Germans and their Music in the Time of War, 1914-1919
May 12, 2022 | 6pm ET
13th Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture at the German Historical Institute Washington | Speaker: Celia Applegate (Vanderbilt University); Moderator: Kenneth Ledford (Case Western Reserve University)
In times of war, the muses are said to fall silent, but in the First World War, they did not - in any of the combatant nations. This lecture describes how musical activities in Germany and Austria adapted to the state of war, on the homefront and on the warfront.
The Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture was established by the Friends of the German Historical Institute in 2010 to honor the legacy and achievements of Gerald D. Feldman (1937–2007). The lecture is generously supported by the many individual donations to the Friends of the German Historical Institute.
COVID-19 Policy: You will have to show proof of vaccination at the door. The GHI enforces a mask mandate throughout the building regardless of CDC guidelines.
About the Speaker
Celia Applegate is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. She studies the culture, society, and politics of modern Germany, with particular interest in the history of music, nationalism and national identity. She is the author of A Nation of Provincials: The German Idea of Heimat (Berkeley, 1990), the co-editor (with musicologist Pamela Potter) of Music and German National Identity (Chicago, 2000), the author of Bach in Berlin: Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn’s Revival of the St. Matthew Passion (Cornell, 2005), winner of the DAAD/GSA Book Prize, and of The Necessity of Music: Variations on a German Theme (Toronto, 2017). She is currently working on comprehensive interpretation of musical life in Germany from the 17th century to the present, titled “Music and the Germans: A History.”