Indoctrination: poetry & music (1/6)
Walter Felscher (walter.felscher@UNI-TUEBINGEN.DE)
Mon, 9 Nov 1998 18:13:53 +0100
Indoctrination through Poetry and Music
About a year ago. I sent out here a "Report on DJ & HJ , part I "
that contained some of my memories from the four years during
which I was a member of the DJ , the HJ's ( HJ = Hitler-Jugend)
branch for boys between 10 and 14 years old. A further part,
announced there by a reference to " ... the spirit of the
times " was not ready at that time, because it proved to be
more difficult than expected to dig up the documentation I had
in mind. What is presented here is an elaboration of this
complex; it may be considered as the announced third part of
that earlier report.
Again, I should remark that the memories reported here are
mine, and what they recall will be specific for the time of its
occurrence (1941 - 1945), and partly also for the location ( a
town of about 100 000 inhabitants, 40 miles from Berlin) and
maybe even the particular Gymnasium (housed in a large
building from the time just before WW1).
As stated already in the earlier part of this report, I cannot
remember direct political indoctrination by a teacher in the
classroom, be it in elementary school until 1941 or in the
Gymnasium afterwards. In addition, I cannot even remember
political indoctrination speeches delivered in the DJ/HJ either
- though they probably did take place on the rare occasion that
an older person, say the Bannfuehrer commanding all units of
our town, would address a crowd of boys on a large soccer
field, say on Hitler's birthday. But our lower leaders, with
whom there was week-to-week contact, were only two or four
years older than we, and so to them, as to us, the existence of
the NS state was a fact that appeared to have been there as
long as we could think. Being a universally present factum,
there seemed to be no need to defend or support NS-dom with
arguments phrased in words, professed in argumentative
reasoning.
Yet supportive indoctrination did take place: not with appeals
to reason, but through the evocation of emotions by artful
composition of words and music into hymns and songs.
W.F.
1. The exterior frame
Clearly, the environment of a more or less raucous group of
boys, with a slighly older boy as their leader, is hardly
conductive to create the contemplative mood in which the
chanting of a hymn will create the emotions evoced by its tune
and words. So the emotional indoctrination did not take place
during the times spent in the DJ/HJ : rather it happened at
school, the Gymnasium, on particular occasions. These were,
first, the 'Appelle', held occasionally at the start of a
vacation, and always when reconvening to school after a
vacation, and, secondly, the school convocations at the three
or four political holydays, such as Hitler's birthday, the
anniversary of the NS-coup on November 9th, or the
"Heldengedenktag" in March, pointing at the sacrifice of the
fallen as an example to those still alive.
All these events were attended by the entire school population
of 400 to 450 boys. When the weather was good, the 'Appelle'
were held in the school yard, the director giving a rather
short address, framed by two HJ-songs - and due to the open
air, it never was very impressive. The convocations, as well as
the 'Appelle' at times of unfriendly weather, took place in the
school's huge assembly hall, the 'Aula'. It occupied a large
part of the building's first floor, containing a small emporium
confronted by rows of chairs, sufficient to seat everybody, and
normally it was used only for each classes' weekly music
lesson, as there was a grand piano standing on the emporium.
The larger part of these lessons was given to singing, mainly
folk songs, but also the NS-songs taught from the school's
prescribed song book. But when entering the 'Aula', one's eye
first was caught by the large, splendid organ, its shining
metal pipes framed in bright yellowish wood and occupying most
of the emporium's rear wall. It was this organ that was played
to accompany the NS-hymns at the convocations.
Such convocation lasted from one hour to one and a half. Again,
an adress by the director, maybe a second one by another
teacher or an alumnus, possibly the recital of a poem, and in
between the chanting of two or three hymns. All the rows of
seats densely packed: small boys of 10 or 11 years, at first
hardly restrained not to whisper to their neighbours, middle
sized ones, and then those 18 year olds from the upper classes,
really grownups just before induction to the services, with
serious, distant faces, to whom the small boys have to look
up, and do so not without awe. And all of them joining in the
hymns, the deep, sounding basses of the older ones approaching
the even deeper sounds of the organ, going from the bones of
your scull down to your heart:
(0) Nichts kann uns rauben
Liebe und Glauben
Zu unserm Land;
Es zu erhalten
Und zu Gestalten,
Sind wir gesandt.
Mo"gen wir sterben,
Unseren Erben
Gilt dann die Pflicht:
Es zu erhalten
Und zu gestalten:
Deutschland stirbt nicht !
But afterwards, it sometimes was chirping secretly in your
mind:
[Nothing will rob us of our belief in our country]: The war
now has lasted almost since our years at elementary school. It
has been expanded more and more, and now, since '42/43 , not
victory takes place, but slow retreat.
[Should we die, our heirs will have to continue]: In
January/February 1943, entire pages of the local paper were
full of small announcements 'Gefallen fu"r Fu"hrer und
Vaterland'. The names of some of those big ones of 18 soon
may be among them. How many years are left for us younger
ones ?
[Deutschland stirbt nicht]: And what then ?
I now shall examine a few aspects of the contents of those
songs and hymns.