View source for Reich Music Examination Office

{{short description|Music censorship office operated within Nazi Germany}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
[[File:Joseph Goebbels and Richard Strauss.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|[[Heinz Drewes]] between [[Richard Strauss]] (left) and [[Joseph Goebbels]] in 1938]]
The '''Reich Music Examination Office''' (German: '''''Reichsmusikprüfstelle''''') was an organisation within the [[Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda]] whose role was to prevent the distribution of 'undesirable' music within [[Nazi Germany]]. In doing so, it worked in conjunction with the [[Reichsmusikkammer|Music Chamber]] of the [[Reichskulturkammer|Reich Chamber of Culture]].
==Degenerate music==
{{main|Degenerate music}}
The Office was established as a result of an 'Order Concerning Undesirable and Dangerous Music', issued by the Music Chamber in December 1937. [[Heinz Drewes]] became the Office's first director. Initially, the Office's remit was to screen all foreign music before publication or distribution, but in March 1939, this role expanded to encompass all music. As this task was too great for one bureau to deal with, publishers were only under compulsion to submit music to the Office if it was requested, although some composers submitted their own compositions anyway.
As part of its work, the Reich Music Examination Office published lists of 'undesirable' compositions, the first of which was produced on 31 August 1938 and published in the Music Chamber's official journal on 1 September. Five more of these lists were published (containing in total 83 titles or composers' names).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prieberg |first=Fred |url=https://archive.org/details/handbuch-ns-musiker-prieberg |title=Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933-1945 |publisher=Fred K. Prieberg, Auprès de Zombry |year=2009 |edition=2nd |location=no place |pages=2397}}</ref> This small number indicates that the mere existence of the office had a self-regulatory effect. Much of the banned material comprised what the Nazis called [[degenerate music]], such as [[jazz]] or [[negermusik]] as well as the compositions of Jewish composers like [[Mahler]].
==See also==
* [[Music in Nazi Germany]]
* [[Reich Chamber of Music]]
==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}
{{refimprove|date=January 2021}}
'''Sources'''
* Kater, Michael H. (1997) ''The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich''
* Steinweis, Alan E. (1993) ''Art, Ideology, and Economics in Nazi Germany: The Reich Chambers of Music, Theater, and the Visual Arts''
==External links==
* [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=2082 "Degenerate" Music in Nazi Germany]
[[Category:Music organisations based in Germany]]
[[Category:Modernism (music)]]
[[Category:Nazi culture]]
[[Category:Nazi propaganda organizations]]
[[Category:Censorship in Germany]]
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1937]]
[[Category:1937 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1937]]
[[Category:1937 in music]]