kiramdear wrote:75 years is a lot of water under the bridge. Have the Germans "forgotten" their musical legacy or has it been because of economic reasons, especially since the East-West reunion?
When the Jews lost their homes and/ or their lives in Austria and Germany in the 1930s, a large number of the leading composers, the best music teachers, the best orchestra musicians, the best popular musicians and the best professors at the universities were not there anymore (not to mention all the great scientists, writers, artists a.s.o.). This is something you cannot compensate for in a period of "only" 75 years. A whole part of the German and Austrian culture, an important part of everyday life in Germany and Austria was "erased" in only 12 years. German culture will never totally recover from that and German culture will never be the same because the Jewish part of this culture is missing. One should remember that Jewish people were living in Germany ever since the name "Germany" existed.
What is more a lot of people living in Germany today have really forgotten about our musical legacy. Not only do most young people in Germany know nothing about the great classical composers of the past, there also is no real German folk music anymore - another consequence of the Nazi period: German folk songs could not be sung anymore after 1945, the youth had to turn around and listen to Glenn Miller and Elvis instead. German folk culture was somehow "polluted" or "damaged" by the Nazi regime. And many young people felt that while the American forces freed Germany from the Nazi terror, the American music freed the hearts and souls from all this fear and hate. Most young Germans "took over" the American and English music culture for themselves - at least to a certain extend - after world war two.
You know, I was born in 1972, and I grew up with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Sex Pistols and all that. I know thousands of English pop songs and only very few German folk songs. And this is fine for me personally, but it is a problem for the status of music within the German culture. You could say we have lost our own language in music. Again this is no problem for me personally, but it is a problem for Germany in general. Most people around here listen to music that they do not really understand. It is not the same whether you are a 12 year old African American living in New York or a 12 year old with parents who came from Turkey living in Cologne, when you are listening to Hip-Hop - but both 12 year olds are listening to Hip-Hop all the time, of course. And a Beatles song is not the same for a 50 year old mother of two living in Berlin, who understands only half of the lyrics, as it is for a 50 year old mother living in Manchester, while both will tell you, that they love the Beatles.
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This is a very complex and difficult topic and it is very hard for me to express my thoughts concerning this in English
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) Thanks for the info 