The birth, struggle and resurgence of German Jazz

The impact of jazz during the 1920s was in accordance with much of northern Europe.  After the defeat of Germany in WWI by the British and French and with the arrival of the United States on the world stage, they brought Jazz from across the Atlantic and it fast became popular in the UK and France.

Germany had suffered heavily as a result of the war.  Political uncertainty and crippling economic reparations stunted creativity in many aspects of life, but particularly in entertainment as investment dried up.  By 1924 the introduction of a new currency saw a resurgent economy and investment in the arts began.

Right to Left: Louis Armstrong; Duke Ellington; Paul Whiteman.

By 1926 Jazz was beginning to be broadcast over German radio.  By 1930 African-American jazz legends like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington had become popular.  The proclaimed “king of jazz” Paul Whiteman enjoyed particular success in Berlin and as a result live jazz sessions were broadcast over the radio.   The sound was fast becoming recognized as the modern direction of music, classical German composers like Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill began to incorporate jazz into their own musical compositions.

The 1930s saw a profound change in Germany with the rise of National Socialism.  The Weimer Republic had had a somewhat ‘liberal’ attitude toward jazz but German society had deep rooted racial problems that had survived from their colonial past, particularly toward African-American musicians.  By 1932 jazz began to receive derogatory criticism from a growing far-right nationalist society left bitter by their defeat in WWI.  Those that listened to jazz began to be targeted as having a lack of ‘morality’.  Despite this the popularity of jazz grew across the rest of northern Europe.

Adolf Hitler, the leader of the fascist Nazi Party.

By 1933 National Socialism had anchored itself in German society and as a result the backlash against non –German entertainment began.  The Nazi’s banned the broadcasting of jazz on German radios, partly due to its African roots and also because the majority of prominent German jazz musicians were of Jewish origin.  The freedom of expression that jazz provided was seen as dangerous by Nazi Party, so anti-jazz propaganda broadcasts began to appear in their stead.  As a result many jazz musicians left the country due to increasing xenophobic harassment throughout the emerging racist society.

Anti-Jazz Nazi Propaganda.

Despite the anti-jazz campaigns, Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minster of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda resisted an outright ban until 1935.  By 1937 jazz musicians stopped at the borders of Germany when touring through Europe.  In 1939, as Germany geared up for war the ban of jazz on German radio extended to foreign radio stations, listening to jazz became a crime under the totalitarian state. 

Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

But despite such efforts it was clear that the Nazi’s would be unable to completely eradicate this phenomenon, Goebbels attempted to use jazz and radio to aid the war effort.  His propaganda machine set in motion the production of jazz songs that contained anti-American and British lyrics and had them aired across the US, Britain and Canada.  His intention was to use the songs to undermine the Allies war effort and morale of its people.

Nazi sponsored jazz; Charlie and his Orchestra.

By 1943 resistance toward the Nazi’s had begun to show.  The so-called ‘Swing-Jugend’ (Swing Youth) had emerged throughout Germany.  They were a youth movement that chose freedom of expression through their love of Jazz, people would listen and dance to jazz in defiance to the Nazi regime.  This became so serious that many of the ‘leaders’ of the Swing-Jugend were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps.  Ironically, despite the attempt to destroy the ‘sub-human’ and ‘immoral’ musical genre, jazz drummer and guitarist Coco Schumann and jazz pianist Martin Roman were forced to play jazz to the SS officers during some executions at Auschwitz.  Even those hardened Nazi’s had succumb to the beauty of jazz despite it being in the most despicable and horrific places in human history.

By the end of the war jazz once again flourished much like it had in the early 1920s, a resurgent genre that even to this day shows no sign of letting up.  Jazz has a place in Berlin and Germany; it was born following a turbulent time in German history and flourished for a decade.  The Nazi’s attempted to destroy it and use it as a weapon and failed in both.  Germany would remain divided for three decades but jazz flourished in both East and West, to sample the direction of German jazz in the future Germany’s largest Jazz festival: JazzFest Berlin is held annually.