Post-war period and 1950s
In the post-war period, after almost 20 years of isolation, many music fans and musicians alike were very interested in the movements they had missed. In jazz clubs, jazz lovers played important records to each other even before they could organize concerts. Post-war jazz developed particularly well in the American, but also in the British and French occupation zones. Berlin, Bremen and Frankfurt became strongholds of jazz. Young German musicians were able to perform in front of larger audiences in American GI venues. Jimmy Jungermann created the first German jazz program on Radio Munich (later Bayerischer Rundfunk) as early as 1945, and between 1947 and 1956 broadcast a jazz program with a wide appeal, Mitternacht in München. This was soon followed by Südwestfunk with Jazztime and NWDR with the Jazz-Almanach; the NDR Jazzworkshop was added in 1958. Although radio may have played a major role in the reception of jazz in Germany, jazz music did not play a major role on West German radio: at that time, West German radio stations only devoted around 100 minutes a week to jazz; on Südwestfunk, for example, the proportion of jazz programs in 1957 was only 1.05 to 1.02 percent.
In the 1950s, jazz cellars were set up in numerous cities in West Germany, following the example of the Parisian existentialist cellars. From 1955, the number of live concerts in West Germany increased significantly, while the previously more common record evenings became less frequent. The German Jazz Federation organized its own tours.
On April 2, 1951, Erwin Lehn founded the Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) dance orchestra in Stuttgart, which he directed until 1992. Within a short space of time, it developed from a radio band into a modern swinging big band: Erwin Lehn and his Südfunk-Tanzorchester. Together with Dieter Zimmerle and Wolfram Röhrig, Lehn founded the program Treffpunkt Jazz for SDR in 1955. There, Lehn played with international jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Chet Baker. Alongside Kurt Edelhagen’s band at Südwestfunk (SWF), the Südfunk-Tanzorchester became one of the leading swing big bands in the Federal Republic of Germany in the following years. In 1953, Edelhagen discovered Caterina Valente as a singer for his big band in Baden-Baden.
American jazz musicians could be heard in West Germany at Jazz-at-the-Philharmonic concerts and at concerts in large halls. Primarily local musicians played in the clubs; concert tours were increasingly organized by the German Jazz Federation (the association of clubs) in order to raise the standard and gain cultural and political recognition. Until the end of the 1950s, the German jazz scene was strongly focused on imitating American jazz and catching up on the missed developments. However, from 1954 onwards, the first gentle steps were taken in West Germany to break away from the musical model. The quintet of pianist and composer Jutta Hipp played a central role in this. This formation included the saxophonists Emil Mangelsdorff and Joki Freund, who also contributed compositions. Although Hipp’s music was strongly oriented towards American models, she impressed American jazz critics such as Leonard Feather with her confident and independent performances. One of the special features of her music was an asymmetrical melodic line in the improvisations, the beginning and end of which were placed in unusual positions.
At a public event in the GDR Ministry of Post and Telecommunications on 11 June 1956, the Jazz-Berlin interest group attempted to legitimize jazz in the GDR. Saxophonists Benny Mämpe (right) and Horst Deutschendorf were among those playing.
The rhythmically accentuated and rhythmically innovative bebop had its heyday in America until the mid-50s. Musicians working in the Federal Republic of Germany such as Hans Koller, Jutta Hipp, Helmut Brandt and the New Jazz Group Hannover were not really able to get to grips with it, unlike cool jazz, which was more popular in the 1950s. Cool jazz, less explosive, more gentle and slow, with an emphasis on brass melodies, was preferred by the West German musicians, both in terms of the interplay and the tone.
The Frankfurt sociologist Theodor W. Adorno criticized the belief of West German jazz fans that they had “leased the true spirit of the times”. He pointed out that “jazz, even in its more refined forms, … belongs to light music”. “Only the bad habit of turning everything and everyone into a pompous world view obscures this in Germany and installs it as … the norm of that which thinks it is rebelling against the musical norm.”
The GDR state leadership became increasingly skeptical of jazz due to its American roots. At the end of 1950, Heinz Kretzschmar and his tentet were banned from their profession on the grounds that their musical practice was hostile to culture and endangered public order and security. Karlheinz Drechsel was dismissed as an employee of GDR radio in 1952 because of his fondness for jazz and was not able to make jazz broadcasts again until 1958. In 1956, Hanns Eisler warned against “the unrestrained jazz propaganda of the West”; it should not become a cult and gum up the brains of young people. In the same year, Peter Dittrich created his hidden object picture “Jazz is on the loose” for the Eulenspiegel, in which he emphasized the positive aspects. The founder of the Leipzig Jazz Circle, Reginald Rudorf, held well-attended lectures on jazz, which also shed light on the culture of the USA. However, they were prevented by disruptive actions by the State Security. The Dresden Jazz Interest Group was also banned in 1957 in connection with the trial of Rudorf, who was suspected of being a spy by the regime.
While the GDR dance orchestras continued to play the occasional swing number, the official side took a critical view of modern jazz, which could hardly be integrated into the dance combos. It was later even branded “snobbish jazz” by Andre Asriel
In 1956, clarinettist Rolf Kühn moved to America and made guest appearances in New York with Caterina Valente. From 1958 to 1962, Kühn played in Benny Goodman’s orchestra and as solo clarinettist with Tommy Dorsey. In 1962, Rolf Kühn returned to West Germany and played with the German Allstars, among others,
with whom he also undertook an extensive tour of South America for the Goethe Institute as a kind of German “cultural ambassador”.
