In Germany one often hears that Austrians still have not adequately researched their involvement with the Nazi era, with National Socialism (NS). This book by Kurt Drexel clearly documents that not to be the case; he describes the role that music and composers played in the Austrian Reichsgau (Reich province) Tirol-Vorarlberg prior to and during World War II, and in postwar years. The title comes from a motto by Gau leader Franz Hofer, written in a 1941 song book dedicated to him: Klingendes Bekennen arteigener Daseinsfreude und jahrhundertalten Wehrbauerntums (Melodic Commitment to Racially Pure Joy and Centuries-old Peasant Guardians). The Apparat (layout) is crucial to the book and needs to be presented first.

In the text itself, 129 pages (47.6%) are Drexel’s own text, while 142 pages (52.4%) contain photos, posters, musical texts, newspaper clippings, letters, and archival materials excerpted from university departmental files, organizations, riflemen clubs, and various other ephemera. There is, of course the usual bibliography as well as person and place indexes, but also listed are interviews with seven individuals, six of whom witnessed the era firsthand. There are names of the twenty-two newspapers with inclusive dates of publication, and Internet sources, both historically oriented and very recent (September 2013). Finally, there is a detailed list of titles for the specific music pieces used as examples in the text, sources—like concert programs—and organizations with which much of the music was performed. Indexed also is some of the terminology of the period. This is a well-structured research document, perhaps of interest even to those who know only a little German, because of the abundance of time-appropriate photos and documents.

In his introduction Kurt Drexel lists the usual questions raised when dealing with music under National Socialism: its cultural-political function, the ideology, and what was to be conveyed. It is, however, the question of collective identity that will be central to the work. The author then lays out his thematic focus: “Music functioned as the bearer of ideological content; music (like other arts) was employed for the collective identity in Tirol-Vorarlberg; Tirolean-National Socialist identity was to be imparted through music; this development was already in existence in the Ständestaat [corporative state in pre-war Austria]; after 1945 NS ideological continuity was covert—at least not obvious to most—or it was simply papered over” (10).

After World War I, the loss of South Tirol to Italy, following the Treaty of St. Germaine in 1919, engendered debate about the lost territory, but it was during this time that paramilitary music organizations grew in abundance. Music was composed for them, marches in particular; the accompanying texts focused on the region itself and on the need for a Heimatwehr (homeland defense). Documents from one of the organizations, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Tiroler Komponisten (ATK) (Working Community of Tirolean Composers) clearly reveal a deep anti-Semitic bias, even though concerts and presentations still featured well-known Jewish musicians (40). The ATK viewed itself as a model for all of Austria, and thus worked to create a union of composers “on an Aryan basis” (21). On June 3, 1937, a presentation was made to the ATK that there was a predominance of Jewish music being played on radio RVAG (26).

After the annexation of Austria into the German Reich on March 11, 1938, a propaganda battle ensued, numerous militaristic songs and marches were composed, and the streets and the countryside were virtually flooded with this same music. There are fascinating descriptions of these events, with photo documentation of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend [HJ]) and the Union of German Girls (Bund deutscher Mädchen [BDM]) exploding onto the scene. One contingent of Pimpfe (contemporary term for boys] was even brought in from the Saarland, certainly to make a statement on Reich unity: on January 13, 1935, a plebiscite had been passed to allow the Saarland, separated after WW I, to rejoin Germany. There was also much public singing, intended to replace church rituals with the new “beliefs,” including a “holy oath” sworn before the “holy symbol, the swastika.” The Standschützenverband (Association of Riflemen—the main Nazi culture organization of the Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg) became the principal bearer of old customs and the defensive spirit in the region. In the Wilten section of Innsbruck, the musicians donned SA uniforms and played concerts in local parks, or as a Musikzug (music parade) (250, 252). The members wore elaborate costumes, and through annual shooting competitions exemplified homeland defense, worldview, and the continuity of “ancient” customs. The music composed to accompany these festivities was always martial in nature and unified the crowds with the marching columns of men dressed in semi-militaristic costumes. At solstice times, especially in the summer, there were torchlight parades through the streets. A second custom, the Brixentaler Flurritt (Brixen Valley Ride), had long been a Corpus Christi procession/ride practiced by the Catholic Church. It was now refocused as an “ancient Germanic Spring ritual” and was “purified” for National Socialist purposes. Here the music was accompanied by canon shots and parades with fanfare, and the horsemen no longer rode around the church, but around a May Pole!

