Jewish Music Life in Bavaria 1930–50. Topography, inventory, performance database

• Applicant: Dr. Tobias Reichard
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 539637337

"Island," "oasis," "refuge," "haven of resistance," "prison," "spiritual ghetto"... Almost all contemporary accounts of Jewish musical and theatrical life under National Socialism are permeated by such spatial metaphors. Spatial semantics of isolation, confinement, and withdrawal as well as of subversiveness and resistance refer to a central aspect that not only impacted Jewish musical life, but Jewish everyday experiences in the Nazi dictatorship in general. These experiences were the result of an increasingly strict regulation of public space, which succeeded in completely expelling Jews from society during the Nazi era. Nazi persecution was particularly intense in the field of music from the start, since the supposedly 'most German of the arts' was a core component of National Socialist ideology. Jewish musicians were therefore forced to find alternative ways of earning a living and performing. Like their Jewish audience, they had to reorient themselves in a public space that was shaped by massive violence and proved to be particularly precarious in Bavaria – with the "capital of the movement" Munich, the "city of the Reich Party Rallies" Nuremberg, the Wagner city Bayreuth and the first concentration camp in Dachau. Jewish musical life under National Socialism was thus considerably shaped on various levels by spatial conditions, which have, however, hardly been researched so far. The aims of the proposed project are to investigate the conditions of Jewish music life in Bavaria, to thoroughly investigate the relevant sources, and to ask what knowledge can be gained from a historiography of music that is sensitive to spatial contexts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants