Music Politics in the Third Reich: Artists’ Behavioural Models and Coexistence Strategies in a Totalitarian State
Music Politics in the Third Reich: Artists’ Behavioural Models and Coexistence Strategies in a Totalitarian State

Summary/Abstract: The present article explores the responses of eminent musicians to totalitarian regimes considering Walter Bradford Cannon’s “fight or flight” theory. Richard Strauss exemplifies the “fawn response” by collaborating with the Nazis, Wilhelm Furtwängler represents the “fight response” by subtly resisting Nazi pressures,and Karl Amadeus Hartmann illustrates the “freeze response” by withdrawing from public life and composing “confessional music” mourning Nazi atrocities. In the context of oppression, each musician’s behaviour was driven by a combination of personal and creative motives.This paper demonstrates that artists’ collaborations with totalitarian regimes often serve propaganda purposes, while their resistance – though not halting atrocities – provides subtle yet significant defiance. It reflects a universal pattern of artistic resistance and offers insights into the broader struggle for artistic and intellectual freedom under totalitarian rule.

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