The longest chapter presents considerable detail on many of the Tirolean composers of the time, including some rather bizarre publications on their part: war songs alongside anti-Jewish songs, interspersed with lullabies and children’s songs. Drexel offers us specifics on these composers, birth and death dates, Party affiliation and membership, compositions, and information about their role in the world of Tirolean music after 1945. There are all together seventeen composers treated, two of whom will be singled out here.

Josef Eduard Ploner had greeted the annexation into the Reich enthusiastically and called for Entjudung (removing Jews) from the Society for Authors, Composers, and Music Publishers 128). He called music the “most blood bound musical art” (129). It was, however, his publishing of the songbook Hellau in 1941, that warrants special emphasis. This book was dedicated to Gau Leader Franz Hofer and included an incredible musical mixture: songs for battle and celebrations, nostalgic songs of the homeland, and a few humorous songs for military camp life. He also composed cantatas for the shooting competition, and folksongs in praise of Andreas Hofer, the local hero during the Napoleonic years. Ploner died in 1955, but there will be more to say about him in postwar years.

The second composer, Sepp Tanzer, seen in the photos on pages 250 and 252, composed his “Gauleiter Hofer-Marsch” in 1938, but it never acquired any special importance. More important was his “Standschützenmarsch,” also dedicated to Gauleiter Hofer, which then became something of the standard march for the Riflemen Clubs in Tirol. By 1942 it had become the official parade music of such gatherings. Tanzer became the leader of the Fachschaft (professional association) of folk musicians in Tirol-Vorarlberg, and through this office was able to choose who would be permitted to be active on the music scene. He lived until 1983, and about him too there is much to say about his postwar years.

A brief chapter deals with members of the resistance movement, many of whom are arrested and tortured, including one case of virtual waterboarding (?). An eighteen-year-old high school student, Bert Breit, wrote about his experiences later in his life and described torture of an American, who said “that they (the Geheime Staatspolizei - Gestapo) hung him upside down for weeks on end and poured water in his nose” (263).

When Benito Mussolini was removed from power in mid-1943, there was enormous confusion. The German Wehrmacht (army) moved into northern Italy and established something of a “ghost republic,” that soon resulted in outright plundering. Musical instruments were taken from the Bozen/Bolzano Music Conservatory (Italy) and shipped out, possibly to Kufstein (Austria). Franz Hofer’s longstanding wish to infuse political matters, including propaganda, into the Riflemen Clubs, now seemed possible. Sepp Tanzer was given the task of creating marching bands and composing music for these clubs.

The author then turns his attention to what must have been the most difficult chapters for him to write: was there a special kind of Tirolean National Socialism? As we have seen, there had been references to the peasant guardians as the bearers and preservers of Deutschtum (Germandom), who found their actual significance in the Riflemen Clubs. Gau Leader Franz Hofer did not miss this opportunity, referring to these peasants as “better Germans,” based on the belief that life in the mountains was a prerequisite for “racially pure” development of the Volk.

