PREJUDICE AND PATRIOTISM: FREDERICK STOCK, ANTI-GERMANISM, AND AMERICAN MUSIC IN WORLD WAR I Anna Moir April 23, 2009 HIST400: History Senior Thesis, Haverford College ABSTRACT In this thesis, I am examining the anti-German sentiment that swept through American society during World War I, with a focus on its impact on the classical music community. When the United States entered the fighting in 1917, the government had to create a sense of purpose, unity, and national identity among the public in order to organize an effective war effort and overcome the country’s lack of both preparation and compelling reasons to be involved in the conflict at all. To achieve this, the new Committee on Public Information organized a large- scale propaganda campaign to encourage a combination of unwavering nationalism and fear of the enemy, specifically the Germans. The propaganda was effective to the point where extreme paranoia took over the nation, and people began to stigmatize anything that was even remotely connected with Germany. In addition, the government and its propaganda created such a conformist environment that dissenters of any kind, German or otherwise, faced persecution and incarceration. Laws passed during that time took away many basic civil liberties such as freedom of speech and right to privacy, so it was even easier to identify and catch anybody who was even remotely critical of the war or the United States in general. At the same time, music had become intertwined with wartime politics and could not escape the irrational prejudice that had pervaded the nation. Germany had traditionally provided the greatest influence of any country on the development of a musical identity in the United States, but in the war, many Americans chose to link its artistic identity with its politics and militarism. It was part of a larger, ongoing debate about whether music should even be politicized at all, or simply valued for its trans-national, emotional, aesthetic qualities; in this case, however, American music was connected too closely with nationalism to be treated as separate from the war. As a result, some cities and communities banned music by German composers, and many enemy alien performers and conductors were suspected of working against the United States. I am specifically looking at Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as a case study of these larger issues in the war. Because he was born in Germany, he faced attacks and accusations of disloyalty by the press and public, and eventually had to resign until he could attain American citizenship. In reality, however, he had lived in the United States for over twenty years and was considered patriotic and trustworthy by the people who knew and worked with him. It is his nationalist record that makes him a compelling case study of issues such as conformity, propaganda, civil liberties, prejudice, and the role of music in the war. On the one hand, the fact that he faced persecution at all demonstrates the irrational extremes that anti-Germanism had reached. Even an official investigation had concluded that he was innocent, but that verdict did not stop newspapers from continuing to question his loyalty. On the other hand, it is important to note that Stock was luckier than many of his German-born contemporaries, who were arrested and interned. In a time when people’s statements could be used against them easily and nationalism was more important than aesthetics, Stock’s supporters succeeded in defending him as a patriotic American, not just a talented conductor. As a result, his story demonstrates the many complexities of life on the World War I home front. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 The Field: An Interdisciplinary Perspective 2 Sources 5 SECTION I: WORLD WAR I BACKGROUND, PRE-1917 8 Germans in Chicago 8 Changing German-American Relations 10 Prewar Europe 12 The Early War Years, 1914-1917 14 SECTION II: THE UNITED STATES AT WAR, 1917-1919 19 CPI Propaganda 20 The Spread of Anti-Germanism 26 Legal Repressions 28 SECTION III: THE WARTIME EXPERIENCES OF FREDERICK STOCK 32 Suspicion v. Support of Stock 37 SECTION IV: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS 43 National Contexts 43 International Contexts 51 CONCLUSION 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 INTRODUCTION During World War I, the United States was caught up in a wave of nationalism and anti- German sentiment that affected all aspects of society from legal rights to basic, everyday life. Anybody who was originally from Germany or dissented against popular opinion, or both, was especially vulnerable to discrimination by the government, its wartime propaganda, and the general public. In addition, anything with a German influence was stigmatized as part of the general paranoia throughout the nation. The American classical music community, which had developed in the past century under German leadership and traditions, was especially vulnerable. People in orchestras across the country were affected not only because they had to defend many of the standard works they performed, but also because so many members were classified as alien enemies in the war and were persecuted accordingly. In a society that had become so prejudiced, people’s personal loyalties were not always sufficient against an overwhelming suspicion of Germany and anything even remotely connected to it. One victim of the hysteria was Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He had lived in the United States for over two decades and was highly respected for his work and encouragement of American music, yet once the nation entered the war, what mattered to most newspapers was that he was originally born in Germany. Due to an oversight, he had never completed the naturalization process; the fact that he was still technically a German citizen was reason enough for many reporters and their readers to suspect him of disloyalty. As attacks and accusations heightened, he was eventually forced to resign from his position until he could return with proper American citizenship. Stock’s story stands out among the many instances of German-born musicians, and to a lesser degree Austro-Hungarian as well, because it has certain unique complexities that relate to 1 the importance of patriotism at the time. When other prominent alien musicians were being arrested, interned, and deported, he was more fortunate because he merely had to step aside for several months. In addition, he consistently maintained a strong group of supporters. It is the fact that he was so lucky, comparatively speaking, that raises questions about politics and culture in the United States during the war. The Field: An Interdisciplinary Perspective Historians have traditionally kept their own work separate from cultural fields such as musicology, and vice versa. Most World War I studies therefore focus on the military, political, and social issues, only citing music history occasionally if it provided relevant anecdotes or supporting details. The main reason for that separation is usually unfamiliarity; most historians have not seen themselves as qualified to analyze music itself and detect its abstract meanings. They therefore prefer to leave it to musicologists and avoid having to examine its links to their studies themselves, even when it is, in fact, extremely relevant.1 Similarly, decades of American musicology barely looked at World War I history except as a transition period that affected what had previously been such a German-dominated musical identity. The majority of musicologists otherwise used the equivalent argument that history was not their field so they were therefore not equipped to study it. As a result, most studies of music and World War I have remained in separate categories, with very little overlap. Recently, more musicologists have begun to recognize the importance of examining the general history behind music, to better understand the performers, styles, and composers they 1 Scott Denham, Irene Kacandes, Jonathan Petropoulos, ed., A User’s Guide to German Cultural Studies (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997), 142. 2 study.2 After all, the performing arts are often interconnected with the political climate and social issues of the day. Most historical studies still do not look at that connection closely enough, however. An important reason is that World War I is often an overlooked period in United States history in the first place. It had been so unexpectedly traumatic that most Americans had wanted to move past it as quickly as possible starting in the 1920s; subsequently, it was overshadowed by the Great Depression and World War II. Many twentieth-century historians have therefore studied it primarily as a catalyst for the events that followed.3 In addition, it took decades for most of the World War I studies that were conducted to move past military and political history and examine the cultural side at all. More recently, writings such as Glenn Watkin’s Proof Through the Night: Music and the Great War finally began to examine the relationships that could exist between musicology and World War I. Watkins examines the role of music in most of the major countries involved in the war and presents a solid case for music as one of the most important categories of cultural history. Most importantly, Watkins demonstrates time and again how music was related to the political and social issues during the war, from its usefulness as a propaganda tool to underlying cultural competitions that had helped fuel resentments between the conflicting nations in the first place.4 Meanwhile, Joseph Horowitz has incorporated considerably more history than most of his predecessors into a wide variety of studies on American music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In his books, notably Classical Music in America: A History of its Rise and Fall, he recognizes and analyzes the close links between music and the surrounding social and political climate.