Kontinuitäten und Brüche im Musikleben der Nachkriegszeit Projektteil III: Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Vergangenheitspolitik - Musikwissenschaft in Forschung und Lehre im frühen Nachkriegsdeutschland

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Schipperges
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2009 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 138279964

In society and politics as well as in culture and science, the turning point of 1945 as 'Year Zero' has been called into question. Our project focuses on continuity and discontinuity of persons and subjects within the field of musicology in Germany during the early postwar period from 1945 to 1955. Only a widespread and systematic collection of archival sources will provide the necessary framework to study musicological research and teaching as it existed in universities and institutions during this period. Collection and evaluation of information regarding internal procedures as well as justifications surrounding the assessment of post-war musicology chairs will make this phase of musicological history more transparent. One main question involves the way musicology confronts the issue of nazism in its past, and the strategies by which scholars who had lost their positions regained them after the phase of denazification. Each case was influenced by the network of musicologists and musicological organizations and institutions founded in Germany, from 1949 onwards more and more separately. The question of assessment and staffing of musicological chair positions, for example, were descided largely by the same people.The core task of our research project is the acquisition, development and processing of archival sources. During the first phase we covered systematically the sources in Germany. The next phase involves extending our source material to include musicological institutions in German-speaking areas in Switzerland and Austria, as well as in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe - areas which, until 1945, belonged to the 'Deutsches Reich', had been working place of German musicologists before or after 1945 or influenced them. Also the systematic reconstruction and content decoding of German teaching between 1945 and 1955 shall be extended with the neighbour countries. The exemplary processing of the materials will be done in specific articles and in four planned monographs. Two volumes are in preparation for the publication of an annotated edition containing the correspondence of H. Besseler with J. Handschin, R. von Ficker, F. Blume, A. Schmitz. A document volume will offer insight into different types of sources. Public relations activities will include a exhibition as well as different lecture recital programs featuring works composed by musicologists. The total source material will be made available by means of an online database at the end of the second phase of the project.Ultimately, we will describe and define the longue durée of musicology in German-speaking areas from the 19th until the 21st century. The first systematically source-based comprehensive encyclopedia of the discipline will be prepared, containing portraits of people and their research, their connections and networks, institutions and their transformations as well as the integration of musicology in sociocultural developments.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants