Hanns Eisler in Republican Spain (1931 - 1939)
Final Report Abstract
As the first project dedicated to the study of Eisler's activities and influence in Spain, Hanns Eisler in Republican Spain filled a significant gap in the Eisler studies. The project produced a large corpus of new data related to Eisler’s biography in the period 1936-37 and on his political activites in Spain: it contributed to better understand Eisler’s attempts to transfer the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music from Barcelona to the Soviet Union, as well as the history of his "Olympic anthem" for the "anti-Hitlerian People's Olympiad" planed in Barcelona as a international protest against the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi-Berlin. The project also found that Eisler composed his Bauernkantate (1937) as a direct response to the Spanish Civil War and greatly influenced by the war events in Spain, in particular the Madrid bombings by the Nazi Condor Legion. This cantata became one of the movements of the Deutsche Sinfonie. This symphony is one of the most significant vocal-symphonic works written during the Nazi period by German exiles denouncing fascim. The knowledge gained in this project contributed decisively to a better understanding of transnational relations within Europe in relation to the anti-fascist and pro-communist propaganda of the mid-1930s. Moreover, it helped to demythologise Eisler’s collaboration with Spanish antifascism and in particular the German International Brigades druing the civil war. This glorification of the Intenational Brigades, and of Eisler's collaboration with them, was a product of the GDR's historical memory processes and has been now revised in detail. The project also contributed decisively to recent examinations of the influence abroad of Eisler’s theories and crative output during his exile years. In Spain this influence was even more significant than hitherto presumed, particularly in relation to his Kampflieder. The influence of Eisler's Kampflieder on the civil-war propaganda songs by several Spanish communist composers was greater than expected. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that his Solidaritätslied was taken as a model for a relatively large corpus of wartime antifascist propaganda songs. Finally, the project has analyzed in great detail the various ways in which the Marxist historiographical narratives and critical theories of music developed by Eisler in Berlin entered Spain in the 1930s. The work of Marxist musicologist Otto Mayer-Serra, a member of Eisler's circle in pre-Nazi Berlin, was key in these reception processes. The project largely adhered to the original plan as exposed in the initial Antrag, with very few deviations from what was initially planned.
Publications
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Encyclopedia entry “Otto Mayer-Serra”, article for the music encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
Diego Alonso
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“Hanns Eisler in Republican Spain”. Eisler-Mitteilungen 67 (2018), 23–31. [Journal of the International Hanns Eisler Society]
Diego Alonso
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“From the People to the People: The Reception of Hanns Eisler’s Critical Theory of Music in Spain through the Writings of Otto Mayer-Serra”, in: Musicologica Austriaca. Journal for Austrian Music Studies (Österreichsische Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft). Online journal.
Diego Alonso
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“Aus Hanns Eislers Berliners Kreis ins spanische Exil und weiter nach Mexiko: Otto Mayer-Serra in den 1930er Jahren”, Eisler-Mitteilungen 69 (2020), 22-28. [Journal of the International Hanns Eisler Society]
Diego Alonso
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Rezeption und kompositorische Einfluss Hanns Eislers Kampflieder der Jahren 1929–1934 im republikanischen Spanien. Die Musikforschung, 74(4). Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Dresden.
Diego Alonso
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Transnational Networks of Communist Musical Propaganda in the Spanish Civil War. Journal of War & Culture Studies, 14(4), 454-478.
Alonso, Diego
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“Ludwig van Beethoven y el materialismo dialéctico en la historiografía musical marxista de Otto Mayer-Serra (1933–1939)”, in: Beethoven ibérico. Dos siglos de transferencia cultural. Ed. Teresa Cascudo (Granada: Comares, 2021), 287–301.
Diego Alonso
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Kampflieder, Satire, Homoerotik: Ludwig Renns ‘nicht vertonte Texte’ aus der Zeit des Spanischen Bürgerkriegs im Hanns Eisler Archiv”, Eisler-Mitteilungen 72 (February 2022), 7-13 [Journal of the International Hanns Eisler Society]
Diego Alonso
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Hanns Eisler and His Circle in Republican Spain. Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
Tomás, Diego Alonso