Drexel points out that when zero hour finally came, the composers exculpated themselves with a long list of explanations: Austria was Hitler’s first victim, they performed against their will, etc. Many of these same composers were able to continue their musical endeavors, and received local and national awards for their compositions. Sepp Tanzer served from 1947 to 1980 as Tirolean Concert Master, and in 1948 was appointed folk music reporter for radio ORF in Tirol. Josef Eduard Ploner was awarded a state prize in 1952 for his work! Between 1959 and 1967 he published his Symphonie in Es, which his colleague Sepp Tanzer described as a key work for brass band music and that was trendsetting for what he called the “Tirolean School.” The four parts of the symphony are informative: Ancestral Inheritance, Heroes’ Cemetery, Scherzo, and Homeland Praise. Sepp Thaler, another composer treated by Drexel, became the leader of the State Union of Concert Masters for South Tirolean Music Bands from 1948 to 1982. Josef Ploner served as their advisor and research assistant. Ploner had composed work in 1943 which he published in a collection dedicated to the “Fallen.” One piece from this collection, Heldenehrung (Honor to Heroes) was republished in 1975, now entitled Heldisches Bläserspiel (Heroic Brass Piece). In this publication it appeared right next to the Austrian State Hymn (284).

Drexel then vigorously pursues the matter of NS ideological continuity in Tirol, detailing honors these composers received, streets named for Ploner in Innsbruck, Lienz, Sterzing (South Tirol), for Tanzer in Wörgl, and for Thaler in Auer (South Tirol). The music school in Kramsach was named after Sepp Tanzer.

Then in 2010 the private Institute for Tirolean Music Research produced a CD and accompanying booklet presenting much of the music that has been covered here. Ploner was described as an “ideal-typical Tirolean,” with no mention of the work he had dedicated to Gau Leader Franz Hofer. The CD publication led to a multi-faceted outpouring of indignation. There was an open letter and a series of meetings and exhibitions in which the public took part. On Thursday, September 12, 2013, I attended one of these presentations, three films featuring music by Sepp Tanzer and played by his Wilten Stadtmusikkapelle (City Music Band). Lengthy discussions followed the films. One participant remarked that more than half of the music played by marching bands in Austria had been composed by Tanzer. The primary question was of course, should Austrians still be playing music composed by documented Nazis? Several older people in attendance had known Tanzer personally and spoke in his defense: that was then, not now, and we should still be able to play and enjoy his music.

Far more challenging, however, was the matter of this very music being featured at many political gatherings, particularly that the Christian Demokrats (ÖVP) continue to play his “Standschützenmarsch.” Kurt Drexel was also there and presented orally much of the information he has documented in this book. Then on September 30, 2013, Michael Wedekind, a German at the University of Vienna—a double outsider for many in Tirol—published an online eighty-page “Evaluation of the State of Scholarly Research Concerning the Development of Tirolean Folk Culture.” Letters to the editor flooded the newspapers and politicians all the way up to the governor are having to take positions on the continuity of NS ideology in Tirolean music. As a result of public presentation of this matter, researchers of Tirolean folk costumes have also come under fire. It is much too soon to make any predictions on the eventual outcome of these debates, but there is hope among many that the mentality that was common during the Nazi era, and still seems to survive, will finally result in a national dialog. Kurt Drexel’s book will certainly be a primary document for these discussions. His details are indisputable, his presentation is convincing, and we now have a primary document to place at the center of this difficult discussion.

Personal Note: On December 13, 2014, it was my privilege to attend a wonderful Advent concert in the baroque Wilten Basilica (Innsbruck), a musical event that has been performed annually for the last thirty years. As we entered the church, lined up along the walkway and greeting us for the evening were members of a local Schützenverein (the Standschützenverband no longer exists), in full costume and holding small gas-lit torches. All Tyrolean Schützenvereine are now under an umbrella organization, Bund der Tiroler Schützenkompanien [Union of Tyrolean Riflemen Companies].

Addendum: This book was submitted as Habilitationsschrift to the Leopold-Franzens-Universität in Innsbruck. On March 9, 2015, Kurt Drexel was awarded the Habilitation in Music, with the note that his work makes an “essential contribution to music history in Tyrol in the 20th century and our understanding of the National Socialist Past.”

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[Review length: 2203 words • Review posted on March 11, 2015]