Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought- provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

Category: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'Wagners & Hitler', 'SS, Nazi Uniforms', 'Third Reich Flags', 'WW2 Movies, Films', 'Re-enactment'.

Music in Exile: A Toronto ensemble tours revives composers banned by Third Reich
The 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power doesn't look like a good topic for commemoration with a concert series. Yet Toronto's Artists of the Royal Conservatory ensemble has found a fitting way to mark the occasion, touring with "Music in Exile" -program, playing music written by composers who fled Nazi Germany. Many were Jewish, but not all, as the Nazis banned anything they deemed "entartete Musik" ("degenerate music"). "The émigrés went everywhere, not just New York and Hollywood," says Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC ensemble.     [ theglobeandmail :: 2008-04-13 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Documentary films explore life under Nazi Germany and Soviet Union
The latest from director Bruno Monsaingeon are 2 hour-long films on 20th-century Russian music: "The Red Baton: Scenes of Musical Life in Stalinist Russia" and "Gennadi Rozhdestvensky: Conductor or Conjurer?" "The Red Baton" explores the psychic torture artists suffered in a society so insane that Rozhdestvensky, looking back, doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. --- Enrique Sanchez Lansch's well researched film "The Reichsorchester: The Berlin Philharmonic and the Third Reich" reveals the Berlin Philharmonic's history as both a Nazi propaganda tool and a morale booster for German citizens.     [ nj :: 2008-03-11 :: Documentary films: War, History & Nazi Germany ]

German archive focuses on music silenced by the Nazis
Numerous Jewish musicians were forbidden from performing during the Nazi years. Now, a Center for Ostracized Music plans to recover these lost musical voices. After the race laws in 1933, the German Music Chamber (Reichsmusikkammer) set up a register of all musicians. As a result, many musicians had their work suppressed because their race or music offended the Third Reich. Works by composers such as Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn, and Arnold Schoenberg were prohibited. As the Nazis occupied more countries, the numbers of banned musicians grew. At the moment the archive holds 400 works from 50 ostracized composers.     [ dw-world :: 2008-03-01 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

104-year-old Nazi-era singer returns to stage: Performed for Adolf Hitler
104-year-old Dutch cabaret singer Johannes Heesters has given a concert in the Netherlands for the first time in 4 decades - with protests and tight security around the theatre. Although Heesters says he never embraced Nazi politics, he performed in Nazi Germany for Adolf Hitler and visited the Dachau camp. Many Dutch people have never forgiven him. "He kept singing for the Nazi regime, for the Wehrmacht, and he earned millions," said Piet Schouten, of a committee formed to protest against performance. Heesters was never accused of being a Nazi propagandist, and the Allies let him to continue performing after the war.     [ bbc :: 2008-02-17 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

The Music of the Nightmare : Neo-Nazi music
Neo-Nazi and far-right wing music is Conceived to lure and brainwash minds to hate in the name of blood, honour and the supremacy of the white man. Espousing Nazi ideals, neo-Nazi music has been a grim feature of Western society for the last 30 years. While the stereotype of all-male skinheads covered in tattoos and bursting with aggression is still the most visible face, the reality is that the scene ranges from heavy metal to folk. As a recruitment tool, music is powerful medium to deliver a message by appealing to the emotions and stick in the listener's head. The history of hate music goes hand in hand with the rise of the skinhead movement in the 1970s...     [ aijac :: 2007-11-28 ]

