Homefront

Arts in harness - Salzburg, 1938.

Salzburg Festival Association.

Following the Austro-German "Anschluss" of March, 1938, the Nazis lost no time in harnessing Austria's huge cultural assets to the Nazi carriage. This 'photo shows the approach to the recently-renovated Festival Theatre during the Salzburg Festival, July/August 1938. By this time, the governing Festival Association had been subordinated to the Nazi Gauleiter of the area, and a number of "unsuitable" works, productions and artists (notably those with Jewish associations) had been banned from the programme. The 1938 Festival was opened with a performance of "Die Meistersinger von Nurnbberg" - a favourite of Hitler's, directed by one of his favourite conductors, Wilhelm Furtwangler. Later in the year, the theatre was used to host the Nazis' infamous "Degenerate Art" exhibition. There was really no escaping the determination of Dr Goebbels and his Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment to engage the world of the arts at all levels in the process of mass thought control, even (or perhaps especially) for a major cultural institution like the Salzburg Festival. Best regards, JR.