Abstract
This thesis focuses on foreign musicians in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1939. What place did foreign musical performers have in Germany’s increasingly xenophobic employment market during the 1930s? Likewise, how did the Nazis deal with those musicians, and what margin of manoeuvre were foreigners given to carry out their craft? These are the questions that form the basis of this thesis. To answer them, I examine a collection of primary Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) records that are now held on microfilm in the United States National Archives, grouped under the description “Auftrittsgenehmigungen für Ausländer” (Performance Permits for Foreigners; specifically musicians). The information gleaned from these records is used to demonstrate how the Nazis brought the activity of foreign musicians under their jurisdiction. It is also used to reveal stories of individuals who became entangled in the Nazis’ arbitrary and racist cultural policies, and to explain how performances by foreign musicians and orchestras were appropriated by the Nazis for the purposes of cultural diplomacy and propaganda.