The Nazis' favourite composer Wagner played at Berlin's Nazi arena
Hitler and Wagner will "turn in their graves" when an orchestra of Jews and Muslims performs the Valkyrie by the Nazis' favourite composer Richard Wagner. The production is to be staged at the Waldbuhne, the outdoor arena built for the Berlin Olympics in 1936 at which some athletes gave the Nazi salute in front of Hitler. Conductor Daniel Barenboim said his production would have stunned the Nazi leader and his muse: "Can you imagine that? The Waldbuhne was built by Hitler. The music is Wagner. Played by us!"     [ telegraph :: 2007-10-18 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Book Tells of Philharmonic's Nazi Ties - Das Reichsorchester
The Berlin Philharmonic became a privileged servant of Nazi propaganda after Adolf Hitler's 1933 takeover, making a deal with the new regime that won it financial security. That's according to a book recounting how the orchestra lent its gloss to the Nazis. The arrangement saw the orchestra touring abroad as an example of German cultural superiority and serenading Hitler on his birthday. In "Das Reichsorchester" historian Misha Aster writes that the relationship between the Nazis and the orchestra was complex, and each side exploited the other - although Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels held the upper hand over conductor Wilhelm Fuertwaengler.     [ washingtonpost :: 2007-08-25 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

The Navy B-1 Band : The black Navy band made WWII history
To the tune of the solemn "Navy Hymn," photos appear of 44 World War Two sailors in dress uniforms. Calvin Morrow is among 14 of the 44 who survive. Age, not combat, reduced the numbers. Instead of guns, the sailors fought for America with clarinets, French horns, trumpets, drums and trombones. They believe their music hastened integration a tad. They belonged to the Navy B-1 Band, an all black group formed in 1942. It was the first time the Navy let black sailors rise above orderlies, say Morrow and Alvin Albright. The band traveled to parades, war bond rallies and ship christenings.     [ news-record :: 2007-05-29 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Berlin's Philharmonic to probe its role under Nazi Regime 1933-1945
The Berlin Philharmonic marked its 125th birthday with a concert of works by Wagner and Brahms given in a former factory where slave labour was put to work during the Nazi period. The orchestra aimed to probe its role during the years under Adolf Hitler 1933-1945. "The history of the Philharmonic during the Nazi period has never really been worked through." A new book on the orchestra during the period by Mischa Aster isto be published detailing the role of the conductor of the time, Wilhelm Furtwaengler.     [ expatica :: 2007-05-03 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Saved from scraps, music of the death camps - Listen samples
Scribbled in notebooks and diaries they provide a remarkable history of the music played and sung by the victims of the nazi era. Scores for thousands of waltzes, tangos, operas and folk songs will be made available by Francesco Lotoro, a professional pianist who for 16 years has been scouring cities to amass his collection. Much of the music is sad and plaintive, the lyrics of one song by Josef Kropinski read: "In Buchenwald, the birch trees rustle sadly, as my heart sways languishing in woe." Despite the privations of life, there are several upbeat songs and plenty of wry humour: "There's no life like life at Auschwitz!"     [ telegraph :: 2007-04-02 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Music composed or played in dark places 1933-1945
Scribbled on diaries, loose pages or even toilet paper, these are the notes left behind by people who lived and died in the prisons and camps of WW2. Italian researchers hope thousands of nearly forgotten works will find new life as they assemble a library of music from those dark places 1933-1945. He has been collecting originals, copies and recordings of everything from operas composed in the depth of the Nazi death machine to jazz pieces written in Japanese POW camps in jungles. The library, at Rome's Third University, will offer scholars 4,000 papers and 13,000 microfiches including music sheets, letters, drawings and photos.     [ usatoday :: 2007-03-19 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Composers in Nazi camps wrote music for three reasons
Article no longer available from the original source.
Composers in Nazi camps wrote music for 3 reasons: to document camp life, as a distraction from reality and to uphold musical traditions. The most famous opera written at Terezin is "The Emperor of Atlantis" by Victor Ullman, who wrote 22 works in the camp. The Emperor is Adolf Hitler, the Loudspeaker and Drummer-girl cast as Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering. Terezin was a "model camp" where artists spent time before being shipped to Auschwitz. An SS officer who watched a rehearsal recognized the piece's allegorical nature. The next morning, Ullman and the cast departed for Auschwitz. The opera was never performed until after the war.     [ oregonlive :: 2006-10-14 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Germany patriotism fight focuses on national anthem
Germany's patriotism debate has taken a new turn. The latest issue is over the national anthem. A regional teachers' union said that the 19th century verses are tainted by Germany's Nazi past and should be replaced by a new anthem. Most Germans seem to have trouble remembering anthem's words beyond the first two lines: "unity and justice and liberty for the German fatherland." The first verse, which begins with "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" and outlines a rather oversized Germany, was popular under the Nazis. After WWII, West Germany kept the anthem, despite some debate. Communist East Germany produced its own national song, "Risen from the Ruins."     [ cnn :: 2006-06-17 :: Germanic Culture Now ]

