Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-38956-0002 / CC-BY-SA [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de / Wikimedia Commons
Berlin had faced many obstacles on the road to recovery. They had lost many people, a majority of buildings lay in waste, and the citizens had been on the brink of starvation for some time. With the city’s infrastructure in decay, revitalization would come in many forms. Music, the universal language it is, allowed for the rebuilding of aspects of 1940’s Berlin. “Despite food shortages and devastated infrastructure, the 1946/47 concert season began auspiciously. A cultural correspondent from Time magazine hailed Berlin “the current theatrical and musical capital of Europe. Theaters with their roofs blown off and their caved in are housing productions…that would shame a good deal of the stuff shown on Broadway.” (Janik, pg. 185)
A reason music played a huge part in recovery was due in part to troops from both allied and Soviet forces that were stationed in and around Berlin. With the war now over, troops were left needing a reward for their efforts and their actions. As far as recreation went in post war Germany, options were limited, however given the high precedence placed on music throughout much of Germany’s history; it was only natural for the art form to quickly re-establish popularity. Soviet forces, who already knew of Berlin’s rich musical heritage and who shared similar tastes came to appease their sense of nostalgia. Americans, to some extent, were not as versed in the history of music and its importance to European nations came nevertheless for entertainment and immersion of a culture that was not what they were used to. The number of troops that were stationed in Berlin at the end of the war was huge; the city was after all the home of Nazi war efforts. This meant that in order to entertain such a large collection of soldiers, government assistance would be needed.
During post war Germany, Berlin in particular; denazification became the main goal before the rebuilding of the infrastructure. There were still many Germans who had played a role in the atrocities committed during the war, some who had held important positions of authority and power. Soviet and Allied forces did not see these people as fit to take control of the rebuilding of Germany, with good reasoning. This issue did not escape the music industry either, as many composers found themselves in front of review boards, having to justify their actions and affiliation with the Nazi party during the war. Anyone who had managed to keep steady work, anyone who seemed to be favored by the Nazi’s, or anyone who was even rumored to have been involved with the Party was subject to a scrutinized assessment. This was not completely coordinated however amongst the separately controlled zones, so artists who faced harsh criticism in an American controlled zone, were not necessarily banned from playing in the more lenient Soviet zone (they after all shared closer ties with Germany towards music than the Americans did). “By 1947 the American Military government was compelled to reverse its hard line against Furtwängler, although it continued to distance itself from Soviet policy towards the conductor. While the Soviets valued Furtwängler as a political symbol, the Americans disassociated Furtwängler from politics altogether.” (Janik, pg. 205)
