I. Introduction
The Third Reich not only oppressed the Jewish religion, but more specifically it also eliminated Jewish musicality. This oppression emphasized the importance of Enlightenment ideals regarding religious tolerance and separation of church and state. In this paper, I will investigate the following twofold question. First, how have composers from the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries responded to Enlightenment ideals in Europe through composition, specifically regarding their support or opposition to religious tolerance and the separation of church and state? Secondly, how are the musical works from such composers related to politics in the Third Reich concerning the Reich Chamber of Music? Throughout this investigation, I will first contextualize how religious tolerance and the separation of church and state Enlightenment ideals correlate to politics in the Third Reich. Then, I will analyze composers such as Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Felix Mendelssohn regarding their support or opposition to religious tolerance and the separation of church and state throughout their personal life and musical compositions. Finally, after this analysis, I will explicate how the Nazi Party banned certain compositions and utilized others as antisemitic propaganda during the Third Reich.
II. Separation of Church and State in the Third Reich
The Enlightenment was a scientific, political, and philosophical movement that stretched across Europe during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. The Enlightenment emphasized rationality, science, liberty, and most importantly religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. John Locke and his 1689 Two Treatises of Government spurred the Enlightenment movement as it called for “religious toleration and the separation of church and state” (White 2018). Enlightenment ideals as such were adopted across Europe; however, some regimes saw the Enlightenment as a threat to their theocracy. The Third Reich, or in other words, the Nazi regime viewed the Enlightenment as a direct threat to their governmental power. The Third Reich began in 1933 and “brought an end to the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary democracy established in Germany after World War I” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2023). Following the beginning of the Nazi regime and the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933, antisemitic legislation was decreed as law. There were various waves of antisemitic statutes throughout the Third Reich, including the 1935 Nuremberg Laws which established the legality of Jewish “segregation, confinement, and extermination” (Bradsher 2010). The Nuremberg laws directly led to a societal call for Enlightenment ideals such as religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.
Throughout the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, numerous composers from Germany and Austria responded to Enlightenment ideals relating to religious tolerance and societal separation from religion. Some composers supported Enlightenment ideals; however, others opposed such ideals that called for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. During the Third Reich, select compositions from the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries were utilized as propaganda by the Nazi Party to condemn the ideas of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. The Nazi Party supported the involvement of the church in the state by utilizing Aryan beliefs to discriminate against the Jewish faith in antisemitic legislation. The Aryan belief in the Third Reich claimed that Christianity was morally righteous and Jews who were unwilling to accept the word of God were seen as agents of the devil. Therefore, the Nazi regime supported the involvement of the church in the state and opposed the Enlightenment ideals of separation of church and state and religious tolerance as their belief that Jews are immoral was written into legislation during the Third Reich (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2023). Although historians cannot trace Hitler’s hatred of the Jewish faith to a specific event or instance, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Nazi Party supported the involvement of the church in the state after “the Nazi Party took power in Germany in 1933, and their antisemitic racism became official government policy” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2023).
III. Analysis of Composers Regarding Religious Tolerance and the Separation of Church and State
During the Age of Reason, various composers referenced the separation of church and state throughout their compositions. Composers would either support or oppose the Enlightenment ideal of separation between church and state by promoting religion or emphasizing the need for religious tolerance. Anton Bruckner is an Austrian composer who would frequently promote religion during the early 19th century of the Enlightenment. Bruckner had a very religious upbringing as his father was a parish organist for their local church. A majority of Bruckner’s work correlates to his devout Roman Catholic identity. Specifically, throughout Te Deum, one is able to listen to the “manifestation of Bruckner’s deep faith” in his heavy usage of the church organ (Pumfrey 2020). Moreover, Bruckner considered Te Deum to be the work of his life as it was dedicated “for the greater glory of God” (Pumfrey 2020). Considering Bruckner’s religious upbringing and dedication to God in his compositions during the Enlightenment period, it’s reasonable to conclude that he opposed the separation of church and state.
