Fritz Stege

'''Fritz Stege''' (11 April 1896 – 31 March 1967) was a German music journalist in the era of National Socialism and composer of accordion music.

== Life == Born in {{Ill|Witterschlick|de}}, Stege attended a Realgymnasium in Berlin and was drafted at the beginning of the First World War, in the war where he lost his father who had also been drafted.<ref name="Kater71">Michael H. Kater: ''Gewagtes Spiel'', 1998, {{p.|71}}</ref> From 1919 to 1923 he studied musicology with Jean Paul Ertel and Johannes Wolf at the University of Berlin and was awarded a doctorate with a dissertation on Constantin Christian Dedekind. During his student days, Stege composed Schlager, which he had to dismiss as a youthful sin during the period of National Socialism when he was a victim of intrigue.<ref name="Wulf213">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, {{p.|213}}</ref> Stege worked as a freelance music critic and music writer. He published his own "Kulturkorrespondenz für Musik" (cultural correspondence for music) and worked as an editor for various specialist journals.

In the Weimar Republic, Stege had been a follower of radical right-wing groups since the early 1920s<ref name="Kater71" /> and from 1927 to 1929 he was Music Reporter of the German Völkisch Freedom Party.<ref name="Wulf21">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, {{p. |21}}</ref> For political reasons, he prevented a concert tour of Felix Weingartner through the Palatinate in 1928 "by initiating a general press offensive".<ref name="Wulf208">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, p 208f</ref> He joined the NSDAP in 1930 with membership number 410.480 and became "Fachspartenleiter Schrifttum" in 1932 in the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur.<ref name="Klee586">Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt, 2007, {{p.|586f}}.</ref>

After the Machtergreifung, Stege became head of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Musikkritiker" (Association of German Music Critics) and was commissioned by the party to "clean up the German music critic scene"<ref name="Klee586" /> but got into a dispute over organisational issues with Friedrich W. Herzog of the Reichsverband deutscher Schriftsteller.<ref name="Wulf217">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, p. 217ff</ref> In March 1933, he denounced Fritz Jöde to Hans Hinkel and protected in his place Otto Jochum, who applied to educate the misguided youth with a new kind of folk music education in order to build up the service of the fatherland.<ref name="Wulf63">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, rp. 62f</ref> Stege became press officer of the Reichsmusikkammer and press officer of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft.<ref name="Munz">''Fritz Stege'' im Munzinger-Archiv ([https://www.munzinger.de/document/00000007053 Artikelanfang] frei abrufbar)</ref> As a film editor he published the foreign press service of the ''Tobis'' and joined the picture editorial department of the UFA.<ref name="Munz" /> Stege was the music critic of the party organ ''Völkischer Beobachter''<ref name="Wulf21" /> and also wrote for the SS newspaper ''Das Schwarze Korps''.<ref name="Kater258">Michael H. Kater: ''Gewagtes Spiel'', 1998, {{p.|258}}</ref> In May 1933, Stege demanded in an article in the ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', of which he had become editor-in-chief,<ref name="Klee586" /> the assumption of power in opera houses and orchestras. In May 1933, he summed up the restrictions on jazz music on German radio that "us" had demanded in April 1932: "Today Negro jazz has been banned on Berlin radio."<ref name="Wulf72">Joseph Wulf: ''Music in the Third Reich'', 1983, p. 72f</ref> Stege also demanded "the exclusion of foreign dance bands".<ref>[http://www1.wdr.de/themen/archiv/stichtag/stichtag900.html ''12 October 1935 - Ban on jazz music on German radio''], at ZeitZeichen (WDR), 12 October 2005</ref> He boasted in his ''Zeitschrift für Musik'' that his influence had replaced Hans Mersmann as editor of the magazine ''Melos'', that he had contributed to the dismissals of Carl Ebert and Otto Klemperer, and that he had helped the National Socialists Richard Trunk and Otto Krauß to find new jobs.<ref name="Wulf72" /><ref>Fritz Stege, in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 17/1975 dated 14 April 1975, in Munzinger-Archiv ([https://www.munzinger.de/search/go/document.jsp?id=00000007053 Start of article freely accessible])</ref>

In the ''Völkischer Beobachter'' he called for the exclusion of Jews from German musical life. In a report on the German Composers' Day 1934, at which Richard Strauss spoke, Stege formulated his folk concept of art:

{{blockquote|It is not about the direction of art, but about the kind of art. The people should live again in art and the artist in the people! This is the first task of the National Socialist art policy.<ref>Fritz Stege: ''Der Deutsche Komponistentag''. Der Berliner Westen, 19 February 1934 [https://web.archive.org/web/20131005080214/http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2009-2/garberding.html Fritz Stege: Der Deutsche Komponistentag. Der Berliner Westen, 19 February 1934, University of California, Santa Barbara]</ref>}}

In keeping with this, he went under the censorship of jazz music<ref name="Kater97">Michael H. Kater: ''Gewagtes Spiel'', 1998, {{p.|97}}, {{p.|113}}</ref> and accused a composer like Boris Blacher of being close to jazz music.<ref name="Kater263">Michael H. Kater: ''Gewagtes Spiel'', 1998, {{p.|263}}</ref>

