Carnival during National Socialism

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Carnival and Carnival were the beginning of the era of National Socialism practically fully absorbed increasingly in 1939 by the Nazis and propaganda used purposes. Organizers and participants had to adapt to the political situation; for example, it was hardly possible to design a moving van that conveyed a critical attitude towards the regime.

Germany

In the carnival of the " Altreich " (Germany excluding Austria), well-known personalities such as Karl Valentin organized the carnival parade for the National Socialists. At first, the National Socialists distrusted the carnival goings-on. They feared that the carnival would lead to opposition , contradiction, insubordination , uprisings and conspiracies. They were also afraid of being ridiculed.

At the same time, the National Socialists tried successfully, especially through their organization “ Kraft durch Freude ” (KdF), to use the Rhenish Carnival for their propaganda purposes. As early as March 1, 1933, the West German observer was able to report happily on the Cologne Rose Monday procession: “The procession had nothing improvised or alien to the people, as was the case in the post-war years under the manifold influences of liberal-Marxist currents. No overloaded jewelery, no lying pomp, but original humor, popular in its depiction, it naturally fitted into the framework of the folk festival. “The Rhinelander Joseph Goebbels, for example, was not reluctant to be photographed at Mardi Gras in Munich . The Nuremberg Carnival Monday procession in 1938 depicted a Jew dangling from the gallows . The carnival was also advertised for tourism reasons in order to lure foreign guests, and it was quite successful. The KdF offered train tickets for the journey and even tickets for meetings at reduced prices.

Critical and Nazi cult should not be associated with the carnival; The Hitler Youth and BDM, for example, were not allowed to take part in the pageants in uniform in most places. The Nazi side also called for a “German Carnival” with “folk customs”, remaining Christian references should disappear completely.

There were a few carnivalists who did not want to play into the hands of National Socialism. The best known were Hans Jonen and Karl Küpper . At meetings, the Nazis expected the Hitler salute; Karl Küpper used this for an often quoted number on the carnival stage: He stepped on the stage, raised his right arm and said, to the surprise of the audience: “Su huh suffered from the dirt in our cellar!” - “That's how high the dirt lies with us in the basement!". For this number he was sentenced to a lifelong ban on speaking. In the Cologne fools revolt in 1935, the organized Cologne carnival opposed the synchronization of the carnival celebrations. The National Socialists complied with the fools' demand that the interests of the carnival should be carried out by the carnival societies, presumably because the Nazis did not want to trigger a major uprising and because the fools had so far limited themselves to demands that the Nazis could easily meet. The majority of the Rhenish Carnival was, however, synchronized. Most of the carnivalists showed no initiative against National Socialism. Anti-Semitic motto floats for the Rose Monday procession or songs like “Die Jüdde wandern uss” by Jean Müller (alternative title “Hurray, die Jüdde trecke fott”) became normal in the carnival. In 1936, the previously male Funkenmariechen were replaced by women because this supposedly contradicted German manhood and encouraged homosexuality and transvestism. In 1938 and 1939, the virgin was also embodied by a woman in the Cologne Carnival.

Mainz Carnival

For the situation in Mainz, see Mainzer Fastnacht under National Socialism and Seppel Glückert .

Austria

Vienna and the artists' carnival parade in 1939

Carnival parades in Vienna could look back on a certain tradition in a few outskirts, but were staged in 1939, after the annexation of Austria , as the acceptance of Austria into the National Socialist community. The National Socialist Community Kraft durch Freude (KdF) organized carnival parades and carnival events in all Viennese circles in February in order to give the Viennese a "liberated laugh" again. At these events Jews were hounded and politicians from the corporate state mocked. These included the Christian social politician Otto Ender and the governor Josef Reither .

At the big artist carnival parade on February 19, 1939, they wanted to build on the moving tradition of Hans Makart and commissioned Viennese artists to design the carnival parade. In addition to admonitions not to “grumble and grumble” and not to criticize the new regime, there were disciplinary references to the new traffic regulations that one had to adhere to. In addition, other corporate state politicians such as Engelbert Dollfuß and Wilhelm Miklas were denigrated.

The presentation of the Gauleiter Josef Bürckel as a "Maria Theresa monument in a new form" was unique in the Vienna Carnival at the time . Only in Vienna was a high-ranking National Socialist politician mocked in this way during Carnival. Not approaches to resistance, but internal party quarrels may have been the reason for this form. From today's point of view, whether it was a "monument shift" , as was the case with the carnival parade of the Old Vienna Federation in 1938 and the Austrian National Socialists wanted to "move" the Gauleiter, i.e. deport it, or whether one wanted to allude to his lofty claims to power incomprehensible.

network

The responsible organizers from 1939 were networked several times. On the one hand there was a group of “carnival experienced”, such as Oswald Roux , Johann Geyling and Franz Wilfert , who worked together again and again in various events. Geyling and Wilfert took over the artistic direction for the German Singers Association in 1928. In 1939 Geyling, Wilfert and Roux were the artistic directors of the 1939 move. Roux applied for NSDAP membership as early as 1938 , but was not accepted until 1940. Wilfert was accepted into the NSDAP in 1938. Geyling does not have the necessary evidence to provide evidence .

