From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The rise of Nazism and its aftermath led to a wave of Central European intellectuals, many of them Jewish, seeking escape abroad during the 1930s and 1940s due to persecution
at home . It has been claimed that nearly 70 composers came to the UK to escape Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, though many of them subsequently moved on elsewhere.
[1] This list details those composers, performers, publishers and musicologists who ended up living and working in Britain, where they had a significant and lasting influence on musical culture and development.
Primarily composers
Other composers stayed for a short time in Britain before moving on elsewhere. They included
Hanns Eisler ,
Ernst Krenek ,
Karol Rathaus ,
Kurt Roger ,
Ernst Toch and
Kurt Weill
[3]
Primarily conductors, performers, teachers
Pianist
Artur Schnabel and cellists Fritz Ball and
Emanuel Feuermann stayed for a short time in Britain before moving on
[3]
Primarily critics or musicologists
Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) arrived 1934 from Germany (with frequent trips back) but moved on to New York in 1938
[3]
Mosco Carner (1904–1985). Arrived in 1933 from Poland
Otto Erich Deutsch (1883–1967). Arrived in 1939, returned to Vienna 1951
Erich von Hornbostel (1877–1935). Arrived in 1933 from Austria
Hans Keller (1919–1985). Arrived 1938 from Austria
Georg Knepler (1906-2003). Arrived from Austria in 1934, returned in 1946
Else Mayer-Lissmann (1914–1990). Arrived 1938 from Germany
[8]
Hans Redlich (1903–1968). Arrived 1939, from Germany
Peter Stadlen (1910–1996). Arrived 1938 from Austria
Erwin Stein (1885–1958). Arrived 1938 from Austria
Klaus Wachsmann (1907–1984). Arrived 1936 from Germany. Uganda (1937-57), UK (1957-63), US (1963-75), UK (1975-84)
Primarily publishers
References
Sources
Bergfelder, Tim & Cargnelli, Christian.
Destination London: German-speaking emigrés and British cinema, 1925–1950 (2008).
Bratby, Richard. '
The musical émigrés from Nazi-Europe who shaped postwar Britain ', in The Spectator , 18 February, 2023.
Britten, Tony .
Through Lotte's Lens : a film by Tony Britten (2018).
Crawford: Dorothy L. A windfall of musicians: Hitler's émigrés and exiles in southern California (2009)
Gal, Hans.
Music Behind Barbed Wire: A Diary of Summer, 1940 (2014).
Gordon, David and Peter. Musical Visitors to Britain (2005).
Haas, Michael. Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis . New Haven and London: Yale University Press (2013).
ISBN
978-0-300-15430-6 (cloth);
ISBN
978-0-300-15431-3 (pbk).
Hirschfeld, G. and others.
Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom (1991).
Levi, Erik. '
The German-Jewish Contribution to Musical Life in Britain ', in Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom (1991), pp. 275-295.
Miller, Malcolm and Hansen, Jutta Raab.
Music in Exile: from 1933 to the Present Day . The Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, Vol. 22 (2023)
Oldfield, Sybil. The Black Book: The Britons on the Nazi Hitlist (2020).
ORT.
Music and the Holocaust: Composers in Exile .
Royal College of Music.
Project celebrating the work of migrant musicians who fled the Nazis.
Royal College of Music.
Singing a Song in a Foreign Land , Symposium programme, February 2014.
Snowman, Daniel, The Hitler Emigrés (2002).