{"id":13612,"date":"2024-04-18T08:14:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T06:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emag.baerenreiter.com\/national-socialist-era\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T14:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T12:38:17","slug":"national-socialist-era","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/emag.baerenreiter.com\/en\/the-history\/national-socialist-era\/","title":{"rendered":"National Socialist Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\u00e4renreiter during the National Socialist Era<\/span><\/h1>

Between Conformity and Non-Compliance<\/span><\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\u201cI do not flatter myself that I was always immune to the incredibly powerful mass suggestion of Nazi propaganda. It disgusts me that today, everyone is pretending already to have seen through National Socialism in the early years or even before 1933.\u201d[1] Karl V\u00f6tterle\u2019s emotional 1947 statement on the \u201cThird \u00adReich\u201d and his position during this period obliges us, as a later generation, and particularly those of us who have not themselves experienced the living and working conditions in a totalitarian state, to take a reflective, considered approach to the events taking place between 1933 and 1945.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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It is obvious that post-war sources such as V\u00f6tterle\u2019s book Haus unterm Stern offer a different interpretation than documents from the Nazi period, but this should not automatically be judged as a retrospective attempt on V\u00f6tterle\u2019s part to conceal that he was in fact a Nazi follower or hanger-on. V\u00f6tterle bore responsibility for himself, his family, his company and not least for around one hundred employees \u2013 it would be presumptuous to criticize him for not abandoning everything and emigrating or even joining the open resistance. In their ambivalence, his actions are like those of many other people during that time.[2]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Concert during the Kasseler Musiktage 1933<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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What stance to take after 1933?<\/span><\/h2>
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Despite the rapid Gleichschaltung \u2013 forcible coordination \u2013 of all public life after Hitler seized power in 1933, B\u00e4renreiter was initially able to continue its operations without too much trouble; only the Finkensteiner Bund which had emerged from the Singbewegung around Walther Hensel, was forcibly dissolved, which also put an end to the journal Die Singgemeinde. However, V\u00f6tterle skilfully and cool-headedly diverted these activities to the Arbeitskreis f\u00fcr Hausmusik (\u201cWorking group for domestic music\u201d), which was founded specifically for this purpose. Under this innocuous name, the group presented itself as \u201charmless\u201d and performed both early and modern church music at the newly initiated Kasseler Musiktage unperturbed.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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In 1934, a year of economic recovery, the publishing house celebrated its tenth anniversary, and 1936 saw the publication of its one thousandth product. B\u00e4renreiter clearly profited from the fact that from the very beginning, \u201cthe national cause in music\u201d3 had been part of its own profile; Nazi ideology could hardly find fault with this, and conversely, V\u00f6tterle and the followers of the Singbewegung initially saw some of their key objectives supported by National Socialism, although admittedly they had never pursued any political goals. The tightrope walk this entailed, however, is illustrated by a dispute that ignited in 1952, long after the end of the War, over a statement by Karl V\u00f6tterle: \u201cWhatever one\u2019s attitude to Adolf Hitler\u2019s totalitarian state, whatever one\u2019s individual experiences with it may have been, the decisive thing is that at that time, young people were successfully won over to join in common activities, to organize their leisure time creatively.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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In response, Theodor W. Adorno levelled grave and sweeping accusations at V\u00f6tterle, denouncing him as a direct precursor of the Hitler Youth and denying that any relativization of the Nazi regime\u2019s atrocities was possible.5 V\u00f6tterle in turn saw these accusations \u2013 which Adorno was not the first to make \u2013 as a violation of his personal integrity: \u201cThere are people who [\u2026] reject all and any work done in the last 12 years, no matter how good, and claim that it gives off the bloody stench of Nazi rule.\u201d[6] He claimed to have offered the \u201cmost effective resistance\u201d through his \u201cpreservation of the good\u201d \u2013 by which he meant Christian values as well as early and new (church) music, for example.[7]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Proximity to the party<\/span><\/h2>