Another composer who opposed the Enlightenment ideals regarding religious tolerance and the separation of church and state was Richard Wagner. In Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, an opera relating to the creation of the world and the corruption between good and evil, Wagner infers that Alberich, the Nibelungen dwarf, has no understanding of morality. When Alberich “curses love in order to gain the gold to fashion the ring of power” it’s understood that he has no framework of morality imposed by a higher power (Witzke 2021). This act by Alberich in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen further narrates “the conflict between the moral order of the gods and humanity’s struggle to form a world on their own” (Witzke 2021). Therefore, throughout Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner not only promotes religion but opposes the idea of religious tolerance as he alludes it’s dangerous to not conform to the moral order of gods. The opera Parsifal is another work by Wagner that opposes the separation of church and state. Throughout Parsifal, Amfortas, the King of the Grail Knights, was stabbed by a magic spear that pierced Christ on the Cross. The stabbing of Amfortas occurred after he was seduced by Kundry, a woman “doomed to wander the earth after mocking Christ’s Passion” (Kennaway 2009). In this opera, Wagner alludes to the dangers of a King straying from religious ideals and thereby conveys the dangers of separation between church and state. Additionally, Parsifal was written by Wagner in the aftermath of Kulturkampf where Protestant Prussia established order over Catholic Germany. Prussia demanded that “priests must pass state exams, made church weddings legal only when registered with the state, and excluded Jesuits from Germany” (Kennaway 2009). The ideological struggle between church and state in Kulturkampf in the 1870s and 1880s led to “dozens of Catholic priests imprisoned for refusing to accept the authority of the state in Church affairs” (Kennaway 2009). Therefore, Wagner’s intention in writing Parsifal during the aftermath of Kulturkampf was to warn religious leaders about the dangers of not accepting the church’s involvement in the state and the state's involvement in the church. Although Bruckner and Wagner opposed the separation of church and state in their musical pieces, not all composers had the same religious beliefs.
Giacomo Meyerbeer directly supported religious tolerance and the separation of church and state during the Enlightenment. Meyerbeer was raised by a wealthy Jewish family from Berlin. His parents were “influenced by the rationalistic ‘enlightened’ approach of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn” who is the grandfather of composer Felix Mendelssohn (Thomson 1975). Moses Mendelssohn was very politically adamant regarding religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Moreover, while Giacomo Meyerbeer was living in Italy during the era of post-Napoleonic conservatism in 1818, he experienced discrimination from antisemitic legislation. Meyerbeer was concerned for the future of the Jewish race in Italy and wrote to his brother advising him to use caution regarding his choice of profession. Meyerbeer stated in his letter that his brother ought to “choose from doctor, lawyer, linguist, businessman” and stay far away from any profession involving politics (Thomson 1975). From this letter and considering his rationalistic upbringing, it’s reasonable to infer that Meyerbeer supported religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Textual evidence of Meyerbeer’s support regarding the separation of the church from the state can additionally be found in a variety of his operas surrounding “religious tolerance and political freedom” (Pencak 2013). In the opera Le Prophète, Meyerbeer presents a mourning mother whose name is Fidès. Not only is Fidès mourning the loss of her son, but she is also mourning the loss of her religion “which has been subverted by the bloodthirsty messianic movement” that her son joined (Pencak 2013). Fidès’ son, Jean, joins the Anabaptists attempting to overthrow the Count after he stole Berthe, who’s his love interest. Eventually, Jean is made a prophet and Fidès believes that her son has been killed by the Anabaptists. However, at Jean’s coronation ceremony, Fidès recognizes her son and publicly claims that she is his mother. The public thinks that Jean has been anointed by God and Fidès is forced to retract her claim. At the end of the opera, Jean, the Anabaptists, Fidès, and the Imperial forces all die in an explosion at a “banquet in honor of Jean” (Salazar 2018). This plot describing the rule of a false prophet and his eventual downfall aligns with Meyerbeer’s support of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. Furthermore, the description of Fidès mourning the loss of her religion due to a messianic movement correlates with Meyerbeer’s personal experience of Jewish oppression through post-Napoleonic conservatism legislation. Therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that Meyerbeer supported the separation of church and state as it’s prevalent not only in his musical works but personal life as well.
