The Jazz War: Radio, Nazism and the Struggle for the Airwaves in World War II by Will Studdert (2017)

In WWII, a fresh arsenal of instruments and tools, meaning weapons and other new means of warfare, was used for the first time. In this war, the airwaves were part of this modern arsenal. In detail, author Studdert takes a very close look at radio broadcasts, especially music programs playing jazz, that were used by all parties alike. There were particularly a lot of jazz music broadcasts from German stations in the war years. This is very interesting, actually it indicates one of the many phoney strategies of the German propaganda apparatus as jazz music in Germany at that time was officially termed a degenerate, “sick music” of “Jewish/Bolshevist nature.” It was formally banned from public performances, and activities such as the playing and distribution of American jazz records were extremely dangerous. Dance music, however, was considered inoffensive and was not banned. Numerous raids on parties, concerts, bars, and dance halls in German cities were conducted during wartime, and many jazz fans ended up in jail or the concentration camps.

Notwithstanding the largely wrong definitions and blurred distinctions between jazz, swing music and popular dance music led to massive misunderstandings as the German audiences were concerned; even the BBC broadcasts, easily received in Germany, more often than not confused the slick and easy dance tunes played by white musicians with jazz or swing music. All in all, not just musical definitions and misinformation about a “banned” style were flourishing, but it led to situations in which German stations actually broadcast the latest American jazz, while the responsible personnel was under the impression it was playing (politically ‘harmless’) commercial dance tunes.

Even so, Nazi Propaganda very early discovered that this music drew listeners to the radios, particularly in England and in the US. And “the popularity of jazz with forces and civilian listeners on both sides ensured that it was an unavoidable aspect of wartime propaganda.” (As the usage of manipulative messages to psychologically and emotionally manipulate both armed forced and civilians in wartime actually is nothing but propaganda, no matter if it came from a German of a British radio station; propaganda thus was used on both sides). The volume covers all aspects of “psychological warfare” connected with jazz music over the airwaves at that time.

Part of Stuudert’s strategy is to display the nature of the Nazis apparatus that created its own “jazz band,” namely “Charlie and his Orchestra,” a German English-language band that was funded by and under orders from Joseph Goebbels‘ Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda. (All the same, the absurd and largely useless ban on jazz was uncontrollable, since both German troops as well as leading officers and politicians were actually very fond of American jazz and played it during their exclusive (and largely secret) private parties).

However, as during WWII the radio was used massively, jazz held a special status in being instrumental for German, British and American forces alike. The book “… seeks to reappraise and, in some cases, discuss for the first time several diverse aspects of ‘the jazz war’ – from semi-legal nocturnal jam sessions to subversive, clandestine radio stations, and to national broadcasting policies to governmental debates – in order to facilitate a clearer and more extensive understanding of jazz’s role in the conflict.” During the war, up to ten German stations could be picked up in England, where a mix of attractive entertainment music and concealed propaganda went right into English homes.
In particular, a program hosted by “Lord Haw-Haw” was very popular, although British people knew this was a German program, but host William Joyce, a fascist Irish-American-turned-Nazi, made fun of the British government, discussed the advantages of a surrender to the Germans to save civilian lives, and read daily the names of new prisoners of war the German army had just made. The BBC could not compete in the line of a good radio program at that time. Instead, it largely shut down services or broadcast (rather boring) organ concertos for hours.

We learn about this and hundreds of other important details here. The book is subdivided into four chapters that presented the war from the early conflicts in 1939 until Germany’s defeat in 1945.
Among the many other well-researched topics, we find here a truly good description of the German jazz band “Charlie and his Orchestra” that was very busy recording and broadcasting swing music in intermissions of German propaganda shows while sublime messages went on the air. And those broadcasts – because of the good jazz music they offered – were exactly what civilians in England, France and other occupied countries were waiting for. As their own national stations would take years to understand that audiences changed the stations if light entertainment tunes, educational themes or even classical composers were aired. Naturally, as public jazz performances were prohibited in Germany, this strategy and form of psychological warfare showed the many contradictions in the dealings and treatment of jazz in the Third Reich.

When in 1941 the US declared war on Japan, this psychological war fought with airwaves entered another stage. “Besides the military advantages, the Allied now had America’s immense resources in the field of popular culture at their disposal. Indeed, Tin Pan Alley’s rush to copyright sentimental song titles presaged the significant role that music was to play in the Anglo-American war effort.” Nevertheless, it would take about half a year to use this superiority and the large number of professional musicians who were also patriots. “The international popularity of jazz gave the USA a tremendous advantage in terms of wartime broadcasting, but American inexperience with propaganda was problematic.”
At the same time, there were German propaganda stations broadcasting in English to the American Midwest, mixing anti-government criticism into their music broadcasts. (Those attempts to turn the American people against their president and start a war boycott failed completely).

What really impresses several times in this publication, is the amount of detail. For example, there is a very elaborate list of German wartime entertainment programs from different (official and top secret) stations and with distinctive anchor personnel and its respective purpose for national listeners or German soldiers abroad. Furthermore, the author’s introduction of internal wartime BBC memos and correspondence, describing quarrels about jazz programming and personnel, and how wartime radio broadcasts should be managed: either by playing light and easy entertainment or giving Britain’s people what they asked for, namely more swing broadcasts and less didactic lecturing. This was very problematic, at least in England as we find out here, as there was simply no universal consensus on radio’s function and programming in wartime.
Also the contents of internal BBC files (revealed here for the first time) on the publication Melody Maker, the most influential jazz magazine in England and its editors concerning the production and broadcast of jazz music are revealed. After all, this book reads like a war documentary, not recalling battles and locations, but radio stations, wartime programs, propaganda goals and live bands.

As Studdert concludes, it is “ironic that Goebbels, who famously claimed that ‘the propagandist must be the man with the greatest knowledge of souls,’ was himself unable to come to terms with the enemy’s culture and mindset. … The same fate has befallen Charlie and his Orchestra, whose music lives on in popular culture as an underground novelty….”. Here, too, we read actual (in part first-time) testimonies of those musicians or of those who were around at the time and can elaborate on strategies and concerts first-hand.

All in all, this is a very revealing and informative volume, not just on the role of wartime jazz broadcasts, but also on the various national European jazz scenes (if not already scattered), both in Germany, occupied countries and in England.

Review by Dr. A. Ebert © 2018

Will Studdert. The Jazz War: Radio, Nazism and the Struggle for the Airwaves in World War II. (Library of World War Two Studies). I.B. Tauris, 2017, 288 p.