Jews in Music

Lexicon of Jews in Music



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The Lexicon of Jews in Music was first published in 1940 by Herbert Gerigk and Theophil Stengel at Bernhard Hahnefeld Publishing. The book, which appeared as volume 2 in the series Publications of the NSDAP Institute for Research into the Jewish Question, was compiled, according to the subtitle, "on behalf of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP on the basis of official documents verified by the party."

Musicians, musicologists, librettists, directors, music publishers and other people who were involved in music and who were considered "Jewish" or "half-Jewish" according to the anti-Semitic, National Socialist definition of the Nuremberg Laws are listed in it. It also contains a list of titles of "Jewish" works that were not allowed to be performed.

The lexicon was constantly updated by the staff of Gerigk's special music staff of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg task force and by informers. It appeared in five editions; the first contained 380 columns, the third (1941) already contained 394 and the last (1943) 404 columns.

Das Lexikon wurde in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone auf die Liste der auszusondernden Literatur gesetzt.[1]

A corresponding encyclopedia of Jewish writers planned by the Germanist Elisabeth Frenzel for the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, which was also intended to serve the exclusion of the artists included, never made it beyond the planning phase.

Editions[edit | Edit source]

  • Theo Stengel, Herbert Gerigk: Lexikon der Juden in der Musik. Mit einem Titelverzeichnis jüdischer Werke. Zusammengestellt im Auftrag der Reichsleitung der NSDAP auf Grund behördlicher, parteiamtlich geprüfter Unterlagen (= Veröffentlichungen des Instituts der NSDAP zur Erforschung der Judenfrage, Bd. 2), Berlin: Bernhard Hahnefeld, 1941 (1. Aufl. 1940).


Literature[edit | edit source]

  • Eva Weissweiler: Eradicated! The lexicon of Jews in music and its murderous consequences. Dittrich, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-920862-25-2 (The book contains a history of the lexicon's creation and impact as well as a facsimile edition of the 1st edition).
  • Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-ROM Lexicon, Kiel 2004. online

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ German Administration for Public Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone, List of Literature to be Discarded In: polunbi.de, accessed on 21 May 2019.


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