Herbert Gerigk

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Herbert Gerigk (born March 2, 1905 in Mannheim , † June 20, 1996 in Dortmund ) was a German musicologist who is considered one of the most influential anti-Semites in musicology of the 20th century. This is supported by his Lexicon of Jews in Music, which he published together with Theophil Stengel , and his work as a high officer in Reichsleiter Rosenberg's operations staff in the robbery and looting of music , especially from the possession of persecuted Jews in the countries occupied by Germany during World War II .

Life

Herbert Gerigk's grave in Dortmund's Ostenfriedhof with a sculpture by the sculptor Friedel Dornberg

After receiving his doctorate in 1928, Herbert Gerigk completed his habilitation in 1932 with a thesis on Giuseppe Verdi . It was the first major overall musicological presentation of Verdi in Germany and appeared in the series "The Great Masters of Music".

Gerigk joined the NSDAP in 1932 (membership number 1,096,433) and in 1933 the SA . Then he was district culture warden in Gdansk. From 1935 he worked in the National Socialist German Reich as "Head of the main music department in the Rosenberg Office ". In 1935 he joined the SS .

Gerigk took over the planning of Alfred Rosenberg's music policy and was also responsible for its implementation in the Rosenberg office. Its aim was to remove the Jewish representatives of musical life from their positions and to suppress the spread of new music . Since 1937 he was editor of the magazine Die Musik .

Gerigk's best-known work was the anti-Semitic lexicon of Jews in music , which he edited in collaboration with Theophil Stengel , advisor at the Reichsmusikkammer . The reference work was intended to discourage organizers from the “accidental” performance of works by “Jewish” and “ half-Jewish ” composers, to include all Jewish musicians, but mainly composers such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Gustav Mahler , who were firmly rooted in the German musical tradition, through lies and deliberately wrong interpretation of sources defame and devalue.

Gerigk also played a leading role in the persecution of the Jews during the Second World War. He headed the music office in the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) and in particular the special staff music , which carried out the plundering of cultural property in the occupied countries and the transport to Germany. In occupied France alone , Gerigk's investigators robbed 34,500 Jewish houses or apartments in two years, including those of Emmerich Kálmán , Darius Milhaud , Fernand Halphen , Arno Poldes , Gregor Piatigorski , and Wanda Landowska . In view of the extermination machinery of the Holocaust , he wrote in 1942: "The question must be raised as to whether it is appropriate, in the context of the liquidation of Judaism in Europe, to admit mixed Jewish people as cultural workers in any form."

In 1943 he became chief editor of the magazine Musik im Kriege , which was directed by Rosenberg, and in 1944 he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer in the security service.

After the Second World War , Gerigk never had to answer for his complicity in the Holocaust in court. Admittedly, his National Socialist past stood in the way of an academic career; However, he was active as a music critic for the Dortmund Ruhr-Nachrichten . In 1953 he tried to become head of culture in Bochum with the help of the CDU and FDP, but failed. In 1954 he published the specialist dictionary of music in the publishing house of Bernhard Hahnefeld, who had already published the "Lexicon of Jews in Music".

Gerigk was buried in Dortmund's east cemetery.

Publications

  • Music history of the city of Elbing , Elbinger Jahrbuch, 1929, no.8
  • Giuseppe Verdi (in the series “The Great Masters of Music”), Athenaion, Potsdam 1932
  • Aging or "progressive development"? Comments on the Hamburg Music Festival 1935 . In: Die Musik, XXVII / 10 (July 1935), pp. 721–727
  • Masters of Music and Their Works , Rich Publishing House. Bong, Berlin 1936
  • The end of the General German Music Association. In: Die Musik, XXIX / 10 (July 1937), pp. 696–702
  • Puccini (in the "Series of publications by the Office of the Cultural Community of the Nazi Community Strength Through Joy "), M. Hesse, Berlin
  • Lexicon of Jews in Music , with Theophil Stengel , Verlag Bernhard Hahnefeld, Berlin 1943
  • Specialized dictionary of music (in the series "Keyser's reference works"), Keyser, Munich 1966
  • New love for old scriptures. From autograph hunter to autograph collector , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1974

Essays

  • “Discoveries” of musical works . In: Music in War . 1st year, issue 9/10 (December / January 1943/44).
  • Mozart's lullaby . In: Music in War. 2nd year, issue 1/2 (April / May 1944).
  • The jazz question as a race question . In: Music in War. Volume 2, issue 3/4 (June / July 1944).

literature

  • Rainer Sieb: The NSDAP's access to music. To set up organizational structures for music work in the divisions of the party . Dissertation Osnabrück 2007, chap. 2.1.1-2.1.3, URL: https://repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-2007091013
  • Anja Heuss: Art and culture robbery: A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Heidelberg 2000
  • Willem de Vries: Special staff music. Organized looting in Western Europe 1940-45 . Dittrich, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-920862-18-X
  • Eva Weissweiler : Eliminated! The Lexicon of the Jews in Music and its Murderous Consequences . Dittrich, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-920862-25-2 (contains not only a history of its origins and effects, but also a facsimile edition of the Gerigk and Stengel Lexicon)
  • Joseph Wulf : Music in the Third Reich. Frankfurt a. M. 1966

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 (= The time of National Socialism. Bd. 16048). 2nd updated edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 180.
  2. ^ A b Ernst Klee: The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 179
  3. ^ Willem de Vries: Special staff music. Organized looting in Western Europe 1940-45 . Dittrich, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-920862-18-X , p. 43
  4. ↑ Günther Schwarberg : Yours is my whole heart. The story of Fritz Löhner-Beda, who wrote the most beautiful songs in the world, and why Hitler had him murdered , Göttingen 2000, page 175
  5. ↑ Quoting from Ernst Klee, Personenlexikon, p. 180.
  6. ↑ Ernst Klee, Kulturlexikon, p. 180.
personal data
SURNAME Gerigk, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1996
Place of death Dortmund