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That B\u00e4renreiter was not above ingratiating itself with the National Socialists is evident, for example, in the fact that its 1936 complete catalogue included a portrait of Hitler (which was also available as a postcard), as well as in the publication of several songbooks that were produced in cooperation with state institutions and toed the party line. But although this undoubtedly contributed to stabilizing the system, we cannot infer that it indicated unconditional allegiance. V\u00f6tterle was accused of being a member of the Reiter-SA (1936\u20131938) and of the NSDAP (from 1937 onwards), and not only in the post-war denazification proceedings.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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However, in these proceedings he was able to convince the court that neither membership had been due to his ideological convictions or political will, but that he would not have been able to fulfil his simple desire to go riding any other way because Germany\u2019s clubs and associations had all been co-opted by the Nazis, and that he had never suspected how this would be construed later on. His joining the Reiter-SA was soon followed by a call to \u201cvoluntarily\u201d join the Party. Caution is required when interpreting the portrait of Hitler, too. We can ask whether the inclusion of the F\u00fchrer in a postcard series otherwise dedicated exclusively to composers and scenes of music-making should not in fact be seen as a tactical concession made in the face of an immediate threat, for shortly beforehand the very existence of B\u00e4renreiter had been at stake.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Equestrian delights: Karl V\u00f6tterle on horseback<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Temporary exclusion from the Reich Press Chamber<\/span><\/h2>
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As undifferentiated and naive as V\u00f6tterle\u2019s later argument with regard to the goals of the Singbewegung was, the regime\u2019s cruelty had already become apparent to him and his staff in 1935, for on 18 August his magazine Der Sonntagsbrief (\u201cThe Sunday Letter\u201d) took a more or less open stand against the National Socialists\u2019 euthanasia programme. V\u00f6tterle\u2019s publication of sacred works by Hugo Distler and other contemporary composers and of theological writings had already aroused the suspicion of the local NSDAP cadres and led to harassment, and in December 1935 he and Paul G\u00fcmbel, as the magazine\u2019s editors, were expelled from the Reich Press Chamber.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Hugo Distler at the organ<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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This would have destroyed both their careers and probably the entire publishing house as well. It was only thanks to the mediation of high-ranking officials of the Reich Chamber of Music and the Ministry of Propaganda that the decision was reversed in early 1936 \u2013 at the price of the formal dismantling of the B\u00e4renreiter company: V\u00f6tterle sold Neuwerk Verlag \u201cnot including publications, but including church leaflets and annual newsletters\u201d to the long-time manager of his printing facilities, Eduard Kurbjuhn, and Johannes Stauda Verlag together with the theological division of B\u00e4renreiter to his employee Paul G\u00fcmbel, in order to ensure \u201cthe proper continuation\u201d of the work he had begun.[8] Only Der Sonntagsbrief had to be passed into foreign hands; it was discontinued at the turn of the year 1936\/37.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Room for manoeuvre and future plans<\/span><\/h2>
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Room for manoeuvre repeatedly opened up for V\u00f6tterle \u2013 a leeway he was able to exploit to his own tactical advantage. This was due both to the contradictions within the Party\u2019s cultural policy, most of which were caused by rivalries, and not least to V\u00f6tterle\u2019s many useful contacts. Despite ongoing repressive measures, he was thus able to continue his publication programme; in 1939, he embarked on an official distribution cooperation with his Jewish friend Albert Dann, who had fled to Palestine.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In addition to this, V\u00f6tterle took \u201ccomfort in grand plans\u201d:[9] as early as 1943, an advertisement went out calling for subscriptions to the encyclopaedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and the catalogue compiled in September 1944 lists the first volumes of the series Das Erbe deutscher Musik as well as forthcoming Complete Editions of the works of Gluck, Handel, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, de la Rue, Schein, Spohr, Telemann, and Johann Walter \u2013 albeit with the note that the \u201cinclusion of a work [\u2026] in no way\u201d means \u201cthat it is available for delivery now or in the foreseeable future\u201d.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Ad for the MGG in B\u00f6rsenblatt f\u00fcr den Deutschen Buchhandel 1943, p. 679<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The first volume of the series Das Erbe deutscher Musik (1936)<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Bombs on Kassel and foundation of B\u00e4renreiter Basel<\/span><\/h2>
