Die Konferenz am DHI Warschau ist ein internationales Projekt der Universität Münster, das gemeinsam mit den Deutschen Historischen Instituten in Paris, Rom und Warschau organisiert wird.
Although cultural life in various Nazi-occupied countries manifested distinctive differences in outlook between 1939 and 1945, partially accountable to specific national traditions and their historical and ideological relationship to German music and the political situation, one factor that appears to bind all musical activity in these areas is the consistent presence of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. The underlying motivations for giving Beethoven’s music special emphasis are as different as musical life in dictatorships and the occupied territories is controversial. Thus Beethoven was honored not only in official propaganda and military events, as well as in innumerable public concerts, but was also venerated in clandestine and resistance music making and in enforced circumstances in concentration camps. That Beethoven was able to serve the needs of the diametrically opposed ideological agendas of the German imperialists and the resistance movement is in itself a remarkable and unique phenomenon. It is undoubtedly a topic that warrants far more detailed scrutiny that hitherto, and for this reason a team of international researchers has been brought together with the experts of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn to examine Beethoven reception during this problematic period in the greatest possible detail for an anthology scheduled for the upcoming Beethoven-year 2027.