For the Austrian composer Roderich Mojsisovics he wrote the libretto for his Nordic folk opera in 3 acts ''Norden in Not'', which premiered in 1936.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Nothing more is known about Steg's "superficial denazification".<ref name="Kater374">Michael H. Kater: ''Daring Play'', 1998, {{p.|374}}</ref> Stege's book ''Bilder aus der deutschen Musikkritik'' (1936) was added to the {{Ill|Liste der auszusondernden Literatur|de|3=Liste der auszusondernden Literatur|lt= List of literature to be discarded}}.<ref>[http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1948-nslit-b. html List of literature to be discarded 1948].</ref> His novel ''Aber abseits, wer ist's?'', which was still published in 1944, was included in the GDR List of literature to be discarded in 1952/3.<ref>[http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-b.html List of literature to be discarded 1953].</ref> In 1951, Stege founded a private music school in Wiesbaden and worked there as a course instructor at the Volkshochschule, the Humboldt-Institut and the Jugendmusikschule.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140225112645/http://www.accordion-online.de/composer/d_fs. htm Fritz Stege at Akkordeon-online]</ref> As a music critic, he now wrote for the ''Wiesbadener Kurier''.<ref name="Klee586" /> For his services to the promotion of folk music the Hessischer Sängerbund awarded him the silver honorary pin, the {{Ill|Deutscher Harmonika-Verband|de}}, and the golden honorary pin.<ref name="Munz" />

== Books == * ''Constantin Christian Dedekind, ein Dichter und Musiker des 17. Jhs.'' Diss. Berlin 1922 * ''Das Okkulte in der Musik. Beiträge zu einer Metaphysik der Musik''. E. Bisping, Münster i. W. 1925. * ''Bilder aus der deutschen Musikkritik. Kritische Kämpfe in 2 Jh.'' Regensburg: Bosse 1936 * ''Tönendes Licht.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik.'' Vol. 103, Nr. 10, October 1936, {{ZDB|203042-1}}, {{p.|1235}}. * ''Aber abseits, wer ist's? Ein Musikroman''. Stolle, Freital 1/Dresden/Leipzig/Berlin 1944. * Ernst Bücken: ''Wörterbuch der Musik'' Überarb. u. erg. v. Fritz Stege. Dieterich, Wiesbaden 1953 * ''Musik, Magie, Mystik''. Verl. Der Leuchter Reichl, Remagen 1961. * ''Musik hören, verstehen, erleben. Eine Einführung''. Wancura, Wien/Köln 1962.

'''Essays''' * Auszugsweise wiedergegeben bei Joseph Wulf: ''Musik im Dritten Reich''. 1963 * ''Randglossen zum Musikleben.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', 1933 * ''Aufruf an die deutsche Musikkritik.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', May 1933 * ''Erfüllte Anregungen und Wünsche.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', May 1933 * ''Zukunftsaufgaben der Musikwissenschaft.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik,'' May 1933 * ''Der „privilegierte Irrtum“ H.H. Stuckenschmidt – Eine Abrechnung.'' In ''Deutsche Kultur-Wacht'', 1933 * ''Städtische Musikpreise.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', August 1933 * ''Geige und Saxophon.'' In ''Deutsche Kultur-Wacht'', December 1933 * ''Deutsche und nordische Musik.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', December 1934 * ''Berliner Musik.'' In ''Zeitschrift für Musik'', January 1935

== Compositions == * ''Nordische Tanzfolge'', 1936 * ''Nordlandsklänge'', 1937 * ''Nordische Volkstänze'', 1938 * ''Heidebilder. Bauernwalzer''. Hohner, Trossingen/Württ. 1944. * ''Vogelstimmen. Kleine Spielstücke''. Hohner, Trossingen/Württ. 1955. * ''Kasperlespiele. Kleine Spielstücke''. Hohner, Trossingen/Württ. 1955. * ''Aus den vier Winden. Konzert-Suite''. Preissler, München 1957.

== Further reading == * Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-10-039326-5}}. * Michael Hans Kater: ''Gewagtes Spiel. Jazz im Nationalsozialismus'' (Original title: ''Different drummers''. Translated by Bernd Rullkötter). Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1995, {{ISBN|3-462-02409-4}}. Taschenbuchausgabe dtv, Munich 1998, {{ISBN|3-423-30666-1}}. * Joseph Wulf: ''Musik im Dritten Reich: Eine Dokumentation''. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1989, {{ISBN|3-550-07059-4}}. Unchanged reprint of the first edition at Sigbert Mohn, Gütersloh 1963.

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{DNB portal|117228230}} * {{discogs artist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stege, Fritz}} Category:1896 births Category:1967 deaths Category:People from North Rhine-Westphalia Category:German military personnel of World War I Category:German music critics Category:German non-fiction writers Category:20th-century German classical composers Category:German composers Category:German male composers Category:20th-century German musicologists Category:Militant League for German Culture members Category:Nazi Party members Category:Mattheson scholars Category:20th-century German male composers