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The longer the War went on, the greater the threats became: in the autumn of 1943, V\u00f6tterle\u2019s series of cultural events in Kassel was banned; on 22 October, the city was reduced to rubble in a major attack \u2013 B\u00e4renreiter\u2019s premises on the Wilhelmsh\u00f6he were spared, but the company was forced to join into a wartime labour pool; paper for music had run out long since. There was no lack of private adversity, either: on 1 February, 1944, V\u00f6tterle\u2019s wife Maria died after a long and serious illness; he had already lost his father and father-in-law in 1942.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Ban on the Kassel cultural event series by the NSDAP (V\u00f6tterle estate]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Feeling shackled by the Nazi regime, V\u00f6tterle made arrangements in March 1944 to move the publishing house to Switzerland. Paul Sacher and August Wenzinger helped to found the company\u2019s Basel branch, which as a precaution was provided with publishing rights and supplies. In September, V\u00f6tterle was sent to the Siegfried Line as a labourer in the earthworks, and following his return home in November he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a driver. His diary entries from the first weeks of 1945 bear witness to his worry about his four children, the publishing house\u2019s buildings, the sheer effort required to get through each day \u2013 no optimism remained, only the will to persevere. Utter catastrophe came late and unexpectedly: shortly before the end of the War, on the night of 8\u20139 March, 1945, the last bombs fell on Kassel and destroyed everything: the publishing house, the printing facilities, and V\u00f6tterle\u2019s home.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Reduced to rubble: The publishing house after the bombing of 8\/9 March 1945<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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A new beginning<\/span><\/h2>
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As daylight rose on the tragedy, Reverend Bernhard Martin, who was a magazine editor for Johannes-Stauda-Verlag, took up pen and paper: \u201cWords fail under the impact of such overwhelming doom. Nevertheless, my friend, let us trust in God\u2019s love!\u201d[10] This idea of trust and confidence, formulated not least with a feeling of relief at having escaped with one\u2019s life, became Karl V\u00f6tterle\u2019s motto during a time that was anything but easy for him, despite the return of peace and the opportunity to make a fresh start. Due to his membership in the NSDAP, he was forced to undergo denazification proceedings in early 1947. He was initially classed as a hanger-on, for while he had suffered \u201cconsiderable non-material damage and probably also severe mental strain\u201d, the court did not consider \u201cthese disadvantages\u201d to be \u201csufficient\u201d to exonerate V\u00f6tterle completely.[11]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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The verdict\u2019s reasoning rather strangely was based not on V\u00f6tterle\u2019s conduct, which was described as impeccable, but on the degree of repression he had suffered, and was felt to be unjust not just by his friends and publishing staff, but also by several of those involved in the trial in a judicial capacity. It was challenged accordingly and overturned following a retrial.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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By November 1947, V\u00f6tterle had been rehabilitated and was allowed to work as a publisher once more. Two and a half years after the end of the War, he had regained his entrepreneurial freedom, the massive restriction of which had probably been the cause of his greatest suffering during the National Socialist era.<\/p>\n

Gudula Sch\u00fctz<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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[1] Karl V\u00f6tterle, Defence in Appeals Chamber Proceedings, typescript [1947], p. 3 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[2] Sven Hiemke carried out a more detailed investigation in \u201cFolgerichtiges Weiterschreiten\u201d. Der B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag im \u201cDritten Reich\u201d, in: B\u00e4renreiter-Almanach. Musik-Kultur heute. Positionen \u2013 Profile \u2013 Perspektiven, Kassel et al. 1998, pp. 161\u2013170.
\n[3] V\u00f6tterle, Haus unterm Stern, Kassel 41969, p. 128.
\n[4] V\u00f6tterle, In letzter Stunde, in: Die Hausmusik 16, 1952, p. 2.
\n[5] Theodor W. Adorno, Kritik des Musikanten, in: Dissonanzen, G\u00f6ttingen 1956, pp. 62\u2013101.
\n[6] As in note 1, closing remarks.
\n[7] V\u00f6tterle, Zw\u00f6lf Jahre B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag Kassel. Tatsachen aus den Jahren 1935\u20131947, typescript October 13, 1947, p. 4 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[8] V\u00f6tterle and Paul G\u00fcmbel, circular sent to friends and associates, May 1936 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[9] V\u00f6tterle, B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag Kassel, Entwicklungsgeschichte, typescript May 27, 1971 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[10] Autograph (V\u00f6tterle estate); also in B\u00e4renreiter-Bote 11, 1945\u20131947, p. [2].
