Recommended books & documentaries on Third Reich music

[Auceps]

MitKlingendemSpiel.jpg

Horst F. Zander (Hrsg.)
Mit klingendem Spiel
Insterburg 1919-1939
Eine ostpreußische Garnison zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen
Gollenberg Verlag, Seesen, 1981

The book contains various articles of various authors about Reichswehr and Wehrmacht troops of the town of Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk, Russia), a few chapters are dedicated to the Musikkorps des Infanterie-Regiments 43 and Musikkorps der Fliegerhorstkommandantur Insterburg. Some photos of military and cavalry bands included.

[Ivan Ž.]

MusikInDerWaffen-SS.jpg

Fritz Bunge
Musik in der Waffen-SS
Ein Blick zurück auf die Entwicklung deutscher Militärmusik
Munin Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 1975

A small yet valuable book on a rarely researched subject - Music in the Waffen-SS. The book has 78 pages and 46 rare photographs. The only downside is that the main (basically: only) focus of the book is on the bands (mostly of the early, SS-VT period); there is nothing on the Waffen-SS compositions, only the parade marches of some of the units were listed. Still, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. There is also some nice material on the SS-Musikschule Braunschweig included.

Ivan Ž.

[Ivan Ž.]

Arpad Bondy; Margit Knapp
Den Teufel am Hintern geküßt
Der erstaunliche Werdegang des Komponisten von "Lili Marleen", Norbert Schultze
Zero Film, 1993

A version with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpP_SOfxJZ8

An excellent documentary about one of the most significant composers of WWII.

Ivan Ž.

[MarshallJones1970]

Fred K. Prieberg
Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933-1945
Auprés des Zombry 2004

Hello Ivan.
Is this book available for purchase anywhere? It is no longer available at Amazon Germany.
References to a CD-Rom format appear during a Google search.
Regards,
M. Jones

[Ivan Ž.]

Hmm... Can't find anything at the moment unfortunately. There was (at least) one more purchase link, but it seems that it's inactive now. Hope the book will be available somewhere soon.

Ivan

[MarshallJones1970]

Thanks for the info, Ivan. Only time will tell.

[Ivan Ž.]

Several posts concerning the book "The Military Music & Bandsmen of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945" have been split-off into an older topic dealing with its author and his company.

Ivan

[nellylemerle]

EntarteteMusik.jpg

Elise Petit; Bruno Giner
Entartete Musik
Musiques interdites sous le IIIe Reich
Bleu nuit éditeur, Paris, 2015

For those who read French, this book was published in 2015. Elise Petit and Bruno Giner wrote it for "grand public", i.e music amateurs with an interest in music in the Third Reich. It has a lot of illustrations.
From what I remember, chapter 1 is about music in the Weimar Republic, chapter 2 about the rise to power. They then have chapters on "degerate music", speaking also about the exhibit "Entartete Musik" in Düsseldorf (1938). One chapter is about the "official" musics, notably Wagner, Beethoven, Orff. The last chapter is a set of biographies of musicians who were victims of the regime.

A must have for French-readers who want an easy-reading panorama on the subject

[Ivan Ž.]

DieSchalmei.jpg

[Schriften des Fritz-Hüser-Instituts für Arbeiterliteratur, Bd. 13]
Werner Hinze
Die Schalmei
Vom Kaisersignal zum Marschlied von KPD und NSDAP
Klartext, Essen, 2003

A well-researched work on a historically important music instrument used by both Communists and Nazis in their early days. (This piercingly loud instrument, which I had the misfortune of hearing live, was an excellent tool when one wished to be heard and send a music-message through the noisy streets.) In addition to the extensively researched text, this 330-page book also contains various images, of the instrument itself and the bands that used it; but what I personally found most useful (years ago, when I first read it) is the chapter "Analysis of the musical agitation of the RFB", including a discographical research on RFB bands, which I still check from time to time. (I'm sorry I forgot to recommend this book earlier.) The table of contents, by the way, can be found here.

Ivan Ž.

[TrommlerBO]

Hello,
I also recommend the following reading:

DieGottbegnadeten.jpg

https://www.amazon.de/Die-Gottbegnadete ... 3887412907

"Die Gottbegnadeten" by Lorenz Porsch is a lexicon with a list of all artists who worked in the Third Reich. There are brief insights into the work of the musicians.

Best regards,
Trommler

[TrommlerBO]

HermannLudwigBlankenburg.jpg

https://www.amazon.de/Deutscher-Marschk ... 3867770557

The book "Deutscher Marschkönig Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg in seiner Zeit 1876-1956" by Gudrun and Hans-Joachim Blankenburg gives information about the life and work of the composer and in which phase of his life he composed which songs. Well-researched evidence (including from private archives) is also highlighted for the composer's personal events. For example, documents by Erich Honecker have surfaced showing that he wanted a record with Marches of Blankenburg from the International Blankenburg Association from West Germany.

Best regards,
Trommler

[TrommlerBO]

Verzeichnis der erfaßbaren Kompositionen von Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg.jpg

Manfred Schustereit
Verzeichnis der erfaßbaren Kompositionen von Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg
Internationale Blankenburg-Vereinigung 1992

In this book, all compositions by Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg are presented in a list. After the WWII, Russian soldiers destroyed all the scores in the composer's house. The international Blankenburg Association (which no longer exists today) has set itself the goal of locating all the scores and references to the composer's marching songs and summarizing them in this list. For each march, if possible, there is a short text on the history of its creation, opus number, publication and foreign publication titles. It is an excellent reference work for any lover of Blankenburg's marching music.

Best regards,
Trommler

[TrommlerBO]

Musik als Propagandainstrument im Nationalsozialismus.jpg

Dimitrios Dolaplis
Musik als Propagandainstrument im Nationalsozialismus
Politische und soziale Funktionen von Soldatenliedern im NS-Regime
Tectum-Verlag

This book is a study as a thesis at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna. This book shows the development of music as a propaganda instrument under National Socialism. It also contains a large number of notes from songs that have appeared on Reichsrundfunk. There is also a brief discussion of each song.

Best regards,
TrommlerBO

[Ivan Ž.]

Thanks for the new recommendations, TBO!

Cheers,
Ivan

[Ivan Ž.]

PersecutionCollaborationResistance.jpg

[Münsteraner Schriften zur zeitgenössischen Musik, Bd. 5/2020]
Ina Rupprecht (ed.)
Persecution, Collaboration, Resistance
Music in the "Reichskommissariat Norwegen" (1940–45)
Waxmann, Münster, 2020

A fine collection of articles dealing with music in occupied Norway during WWII, including several archival and private images, and related documents. What I found particularly useful was the article "Music in Uniform - The German Apparatus of Repression and its Acoustic Symbolism" by Manfred Heidler, listing all known German bands stationed in Norway. Of course, there's a lot more interesting information inside. A very nice little book (184 pages), I only wish there were more works of this type available.

Ivan Ž.