–A brief WWII story of Jazz

THE threshold of the 20th Century was all of what was the being of World War II. The science that enveloped that war eventually ended the conflict, with its cataclysmic unravelling. The quest for ‘Atomic energy’, and as brutal as it was, the selective findings of the sadistic research on human beings in the Nazi concentration camps that were considered in the aftermath as useful to the Allies, and the collective of that era that was shared with the Axis nations post WWII that launched the continuous haunting presence of Chemical and Biological Warfare. We’re all products of that global conflict; and so was Albert Einstein, Quantum Mechanics, and the quest for a clearer understanding of Cosmology. But there was more that is not placed in its context in the dramatic edutainment streams available today; that of the Cultural Conflict and the elements of the contradictory struggle of free minds through the music of JAZZ.

“Jazz emerged as a musical expression. Jazz has grown up alongside dance crazes, the movies, the record industry, and worldwide broadcasting, and it has changed forever the way we hear tonality and rhythm. Though often sidelined by establishment Arts, the history of Jazz and Blues is the hottest story in 20th Century music”: JAZZ by John Fordham.
Jazz came to Germany seriously after WWI. Jazz was already accepted in France and England for its musical expression at first. In Germany, however, it was for the twin purposes of music and its dance styles. But other things were going on in Germany. Germany had lost World War I and was not in great political and economic standing. Thus, the Nazi Party had risen to prominence through a skilful ‘Public Relations’ scheme, based on race supremacy occult pseudo definitions of race, defined by variation as a supreme factor among humans that placed the creators of this idea in a position to preach that all others were inferior, and whatever were their natural gifts were inferior.

These groups of mythical prophets existed in Germany before the Nazis, posturing as social healers with secret racial knowledge and purpose for the German people. They were all over Germany and Europe before the war. Their arguments were rooted in the ‘Aryan construct’, a concept of creating a fictitious past as propaganda to inspire the present. The America of that era was very similar; segregation was ahead of the Nazis, and so was the bombing of black Wall Street and Biblical reconstructions to justify white-supremacy ideas, even before the Nazis came to power in 1933. Nazi agents in German media and in supportive officialdom condemned Jazz as inferior music. Jazz had brought many Afro-Americans to Germany in the 1920s, including Josephine Baker; the Afro-German Herb Flemming played to the pleasure of German Jazz fans. Nevertheless, by the mid-thirties, all Black and foreign musicians were banned from performing in Germany. The man who was appointed to become cultural authority was by no means a cultural person, but an excellent propagandist and racist; his name was Joseph Goebbels.

Hitler did argue that Germany’s loss of WWI had affected German self-confidence. Thus, there had to be a group of propositions to regain their self-confidence. Therefore, the master-race idea and culture were to be purged to allow the manipulations to justify Nazi ownership, and guidance of the German people. However, Jazz was a cultural stream accepted by many Germans’ independent taste. “There was no mistaking the connection between Jazz and Negro-phobia by the Nazis. Goebbels’s approach to the problem was multiplied, and even contradictory as he tried to resolve an impossible contradiction. On the one hand, the black and Jewish role in Jazz was indisputable on fundamental principles. On the other hand, the music was popular among many of the German population, German soldiers, and even among Nazi members. Given this paradox, Goebbels tried unsuccessfully to ban Jazz-related activities and create a Nazi version of Jazz, time and time again. According to Zer Win, a Luftwaffe pilot named Werner Molders, who loved Swing music, was able to influence Hitler, who then pressured Goebbels to make German radio music more ‘Swinging’. In 1942, Goebbels formed the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra; its goal was to satisfy the military’s Jazz longings, and compete with the British Broadcast. “ Clarence Lusane – Hitler’s Black Victims.

In closing, Swing music and its dance styles were ‘hip’ in this country. The late Hector Stout would always, in his Oldies are Goldie’s shows, feature couples who would express the Lindy-Hop, Bebop and other Swing Dance styles that were also popular in old Georgetown and New Amsterdam, and possibly other locations. Space would not allow us to explore the Swing movement of young Germans in the 1940s, but there is a 1993 movie called, ‘Swing Kids’ that explores the subject.