Third Reich and Music - Nazi attempt to manipulate music
The exhibit "The Third Reich and Music" at the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation features the Nazi attempt to manipulate music. Two hundred items, including letters, music scores, films and recordings make up the exhibit that illustrates how important music was in National Socialist Germany. The exhibit also shows how the Nazi regime's music propaganda was contradictory. Monumental music was to accompany monumental projects - from grand-scale architecture to huge military parades. Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner were Hitler's favourite composers - their music laden with an ever increasing, slow build-up of glorious sounding, awe-inspiring crescendos.     [ ejpress :: 2006-05-27 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

The Third Reich and Music - Exhibit
Them Nazis sure knew how to roll up a bunch of symbols at once in their propaganda. Above is a poster advertising their 1938 "Degenerate Music" exhibition, highlighting the destructive effects of jazz and 'negro music' in general, among others. Schloss Neuhardenberg outside of Berlin is hosting an exhibit called "The Third Reich and Music," combining creepy-kitsch like this poster with the various art forms the Nazis outlawed - principally modern and non-Aryan music (as opposed to classical Wagnerian stuff), plus paintings, letters, sculptures, and historical documents.     [ gridskipper :: 2006-04-23 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Marlene Dietrich DVD: The Glamour Collection
With Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection Universal taps into one of the biggest stars of the 1930s and one of the truly most glamorous women of the 20th century, a mysterious creature of a million male daydreams. Marlene Dietrich became the Trilby to Josef Von Sternberg's Svengali for a series of exotic romances. And she was one of the most beloved figures of WW2, reportedly associated with the song Lily Marlene by soldiers on both sides of the conflict in Europe.     [ dvdtalk :: 2006-04-13 :: Culture and Architecture of Third Reich ]

Anna Marly wrote the anthem of French Resistance
Anna Marly, who wrote the melody to the song that became the anthem of the French Resistance in WWII and whose whistling and singing on the radio were an inspiration to the anti-Nazi underground, died on Feb. 15 in Alaska. She wrote the melody to "Chant des Partisans," or "Song of the Partisans," which became an unofficial French anthem in the last years of WWII. Gen. Charles de Gaulle called Miss Marly the "troubadour of the Resistance."     [ nytimes :: 2006-03-13 :: Culture and Architecture of Third Reich ]

Nazi swing music from the 30s
FMU's terrific blog presents mp3s of songs by Charlie and His Orchestra, a big band assembled by Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to spread the Nazi message abroad even while trying to stamp out jazz and swing domestically. "Leave it to Goebbels to take the music of The Andrews Sisters, Paul Whiteman and Irving Berlin and fill it with venomous rants."     [ mf :: 2005-12-11 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Twin pop stars with angelic looks are new face of racism
America's white supremacist movement has an angelic new face: twin teenage pop stars whose songs preach messages of racial hatred. Prussian Blue, a "white power" band now recording its second album, is described as a sinister version of the Olsen Twins, the squeaky clean child actresses of the 1990s. It is attracting more and more fans among young white nationalists. Lamb and Lynx Gaede, blonde, blue-eyed 13-year-olds from California, have been entertaining all-white crowds with their music since the age of nine. Lamb plays the guitar and Lynx the violin.     [ telegraph :: 2005-10-25 :: Prussian Blue: Lamb and Lynx Gaede ]