\n[11] Judgment of Spruchkammer IV Kassel-Stadt, February 1, 1947, transcript (V\u00f6tterle estate).<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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B\u00e4renreiter during the National Socialist Era<\/span><\/h1>

Between Conformity and Non-Compliance<\/span><\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\u201cI do not flatter myself that I was always immune to the incredibly powerful mass suggestion of Nazi propaganda. It disgusts me that today, everyone is pretending already to have seen through National Socialism in the early years or even before 1933.\u201d[1] Karl V\u00f6tterle\u2019s emotional 1947 statement on the \u201cThird \u00adReich\u201d and his position during this period obliges us, as a later generation, and particularly those of us who have not themselves experienced the living and working conditions in a totalitarian state, to take a reflective, considered approach to the events taking place between 1933 and 1945.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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It is obvious that post-war sources such as V\u00f6tterle\u2019s book Haus unterm Stern offer a different interpretation than documents from the Nazi period, but this should not automatically be judged as a retrospective attempt on V\u00f6tterle\u2019s part to conceal that he was in fact a Nazi follower or hanger-on. V\u00f6tterle bore responsibility for himself, his family, his company and not least for around one hundred employees \u2013 it would be presumptuous to criticize him for not abandoning everything and emigrating or even joining the open resistance. In their ambivalence, his actions are like those of many other people during that time.[2]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Concert during the Kasseler Musiktage 1933<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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What stance to take after 1933?<\/span><\/h2>
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Despite the rapid Gleichschaltung \u2013 forcible coordination \u2013 of all public life after Hitler seized power in 1933, B\u00e4renreiter was initially able to continue its operations without too much trouble; only the Finkensteiner Bund which had emerged from the Singbewegung around Walther Hensel, was forcibly dissolved, which also put an end to the journal Die Singgemeinde. However, V\u00f6tterle skilfully and cool-headedly diverted these activities to the Arbeitskreis f\u00fcr Hausmusik (\u201cWorking group for domestic music\u201d), which was founded specifically for this purpose. Under this innocuous name, the group presented itself as \u201charmless\u201d and performed both early and modern church music at the newly initiated Kasseler Musiktage unperturbed.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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In 1934, a year of economic recovery, the publishing house celebrated its tenth anniversary, and 1936 saw the publication of its one thousandth product. B\u00e4renreiter clearly profited from the fact that from the very beginning, \u201cthe national cause in music\u201d3 had been part of its own profile; Nazi ideology could hardly find fault with this, and conversely, V\u00f6tterle and the followers of the Singbewegung initially saw some of their key objectives supported by National Socialism, although admittedly they had never pursued any political goals. The tightrope walk this entailed, however, is illustrated by a dispute that ignited in 1952, long after the end of the War, over a statement by Karl V\u00f6tterle: \u201cWhatever one\u2019s attitude to Adolf Hitler\u2019s totalitarian state, whatever one\u2019s individual experiences with it may have been, the decisive thing is that at that time, young people were successfully won over to join in common activities, to organize their leisure time creatively.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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In response, Theodor W. Adorno levelled grave and sweeping accusations at V\u00f6tterle, denouncing him as a direct precursor of the Hitler Youth and denying that any relativization of the Nazi regime\u2019s atrocities was possible.5 V\u00f6tterle in turn saw these accusations \u2013 which Adorno was not the first to make \u2013 as a violation of his personal integrity: \u201cThere are people who [\u2026] reject all and any work done in the last 12 years, no matter how good, and claim that it gives off the bloody stench of Nazi rule.\u201d[6] He claimed to have offered the \u201cmost effective resistance\u201d through his \u201cpreservation of the good\u201d \u2013 by which he meant Christian values as well as early and new (church) music, for example.[7]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Proximity to the party<\/span><\/h2>