Another composer that supported religious tolerance and the separation of church and state was Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was born into a Protestant family of Jewish heritage wherein during his upbringing, the Jewish faith was still oppressed at the time. Mendelssohn’s paternal grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was a strong advocate of religious tolerance and the separation between church and state. Moses, who was born in 1729 and passed in 1786, was considered to be the “preeminent Jewish philosopher of the German Enlightenment” as he was an “objective observer of society, removed from the status quo” (The Library of Congress 2023). Felix Mendelssohn shared similar political beliefs to his grandfather as when the Jewish Civil Disabilities Act was passed in 1833, Felix condemned the laws that “established marriage restrictions,” and “severely limited the rights of nonnaturalized Jews” (Sposato 1998). In one of Mendelssohn’s letters he wrote to his family, he opposed the Jewish Civil Disabilities Act by arguing that laws should not dictate “whether he shall have Jewish or Christian apprentices--and whether he shall speak English or Hebrew” (Sposato 1998). Not only did Felix Mendelssohn and his family support religious tolerance and the separation of church and state throughout their personal lives, but Felix’s musical works also revealed a “man who saw himself as enlightened, rationalistic,” and unjustly marginalized (Sposato 1998). In the opera Elijah, Felix refers to Elijah as the “ancient prophet crying in the wilderness, persecuted by the established authorities of state and church” (Chernaik 2013). Throughout the opera, Elijah appears before King Ahab and Queen Jezebel where he accuses the King of angering the Hebrew God by worshiping Baal instead. In response, the Queen accuses Elijah of treachery by trying to undermine King Ahab’s power which was deemed by Baal. This leads to the persecution of Elijah wherein a mob of people tries to destroy Elijah following Queen Jezebel’s command. Felix Mendelssohn’s advocacy regarding religious tolerance and the separation of church and state is abundant throughout his work and is spurred by the prejudice he received relating to his Jewish faith.
IV. The Nazi Party and a Reich of Chamber Music
Music is an integral sector of Nazi propaganda, specifically relating to the Enlightenment ideals of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. During the Third Reich, music had a profound impact as the Nazi Party “sought to create a ‘purified’ national cultural identity, purged of ‘degenerate’ Jewish and foreign influences” (The Breman Museum 2023). In 1933, the Nazi Party established a Reich Chamber of Music statute that “encouraged government-sanctioned music, forcibly removed Jewish musicians from any official posts, and banned the playing of Jewish compositions” (The Breman Museum 2023). Music that was either accepted or banned during the Third Reich depended strictly upon the composer and their faith as well as their political leaning. Composers such as Anton Bruckner and Richard Wagner were accepted under the Reich Chamber of Music wherein their musical works were used as Nazi propaganda.
Not only was Bruckner accepted under the Reich Chamber of Music, but his musical works were exploited by the Nazi Party in their campaign to legitimize Nazism. Bruckner’s music was exploited during overt Nazi political events. For example, each of Hitler’s cultural speeches at the Nuremberg rallies was preceded by the performance of a Bruckner symphony. In addition, the Nazi Party “sponsored numerous Bruckner festivals” during the Third Reich (Korstvedt 1996). In 1937, Tag der Deutschen Kunst, a colossal Nazi-organized parade relating to the Reich Chamber of Music, “opened with a fanfare from Bruckner’s Third Symphony” (Gilliam 1994). Bruckner’s “chorale-like passages” fit into the Nazi Party’s ideals regarding their support of the Catholic religion (Korstvedt 1996). A further reason why Bruckner’s music was exploited by the Nazi Party is due to the fact that he was seen as a symbol for “conservative and reactionary elements in Austrian society since the 1890s” (Korstvedt 1996). Therefore, by the time of the Third Reich, Bruckner had already become synonymous with militaristic and nationalistic tendencies. Although Bruckner’s music was exploited in an antisemitic manner and he “was proclaimed as the paradigmatic ‘Aryan’ composer” during the Third Reich, his musical works did not have overt antisemitic tones (Yan 2016). Therefore, the Nazi Party aligned with Bruckner’s heavily religious compositions and utilized religious tones rather than the lack of antisemitism in his work.
Unlike Bruckner, Richard Wagner’s compositions and political works were utilized in the Third Reich particularly because of the extensive amount of antisemitism conveyed. In his 1850 antisemitic essay “Das Judenthum in der Musik,” Richard Wagner openly criticized the Jewish faith, specifically in regard to musical composers Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer. Throughout his essay, Wagner argued that the Jewish faith was “constitutionally incapable of true musical creativity” and further condemned “the music of the synagogue” in relation to Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer (Brown 2003). “Das Judenthum in der Musik” was published in the Völkischer Beobachter, a newspaper that was the main source of propaganda during the Third Reich. This newspaper consistently emphasized the correlation between Wagner and the public image of the Nazi Party which “surely strengthened associations in the perceptions of its many readers” (Dennis 2016). According to his memoirs, Hitler’s teenage viewing of Wagner’s Rienzi led him to the belief that one must “strengthen and unite the German Reich” (Organization for the Distribution of Artisanal and Agricultural Skills 2023). Therefore, Richard Wagner’s eliminationist beliefs were not only accepted under the Reich Chamber of Music but were at the forefront of Nazi propaganda since “no other musician is as closely linked with Nazism as Wagner” (Organization for the Distribution of Artisanal and Agricultural Skills 2023).
