Degenerate Music
&what the Führer did not want to listen to&
A lecture by Adrienne Haan
Adrienne Haan belongs to the top-notch performers and interpreters of authentic European Cabaret. She has received high praise and excellent reviews by some of the worlds most renowned newspapers and is now sponsored artist by the Goethe Institute and happy to present her lecture on Degenerate Music.
Degenerate Music (German: Entartete Musik) was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for Degenerate Music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against Degenerate Art ('Entartete Kunst'). In both cases, the government attempted to isolate, discredit, discourage, or ban the works.
In her historical lecture, Ms. Haan highlights many aspects of German history and goes as far back as the year 1914, the beginning of World War I (1914-18), always focusing on the young soldier Adolf Hitler, who was part of the whole history from the very beginning.
She elaborates the politics of the last German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the connection between Germany and the Great Powers at that time. Many facets of the Great War are shown and she then continues to take the audience straight into the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), again focusing on its politics, but also focusing on its artist and the rise of European Cabaret.
She then illustrates the life and works of some of the most famous musicians of the time such as the Jewish composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and the Jewish conductor Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) before she progressively finds the passage to the rising Nazi Regime, its politics and therefore the end of the pluralism of the Weimar Republic. The happenings in the USA, the Great Depression of 1929 as well as the forbidden Jazz and Swing music under the Nazis are another important topic of this lecture.
At the end of her lecture, Ms. Haan contrasts the music that was allowed in the Third Reich (1933-1945), and the music that was considered degenerate.
A 13 minute photo slide show accompanied by what was considered Degenerate Music will be shown at the end of the presentation.
Adrienne Haan will be happy to discuss and answer questions after that.
Approx. running time: 1 hour