The Jewish Kulturbund in Bavaria, 1934-‐1938
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Jewish Kulturbund in Bavaria, 1934-1938: Art and Jewish Self-Representation under National Socialism Dana LeiGh Smith Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the DeGree of DoCtor of Philosophy 1 I, Dana LeiGh Smith, Confirm that the researCh inCluded within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly aCknowledGed below and my Contribution indiCated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledGe break any UK law, infrinGe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I aCCept that the ColleGe has the riGht to use plaGiarism deteCtion software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I Confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The CopyriGht of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written Consent of the author. Signature: Date: 16 July 2015 Details of collaboration and publications (published as of 16 July 2015): “‘Münchens Ruf als erste deutsChe Kunststadt…”: Der JüdisChe Kulturbund in Bayern, Ortsgruppe München (1934-1938)’ in Münchner Beiträge zur Jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur (Autumn 2014). ‘Die Arbeit des JüdisChen Kulturbundes’ in Das Jahr 1938: Kunstleben im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Julia Voss and Raphael Gross (Wallstein: DeCember 2013). 2 Abstract This thesis has two foci: the development of a National SoCialist anti- Jewish cultural policy and the proCesses of internal Jewish Community Cultural self-representations. At the most basiC level it is an organisational history of the Jewish Kulturbund in Bavaria between 1934 and 1938. Ultimately, however, the thesis is about the people: the artists, how they employed Certain mediums for specific uses and how these events were reCeived. The Kulturbund was the lone state approved Jewish cultural organisation in Nazi Germany; it was, in other words, the only public space for Jewish cultural performanCe and Consumption. Activity beGan in Berlin in the summer of 1933 and expanded to cities, towns and villages throughout the country. Unlike the majority of these early branChes, however, the Jewish Kulturbund in Bavaria developed independently of Berlin’s main offiCes. Bavarians maintained autonomous Control of their Cultural leaGue until the autumn of 1935. OrGanised Bavarian Jewish cultural life was ‘liquidated’ upon official state orders after 9 November 1938. This thesis analyses the Kulturbund proGramme as an internal projeCtion of willed identity for Bavarian Jews. Kulturbund events – particularly in the early seasons when National Socialist censorship was ill-defined and haphazardly enforced – refleCted the ways its membership Chose to staGe their own understandinGs of what it meant, to them, to be ‘Jewish’. It was a proCess of dissimilation and internal Community buildinG that helped its membership navigate their experiences of political persecution and social flux. What developed in the Bavarian proGramme from february 1934 until November 1938 was a representation of ‘Jewishness’ that was self-described as both religious- and heritage-based with a regional bent. 3 Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 3 Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................ 6 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 HistorioGraphy ............................................................................................................................................. 23 SourCes ............................................................................................................................................................ 30 Part One: 1933-1935 ...................................................................................................... 36 1. ‘Jewish’ Exclusion from the ‘German’ Cultural Sphere: Impact and Responses, 1933 .............................................................................................................. 37 Early National SoCialist LeGislative AttaCks .................................................................................... 39 The Creation of the Kulturbund DeutsCher Juden in Berlin ..................................................... 47 A Separate LeaGue for Jews in Bavaria: The Jewish Kulturbund in Bavaria ..................... 53 2. The Apparatus of Control: Cultural Policy, Censorship and Surveillance, 1933-1938 ......................................................................................................................... 59 ConCeptualisation: BayerisChes Staatsministerium für UnterriCht und Kultus and Bavarian anti-Jewish Cultural Policy, 1933-1935 ........................................................................ 62 Consolidation: The Transition Toward a Centralised Anti-Jewish Cultural Policy, 1935-1937 ..................................................................................................................................................... 72 Completion: The LeGislative StranGlinG of Jewish Cultural Life, 1937-1938 .................... 79 3. Kultur and Bund: The Frameworks of ‘Jewish’ Culture in Bavaria ............ 82 Emancipation and ExClusion: The BaCkdrop of Bavarian Terms of Conceptualisation ............................................................................................................................................................................ 85 Kultur: Internal Debates ConCerninG HiGh Art, Popular Art and Welfare Initiatives .... 90 Bund: Bavarian Leaders, Artists and AudienCe Members ......................................................... 98 4. Music and Community Representation: The Early Musical Programme in Bavaria ............................................................................................................................. 110 Continuities with Weimar Jewish Culture in MuniCh: a ‘ColleGium musiCum’ .............. 112 CreatinG An Early ‘Jewish’ MusiCal Programme in Bavaria: LiturGy, Folk SonGs and HeritaGe ....................................................................................................................................................... 120 CompliCated HeritaGe: The Example of Felix Mendelssohn and the Bavarian Kulturbund ProGramme ....................................................................................................................... 130 5. The Kulturbund and the ‘Kunststadt’: The Visual Arts Department ...... 138 Exhibits and Competitions in Bavaria ............................................................................................ 140 ‘A play about Moses at the Puppet Theatre?’: MünChen Marionettentheater JüdisCher Künstler ....................................................................................................................................................... 147 The form of Jewish Marionettes in Bavaria ................................................................................. 156 Part Two: 1935-1938 .................................................................................................. 162 6. From Munich to Berlin: The Loss of Regional Autonomy and a National Kulturbund ..................................................................................................................... 163 Initial Efforts Toward A National Jewish Kulturbund StruCture ......................................... 166 The April 1935 ‘Conference of Jewish Cultural LeaGues’ and National Centralisation ......................................................................................................................................................................... 170 The ImpaCt of National Consolidation in Bavaria: Administrative and ArtistiC. .......... 176 7. A Bavarian Musical Department without Bavarian Musicians: Repertoire, Artists and Venues. ...................................................................................................... 183 4 ‘Unser MünChner KulturbundorChester’: The Loss of ReGional MusiCal Representation ......................................................................................................................................................................... 187 Female Bavarian MusiCians and the Kulturbund ....................................................................... 191 Locations of Jewish MusiC in Bavaria .............................................................................................. 196 8. Bavarian Visual Artists within the National and Regional Context: Exhibitions and Marionettes .................................................................................... 204 Family, Community and Self: Bavarian Artists and National Exhibits .............................. 208 ‘Enviable Theatre!’: MünChen Marionettentheater JüdisCher Künstler ........................... 223 9. The Final Curtain: Emigration, Poverty and ‘Liquidation’, 1937-1938 . 240 Membership DeCline