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ABSTRACT
This article explores music as a medium of memory of anti-Nazi resistance looking at the Edelweißpiratenfestival, its connected events and multimedia publications. It explores how the festival provides platforms for the transgenerational transmission of memory, secures the continuing presence of the Edelweißpiraten's voices, and represents their ideals and spirit. It considers music’s roles as object and agent of memory, probes how music’s experiential and affective potential enables diverse agents to link past and present experiences, and shows how the memory plays into contemporary controversial issues in Germany and is used to counter racism and to promote an inclusive society.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Bündische Jugend was an umbrella term denoting different youth organizations, including Wandervogel, scouting and confessional youth organizations of the 1920s and early 1930s. The Bündische Jugend was part of the German Youth Movement (Jugendbewegung), which developed out of the Wandervogel, an association founded in 1901 that set out to promote hiking among schoolboys and girls. The Bündische Jugend was further influenced by the scouting movement (CitationAdriaansen 9).
2. The moniker Piraten (“pirates”) can be traced back to the Kittelbachpiraten, a youth group from Düsseldorf (CitationDittmar 22).
3. The Nazis gradually established the Hitler Youth as the sole official youth organization of Nazi Germany. The first step was made in 1936 with the Gesetz über die Hitler-Jugend (“Law of the Hitler Youth”); the second step with the issuing of the second execution order to the law, the so-called Jugenddienstverordnung (“Youth Service Regulation”), in March 1939, which eventually enforced compulsory membership (CitationKlönne 29, 37).
4. Lange shows that a number of Edelweißpiraten had previously joined the Hitler Youth organizations, but the military drill eventually led them to drop out (CitationLange 185).
5. All translations from German by the author, unless stated otherwise.
6. The National Socialism Documentation Center (NS DOK) is a memorial site, research, and educational center, commemorating the victims of the Nazis. Their exhibition on the Edelweißpiraten and other non-conformist youth groups during the time of the Nazi regime is still shown in the Edelweißpiratenfestival.
7. The project was named after a song sung by the Edelweißpiraten. The song describes the travels of hitchhikers, who meet in a dive bar in Shanghai (CitationRüther et al. 38–40).
8. Humba e.V. is an association founded in 1994. It sets out to contribute to the Cologne carnival, drawing inspiration from and bringing together the world music movement and local traditions of the Cologne area.
9. For more information on the historical repertoire of the Edelweißpiraten, see CitationRüther et al. and CitationWerheid et al.
10. The adaption of songs from the Bündische Jugend also gave rise to misunderstandings. Especially in the early years, the Hitler Youth adopted songs from the Bündische Jugend into their repertoire, leading to an association of these songs with the Nazi regime (CitationRüther, “Wo keine” 13–16).
11. Given the limited lifespan of physical storage media, such as CDs, DVDs, and hard disks, as well as accessibility issues (due to changing formats and an abundance of nonphysical carriers), this is a theoretical, rather than practical consideration.
12. The book was also complemented by a website, which is still available but no longer fully functional – see CitationDas Projekt.
13. The Alternative für Deutschland (“Alternative for Germany,” short AfD) is a German far-right party, which is explicitly racist and anti-Islam. Founded in 2013, the party has steadily gained seats in federal parliaments as well as the Bundestag.
14. See, e.g. CitationNowotny for Björn Höcke’s speech on 17 January 2017.
15. Mainstream here refers to “the ‘other’ to subcultural, alternative, underground, outsider, folk and art cultures” (CitationHuber 4).
16. For a discussion of the concept Heimat, see CitationMendívil 233–38.
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Monika E. Schoop
Monika E. Schoop is an assistant professor of popular music studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany, and co-coordinator with Federico Spinetti of the research project “Sounding Memories: Nazi-Persecution and Anti-Nazi Resistance in the Music of Contemporary Germany,” funded by the German Research Foundation. She holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Hildesheim and an MA in Musicology, Philosophy, and English Studies from the University of Cologne. Her research interests include music and memory, protest music, music industries, music scenes, gender and queer studies, and popular music in the Philippines. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Philippines and in Germany.