Horst Wessel - Making a martyr
Horst Wessel became a member of the Bismarck-Jugend and joined the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA Stormtroopers). Horst Wessel was a lowlife, but in death he proved useful to his Reich. After his death, Goebbels set about making a martyr of him with a speech "Die Fahne Hoch!" - Raise high the flag - after the first line of a poem written by Wessel. He was exalted as a example of Nazi virtue; the seedier aspects were played down and his murder was portrayed as National Socialism's struggle against Marxism. The poem quoted by Goebbels was set to music and became a Nazi anthem and SA marching song: Die Fahne Hoch, Horst Wessel Lied or "The Horst Wessel Song."     [ everything 2 :: 2005-05-08 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Requiem for the masses - Five orchestras playing at Auschwitz
How can music have happened at Auschwitz? At one point there were at least five orchestras playing there. Holocaust: A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz was a film about music in Auschwitz. Some of the surviving musicians - survivors because they were musicians - talked about having their music stolen from them by the SS officers for their own needs. Eva Adam had to sing as the trains arrived - lively songs so the people getting off those trains would think that it was all going to be all right, although Eva knew most of them would be dead within half an hour. And Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was made to play Schumann on the cello for Dr Mengele.     [ guardian :: 2005-01-24 :: Auschwitz Birkenau ]

Swingtime for Hitler - Banning jazz
A few weeks after Hitler came to power in 1933, the German broadcasting authority announced its intention to ban jazz from the airwaves. It was degenerate, subhuman music, the reasoning went, written by Jews and performed by blacks. Two years later, the authority proudly declared: "As of today, nigger jazz is finally switched off on German radio." Then, in 1940, a jazz band formed in Berlin. The band was the brainchild of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and the lyrics were Axis propaganda, meant only for Allied ears. Any Germans caught listening were subject to "very, very severe punishment".     [ guardian :: 2004-10-27 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

International music scene in Germany a Nazi legacy
When Josef Goebbels officially outlawed foreign music, he had no idea he was doing the future generations of international artists a huge favour. In banning non-native music such as Swing - branded 'impure' because of its African-American origins - the Nazi propaganda minister indirectly gave outside music a cult status. Defying the regime's urges for them to join local Hitler Youth Brigades, many German teenagers, or self-styled 'Swing Babies' played these illegal tunes in public. When reported to the Gestapo, many of these were deported to youth camps where biologists were given free reign to 'sterilize and re-educate' them.     [ telegraph :: 2004-09-08 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Music Approved of by the Third Reich
Under the Nazi regime, all music produced had to fit within certain standards defined as "good" German music. Suppression of specific artists and their works was common, yet musicians were permitted limited artistic freedom. The Nazis attempted to create a balance between censorship and creativity in music to appease the German people. According to Hitler and Goebbels (Hitler's second in command), the three master composers that represented good German music were Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and Anton Bruckner. All three composers lived prior to the 20th century.     [ usf-edu :: 2004-05-08 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

Hitler's Welsh girlfriend revealed
A Welsh woman who married into one of Germany's most prominent musical families nearly became Adolf Hitler's wife. By 17, she was married to composer Richard Wagner's homosexual son Siegfried and met one of Wagner's greatest fans - future Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. They grew so close that it was actually Winifred who provided the paper on which Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in jail in the early 1920s. Following her husband's death in 1930, Hitler and Winifred's friendship intensified and he was described as being like a second father to her 4 children. At the time, there was even talk of them getting married.     [ bbc :: 2004-02-04 :: Wagners and Hitler ]

1940s Music - Download mp3
Russian Marches, Marches Of Roumanian Iron Guard, Music Of Fascist Italy, Music Of The Third Reich.     [ thepaganfront :: 2000-05-08 :: Music of Third Reich & Military Marches ]

See also

'Wagners & Hitler'

'SS, Nazi Uniforms'

'Third Reich Flags'

'WW2 Movies, Films'

'Re-enactment'.

What's new - recent & interesting categories.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2008. All rights reserved.