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That B\u00e4renreiter was not above ingratiating itself with the National Socialists is evident, for example, in the fact that its 1936 complete catalogue included a portrait of Hitler (which was also available as a postcard), as well as in the publication of several songbooks that were produced in cooperation with state institutions and toed the party line. But although this undoubtedly contributed to stabilizing the system, we cannot infer that it indicated unconditional allegiance. V\u00f6tterle was accused of being a member of the Reiter-SA (1936\u20131938) and of the NSDAP (from 1937 onwards), and not only in the post-war denazification proceedings.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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However, in these proceedings he was able to convince the court that neither membership had been due to his ideological convictions or political will, but that he would not have been able to fulfil his simple desire to go riding any other way because Germany\u2019s clubs and associations had all been co-opted by the Nazis, and that he had never suspected how this would be construed later on. His joining the Reiter-SA was soon followed by a call to \u201cvoluntarily\u201d join the Party. Caution is required when interpreting the portrait of Hitler, too. We can ask whether the inclusion of the F\u00fchrer in a postcard series otherwise dedicated exclusively to composers and scenes of music-making should not in fact be seen as a tactical concession made in the face of an immediate threat, for shortly beforehand the very existence of B\u00e4renreiter had been at stake.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Equestrian delights: Karl V\u00f6tterle on horseback<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Temporary exclusion from the Reich Press Chamber<\/span><\/h2>
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As undifferentiated and naive as V\u00f6tterle\u2019s later argument with regard to the goals of the Singbewegung was, the regime\u2019s cruelty had already become apparent to him and his staff in 1935, for on 18 August his magazine Der Sonntagsbrief (\u201cThe Sunday Letter\u201d) took a more or less open stand against the National Socialists\u2019 euthanasia programme. V\u00f6tterle\u2019s publication of sacred works by Hugo Distler and other contemporary composers and of theological writings had already aroused the suspicion of the local NSDAP cadres and led to harassment, and in December 1935 he and Paul G\u00fcmbel, as the magazine\u2019s editors, were expelled from the Reich Press Chamber.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Hugo Distler at the organ<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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This would have destroyed both their careers and probably the entire publishing house as well. It was only thanks to the mediation of high-ranking officials of the Reich Chamber of Music and the Ministry of Propaganda that the decision was reversed in early 1936 \u2013 at the price of the formal dismantling of the B\u00e4renreiter company: V\u00f6tterle sold Neuwerk Verlag \u201cnot including publications, but including church leaflets and annual newsletters\u201d to the long-time manager of his printing facilities, Eduard Kurbjuhn, and Johannes Stauda Verlag together with the theological division of B\u00e4renreiter to his employee Paul G\u00fcmbel, in order to ensure \u201cthe proper continuation\u201d of the work he had begun.[8] Only Der Sonntagsbrief had to be passed into foreign hands; it was discontinued at the turn of the year 1936\/37.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Room for manoeuvre and future plans<\/span><\/h2>
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Room for manoeuvre repeatedly opened up for V\u00f6tterle \u2013 a leeway he was able to exploit to his own tactical advantage. This was due both to the contradictions within the Party\u2019s cultural policy, most of which were caused by rivalries, and not least to V\u00f6tterle\u2019s many useful contacts. Despite ongoing repressive measures, he was thus able to continue his publication programme; in 1939, he embarked on an official distribution cooperation with his Jewish friend Albert Dann, who had fled to Palestine.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In addition to this, V\u00f6tterle took \u201ccomfort in grand plans\u201d:[9] as early as 1943, an advertisement went out calling for subscriptions to the encyclopaedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and the catalogue compiled in September 1944 lists the first volumes of the series Das Erbe deutscher Musik as well as forthcoming Complete Editions of the works of Gluck, Handel, Monteverdi, Pergolesi, de la Rue, Schein, Spohr, Telemann, and Johann Walter \u2013 albeit with the note that the \u201cinclusion of a work [\u2026] in no way\u201d means \u201cthat it is available for delivery now or in the foreseeable future\u201d.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Ad for the MGG in B\u00f6rsenblatt f\u00fcr den Deutschen Buchhandel 1943, p. 679<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The first volume of the series Das Erbe deutscher Musik (1936)<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Bombs on Kassel and foundation of B\u00e4renreiter Basel<\/span><\/h2>
