoodexplores a disastrous period during which the German totalitarian regime made music a weapon of mass distraction but also a propaganda tool through its ideological exploitation.

Through 336 pages, the book offers both an overview of composers and repertoires prized by a regime which, at the same time, castigates and blacklists the Degenerate music (degenerate music), particularly that of Jewish artists. A real political strategy orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of People’s Education and Propaganda of the Third Reich appointed by Adolf Hitler.

Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwängler considered by some as “laquais du Reich

Isabelle Mity’s book is divided into three main parts. The first, entitled “ Au tempo des nazis returns in particular to the close link that Hitler maintained with music and mainly his passion, from a very young age, with the work of Richard Wagner but also his rejection of musicians of Jewish origin or those, like Johannes Brahms, whom he described as “a living room phenomenon praised to the skies by Jewry.”

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In this first part, the way in which Nazi propaganda transformed music from a tool of seduction to a weapon of conquest and the equivocal connections maintained by the Nazi regime with great names in German music such as the composer Richard Strauss and the conductor Wilhelm are also described. Furtwängler, considered by some to be “Lack of the Reich”.

Jazz and swing to try to disturb the allies

In the second part of the book, “The war in music”, Isabelle Mity explains how the music imposed (or supported) by the Nazi regime during the Second World War invaded the entire world, particularly thanks to its broadcast on the radio.

From military marches to propaganda film music and major “tubes” as Lily Marlene et The Dove but also, paradoxically, jazz and swing which Goebbels used to try to catch the allies at their own game by spreading “with words in English but with words likely to disturb the enemy.

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The last chapter, entitled “À la mort, à la vie » touches the reader deep in his heart and soul because it strives to show how much my music was present in the concentration and extermination camps.

First Nazi anthems broadcast through loudspeakers to dehumanize and humiliate the prisoners, then music played by orchestras made up of prisoners in order to distract and “maintain morale” German soldiers, knowing, as Isabelle Mity explains, that “Knowing how to play an instrument or being a professional musician has considerably increased the chances of survival for a certain number of deportees.”

Erich Wolfgang Korngold : «ÂI believe that Mendelssohn will survive Hitler

At the conclusion of her book, Isabelle Mity evokes the indelible traces that this period left in post-war musical life both in Europe and across the Atlantic where a large number of musicians, often of Jewish origin, such as the Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, emigrated. declared upon his arrival in Hollywood in 1934 “I believe Mendelssohn will survive Hitler.”

 

A copy of the Master Singers of the Third Reich will be put into play next week in the Mystery Composer game offered by Pauline Lambert in her show “Changez d’air” on Radio Classique from Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Philippe Gault