Zwischen Anpassung und Resistenz

Johann Sebastian Bach was a projection screen for ideologically shaped cultural policy under both National Socialism and the GDR. Artists served as propaganda instruments in both regimes' efforts to gain political legitimacy. As cultural ambassadors of two dictatorships, the Thomaskantors Karl Straube, Günther Ramin, Kurt Thomas and Erhard Mauersberger, together with the Thomaner, walked a fine line between artistic freedom and political doctrine. They operated in the area of tension between artistic self-interest and political instrumentalization. The St. Thomas Boys' Choir was neither a place of complete conformity nor of outright resistance; rather, shades of gray dominated. Both political systems wanted to eliminate ecclesiastical ties. Despite a high potential for conflict, no St. Thomas Cantor revealed these in essence; they were not negotiable, but adaptable. Within the framework of a sectoral comparison of dictatorships, ecclesiastical and secular fields of work, repertoire, and social and organizational structure are comprehensively examined on the basis of exemplary thematic areas that characterize the entire period under investigation. By means of qualitative and quantitative methods, the different perspectives of actors and institutions in the Nazi and SED states are shown in a differentiated way.n)