17. Continuity or “Necessity”

[Detailed catalog text in german]

The “Lexicon of Jews in Music” is a standard musicological work from the era of the Third Reich, of which four copies can still be found in the library catalogue of the mdw*, two of which (1940, 1943) are in the main library.

Thus, one must question the interpretation of these entries – do these annotations indicate a persistent anti-Semitic and National Socialist mindset within the institution into the early 1960s, or merely an unthinking habit of updating familiar reference materials, regardless of their origins?

A manual for updating entries, primarily for adding dates of death, is part and parcel of routine library practice. This is also confirmed by the current library director, Michael Staudinger:

 “I assume, therefore, that the two librarians at the time (Alois Strassl (1903-1976) and Wolfgang Pernauer (1924-2013)) had this publication to hand and added the dates for personal use [...]”

Indeed, the aforementioned notes are found only in one of the two copies in the main library.

The standard German language musicological lexicons of the post-war period only appeared from 1951 onwards (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart - or Music in History and the Present) or from 1958-61 (Riemann, 12th ed., Vol. 1-2 People). Therefore, while Reimann’s volume includes the date of death of Max Graf, the death date of neither individual is included in the copy of Music in History and the Present.

 Michael Staudinger’s comments, provided in his email response, speak for themselves:

“The narrative of ‘continuity’ must be taken with some caution. After 1945, all National Socialist literature was, of course, marked as restricted and was no longer available for use. However, intriguingly enough, this particular lexicon was apparently readily accessible internally until the 1960s.”