Although certain compositions and works from Anton Bruckner and Richard Wagner were utilized as propaganda after being accepted under the Reich Chamber of Music, this statute additionally banned Jewish composers, especially those who referenced Jewish teachings in their work. Among the banned composers under the Reich Chamber of Music was Giacomo Meyerbeer (The Breman Museum 2023). Meyerbeer was a Jewish composer born during the early years of the post-revolutionary Enlightenment (Haas 2014). In the mid-1800s, Meyerbeer’s operas were widely popular; however, by the late 1920s, Meyerbeer’s works were denounced as “cynical, vulgar, and empty of musical and dramatic ideas” (Forbes 1988). The rise and fall of Meyerbeer’s reputation can be most notably attributed to “the rise of antisemitism” (Forbes 1988). In the Reich Chamber of Music statute, the Nazi Party not only banned compositions created by Jewish composers, but in doing so they effectively diminished the Enlightenment ideals of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Meyerbeer’s greatest operas such as Les Huguenots, Le Prophète, and Jephthas Gelüdbe “all present the tragic human consequences of religious prejudice and fanaticism” (Pencak 2013). Therefore, when Meyerbeer’s operas were banned in the Third Reich, the Nazi Party disseminated the spread of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state as it was a threat to their religious power. Although a majority of Meyerbeer’s operas represent the Enlightenment ideal of religious tolerance, Jephthas Gelüdbe is the only opera in which Meyerbeer directly opposes his Jewish faith. Throughout this opera, Jephtha “pledges to the Lord to sacrifice the first person he sees after he is given victory over the Ammonites” (Pencak 2013). The Lord then intervenes to prevent the sacrifice of Shulamith, also named “peace” in Hebrew, wherein such a sacrifice is “forbidden in Jewish law” (Pencak 2013). The ban of Meyerbeer’s work under the Reich of Chamber Music still occurred even after Meyerbeer directly opposed his Jewish faith. One can conclude from this that the Nazi Party was equally focused on not only banning the works of Jewish composers but also banning all works relating to the Enlightenment ideals of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.
Felix Mendelssohn was among numerous banned composers under the Reich of Chamber Music statute. Similar to Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn’s reputation fell after the rise of antisemitism and more specifically after Richard Wagner’s “Das Judentum in der Musik” was published wherein it condemned both Jewish composers (Levi 1990). In addition, the “national publicity which accompanied the removal of the Mendelssohn Monument from the front of the Gewandhaus Building in Leipzig during 1936” essentially finalized the extinction of Mendelssohn’s musical compositions (Levi 1990). After his baptism conversion to the Aryan religion in 1816, Mendelssohn wrote St. Paul which followed the “acceptance of baptism and conversion from the Jewish faith” (Levi 1990). Even though Mendelssohn wrote an oratorio rejecting the Jewish faith, his work was still banned under the Reich Chamber of Music statute. St. Paul is one of the few works by Mendelssohn that doesn’t call for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Nazi Party banned Mendelssohn’s work not only because of his Jewish heritage and familial support of religious tolerance but also because of his references to freedom of worship and the separation of church and state throughout his musical compositions.
V. Conclusion
The systematic governmental oppression of the Jewish faith and the annihilation of Jewish music during the Third Reich emphasized the significance of Enlightenment Ideals, especially relating to religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Such Enlightenment ideals were condemned by the Nazi regime as they viewed the spread of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state as a threat to their theocracy. Therefore, the Nazi regime established discriminatory legislation to uphold differential stances of religious power. Composers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries either supported or opposed the Enlightenment ideals of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state throughout their compositions and works. The support or opposition from such composers directly correlates to their positioning under the Reich Chamber of Music statute regarding whether their music will be banned or utilized as propaganda during the Third Reich. Music has been utilized for centuries to express various ideals no matter whether such ideals are religious, political, or neither. Music has the extreme ability to influence international and even worldwide movements as it shapes cultures and societies all over the world.
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