In 1939, Oswald Roux designed, mostly as a loner, alongside the “harmless” “Viennese images”, the highly political group “Lights of the System”, in which Kurt Schuschnigg , Miklas, Dollfuss and Josef Reither were settled. As early as 1938 he conceived a Gschnasrevue at the Vienna Secession with the title " Degenerate Art ". Roux was a member of the Hagenbund , the Secession and the Künstlerhaus . He was an established state artist even after 1945 and was awarded the Honorary Prize of the City of Vienna and the Austrian State Prize. Wilfert was on the board of the men's choir, member of the NSDAP, and had already been involved in a leading position in 1928 at the German national singing festival. Vice Mayor Blaschke was his informant for admission to the NSDAP. Hermann Neubacher , chairman of the Austro-German Volksbund, vehemently advocated Austria's right to self-determination in his speech at the 1928 Singers' Association.

On March 13, 1938, Hermann Neubacher from the new Nazi Chancellor Seyss-Inquart mayor and sturmbannführer , Hanns Blaschke appointed Vice Mayor of Vienna. Together with Wilfert, Franz Frank designed the moving van for the Siemenschöre at the German Singers' Association in Vienna in 1928. Sepp Nordegg , who studied with Emil Pirchan in 1938/39 and was a member of the SA and SS, was entrusted with the move in 1939, as was the “Scenic Art” department headed by Popp and Pirchan. The student leader Exner and Schnall knew each other from the student council. A number of sculptors from Josef Müllner's class also took part . Müllner "supplanted" the Bechtold master class from 1938–1940. This was dismissed as a "degenerate artist". Müllner not only designed the Lueger monument, he was also the creator of the Hitler bust for the auditorium of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His students involved in the 1939 move included Kubiena, Eichberger, Hafenrichter, Franz Barwig the Younger , Crepatz, Rusch and Willersdorfer.

Requeni, Nordegg and Weber worked with Otto Cermak in a joint venture and in 1939 took part in the Reich professional competition on the Nazi propaganda topic: Autozug Grenzlandbühne. There were also contacts through the Secession (including Popp, Roux), the Künstlerhaus (including Geyling, Roux) and the Burgtheater (including Volters ). The Burgtheatre actor Eduard Volters was a lecturer for applied directing at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1943 to 1945 and was involved in numerous Secession revues with Oswald Roux even before the connection.

Gauleiter Bürckel as Maria Theresia

Empress Maria Theresa was portrayed as the female counterpart to Nietzsche's “Übermenschen” by various political groups in the First Republic, Austria, and National Socialism. With her task of holding the Austrian territories together and her motherhood of sixteen children, she fulfilled both male and female characteristics, so to speak. Her female skills were emphasized under National Socialism and her male skills were tolerated in the background as necessary and essential. Maria Theresa was used as a political symbol, an ancestral mother , an idol of the Austrians, who cared for their children and their people in a motherly manner, waged wars, and who also knew how to dance and have fun at carnival balls.

Gauleiter Bürckel was portrayed as Maria Theresa, in which he was exchanged in person for a monument with a female connotation and on this, if somewhat decadent, was portrayed as male in gestures, facial expressions and clothing. On the other hand, a swap of the sexes in their clothing would have been a common passage in carnival. However, if this had been implemented in this way in 1939, the viewers of the parade would have been able to understand an allusion to a homophile tendency of the Gauleiter and that would have been too great a danger for Austrian National Socialists, despite sharp allusions. The type of seated figure in the history of monuments also goes back to ancient portraits of philosophers, so it could be regarded as rather unusual that a great empress was portrayed in this pose.

The name of the monument and thus also of the Empress Maria Theresa was retained for the carnival parade in 1939 and was therefore of importance. On the other hand, the designers of the artists' carnival procession in 1939 were those who chased their individual profit under fascism and became part of a folk body in the Viennese carnival, which derived its lust from the hatred of all "minorities" - who it humiliated and destroyed was valid: the Jews and corporate state politicians. This idea that Mardi Gras is the time of the travesties, after fascism the time of the lifting of those travesties, was in truth enforced by the victors. The example of the carnival parade in 1939 shows some unmasking stories of nimble changing clothes.

Later career of those involved

Most of those primarily responsible were NSDAP members and established state artists even after 1945. Oswald Roux, who in 1938, before the “Anschluss”, staged a Gschnasrevue on the subject of “Degenerate Art” in the Secession, was a member of the NSDAP, counted on the corporations politicians during the move and distinguished himself with Wilfert and Geyling as responsible move designers : Roux received the Honorary Prize of the City of Vienna and the Austrian State Prize. Emil Pirchan, who with Alexander Popp headed the class for “scenic art and festival design” at the Academy of Fine Arts , even sat on the denazification commission in 1945, although he did collaborate with the National Socialists, even if not as a party member.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the Carnival (since the 9th century)
  2. ↑ taz.de De Nazis nit op d'r Schlipsertrodde
  3. ^ Sarah Maria Brech: Film from the Cologne Rose Monday procession in 1936 surfaced. In: welt.de . December 5, 2014, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  4. ^ Hans-Dieter Arntz: Anti-Judaism in the Carnival of the Third Reich , March 5, 2014