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The longer the War went on, the greater the threats became: in the autumn of 1943, V\u00f6tterle\u2019s series of cultural events in Kassel was banned; on 22 October, the city was reduced to rubble in a major attack \u2013 B\u00e4renreiter\u2019s premises on the Wilhelmsh\u00f6he were spared, but the company was forced to join into a wartime labour pool; paper for music had run out long since. There was no lack of private adversity, either: on 1 February, 1944, V\u00f6tterle\u2019s wife Maria died after a long and serious illness; he had already lost his father and father-in-law in 1942.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Ban on the Kassel cultural event series by the NSDAP (V\u00f6tterle estate]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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Feeling shackled by the Nazi regime, V\u00f6tterle made arrangements in March 1944 to move the publishing house to Switzerland. Paul Sacher and August Wenzinger helped to found the company\u2019s Basel branch, which as a precaution was provided with publishing rights and supplies. In September, V\u00f6tterle was sent to the Siegfried Line as a labourer in the earthworks, and following his return home in November he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a driver. His diary entries from the first weeks of 1945 bear witness to his worry about his four children, the publishing house\u2019s buildings, the sheer effort required to get through each day \u2013 no optimism remained, only the will to persevere. Utter catastrophe came late and unexpectedly: shortly before the end of the War, on the night of 8\u20139 March, 1945, the last bombs fell on Kassel and destroyed everything: the publishing house, the printing facilities, and V\u00f6tterle\u2019s home.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Reduced to rubble: The publishing house after the bombing of 8\/9 March 1945<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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A new beginning<\/span><\/h2>
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As daylight rose on the tragedy, Reverend Bernhard Martin, who was a magazine editor for Johannes-Stauda-Verlag, took up pen and paper: \u201cWords fail under the impact of such overwhelming doom. Nevertheless, my friend, let us trust in God\u2019s love!\u201d[10] This idea of trust and confidence, formulated not least with a feeling of relief at having escaped with one\u2019s life, became Karl V\u00f6tterle\u2019s motto during a time that was anything but easy for him, despite the return of peace and the opportunity to make a fresh start. Due to his membership in the NSDAP, he was forced to undergo denazification proceedings in early 1947. He was initially classed as a hanger-on, for while he had suffered \u201cconsiderable non-material damage and probably also severe mental strain\u201d, the court did not consider \u201cthese disadvantages\u201d to be \u201csufficient\u201d to exonerate V\u00f6tterle completely.[11]<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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The verdict\u2019s reasoning rather strangely was based not on V\u00f6tterle\u2019s conduct, which was described as impeccable, but on the degree of repression he had suffered, and was felt to be unjust not just by his friends and publishing staff, but also by several of those involved in the trial in a judicial capacity. It was challenged accordingly and overturned following a retrial.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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By November 1947, V\u00f6tterle had been rehabilitated and was allowed to work as a publisher once more. Two and a half years after the end of the War, he had regained his entrepreneurial freedom, the massive restriction of which had probably been the cause of his greatest suffering during the National Socialist era.<\/p>\n

Gudula Sch\u00fctz<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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[1] Karl V\u00f6tterle, Defence in Appeals Chamber Proceedings, typescript [1947], p. 3 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[2] Sven Hiemke carried out a more detailed investigation in \u201cFolgerichtiges Weiterschreiten\u201d. Der B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag im \u201cDritten Reich\u201d, in: B\u00e4renreiter-Almanach. Musik-Kultur heute. Positionen \u2013 Profile \u2013 Perspektiven, Kassel et al. 1998, pp. 161\u2013170.
\n[3] V\u00f6tterle, Haus unterm Stern, Kassel 41969, p. 128.
\n[4] V\u00f6tterle, In letzter Stunde, in: Die Hausmusik 16, 1952, p. 2.
\n[5] Theodor W. Adorno, Kritik des Musikanten, in: Dissonanzen, G\u00f6ttingen 1956, pp. 62\u2013101.
\n[6] As in note 1, closing remarks.
\n[7] V\u00f6tterle, Zw\u00f6lf Jahre B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag Kassel. Tatsachen aus den Jahren 1935\u20131947, typescript October 13, 1947, p. 4 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[8] V\u00f6tterle and Paul G\u00fcmbel, circular sent to friends and associates, May 1936 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[9] V\u00f6tterle, B\u00e4renreiter-Verlag Kassel, Entwicklungsgeschichte, typescript May 27, 1971 (V\u00f6tterle estate).
\n[10] Autograph (V\u00f6tterle estate); also in B\u00e4renreiter-Bote 11, 1945\u20131947, p. [2].
\n[11] Judgment of Spruchkammer IV Kassel-Stadt, February 1, 1947, transcript (V\u00f6tterle estate).<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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