Total war effort of the cultural workers

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The total war effort of cultural workers , popularly also called theater ban, was a decree of Joseph Goebbels in his function as Reich plenipotentiary for the total war effort of August 24, 1944, which came into force on September 1, 1944. This resulted in the closure of almost all German and Austrian theaters and cultural establishments .

Artists who were not on the so-called God-gifted list were also brought in for activities that were important to the war effort. For example, the singer Anneliese Rothenberger had to work in a tinplate can factory after the Koblenz City Theater was closed .

Historical processing

The theater ban has hardly been dealt with historically:

"As with many sub-areas [...], only few facts circulate in secondary literature on the total war effort of cultural workers. The 'total war effort of the cultural workers' was not proclaimed either by a Reich law , nor by a Führer order published in the Reichsgesetzblatt , nor by one of the numerous Fuehrer decrees not announced in the Reichsgesetzblatt . "

- Philipp Stein : Studies on the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft and the National Socialists

Austria

As early as March 8, 1943, Hitler ordered: “The Bayreuth Festival will be held to the same extent as last year. […] The Salzburg Festival does not take place. For this purpose, Salzburg Theater Weeks are to be organized, in which the arms workers and wounded in the Salzburg area take part in the performances. ”After the bomb attack on Hitler on July 20, 1944, the Salzburg theater and music summer was canceled nine days later due to an order from Joseph Goebbels . However, the conductor Clemens Krauss managed to hold the planned world premiere of Richard Strauss ' Die Liebe der Danae up to a public rehearsal in front of invited guests and to hold a total of three concerts.

The Salzburger Nachrichten reported on 25 August Goebbels "Measures to total war" and explicitly write: "All the theater, variety shows, cabarets and acting schools are to be closed until September 1 1944th"

According to the files of the Reich Chamber of Culture and the Vienna City and State Archives , each cultural establishment in Vienna was given its own decommissioning order . There was a closure order for the Vienna Symphony and the Volksoper . The Wiener Konzerthaus and the Vienna Philharmonic were not affected . These could perform under the direction of Karl Böhm in the years 1944/45 in the Wiener Konzerthaus. Elisabeth Höngen , accompanied by Peter Graef on the piano, sang works by Franz Schubert at song recitals in the unheated Mozart Hall . The cabaret Simpl benefited from its air raid shelter and was allowed to continue operations, while all cultural establishments, with the exception of the Berliner Philharmoniker, had to close their doors in German-speaking countries.

literature

  • Ilija Dürhammer , Pia Janke : The "Austrian" National Socialist Aesthetics . Böhlau 2003, ISBN 3-205-77151-6 .
  • Philipp Stein: Studies on the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft and the National Socialists, 2006, Grin Verlag.
  • Elisabeth Th. Fritz-Hilscher, Helmut Kretschmer: Vienna music history: From prehistory to the present . Lit Verlag 2011, ISBN 3-643-50368-7 .
  • Maximilian Haas: […] everyone else had already fled, and they were still busy making music. The "cultural war aid service" in Vienna . Dipl. Vienna 2013.
  • Maximilian Haas: The 'Gottbegnadeten-List' (BArch R 55 / 20252a) , in: Juri Giannini, Maximilian Haas and Erwin Strouhal (ed.): An institution between representation and power. The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the cultural life of National Socialism . Mille Tre Verlag, Vienna 2014, pp. 239–276. ISBN 978-3-900198-36-7 (= "Musikkontext 7").

swell

  • U. Bahnsen, K. von Stühner: Franz Liszt tore the Hamburgers with him , in: Hamburger Abendblatt , November 18, 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ilija Dürhammer, Pia Janke: The "Austrian" National Socialist Aesthetics . P. 172
  2. ^ A b Philipp Stein: Studies on the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft and the National Socialists . P. 71
  3. ↑ Hitler's decree for Bayreuth and Salzburg (Central State Archives Potsdam / inventory 50.01. No. 457, p. 402), quoted here. after the facsimile reproduction in: Fuhrich / Prossnitz: Die Salzburger Festspiele. Volume I: 1920 to 1945. Your story in data, contemporary testimonies and pictures. Vienna and Salzburg: Residence 1990, 296
  4. ↑ Fuhrich / Prossnitz, 302–307. For the time being, however, only the orchestral concert of the Vienna Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler on August 14, at which Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony was performed , is guaranteed . In Hans Jaklitsch: The Salzburg Festival. Volume III: List of works and artists 1920–1990. Vienna and Salzburg: Residence 1991, 56 only the Furtwängler concert is mentioned, but not the benefit concert of the Philharmoniker under Krauss on August 6 and also not the Mozart evening of the Schneiderhan Quartet, which is scheduled for the 15th. Jaklitsch is considered a reliable chronicler of the festival among Salzburg connoisseurs.
  5. ↑ Fuhrich / Prossnitz, 307
  6. ^ Elisabeth Th. Fritz-Hilscher, Helmut Kretschmer: Vienna music history: From prehistory to the present . P. 664