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Scholars' Abstracts, Biographies, & Websites
Beethoven Conference
27-30 March 2026, London
MICHAEL CUSTODIS
Professor| University of Muenster
ABSTRACT: Examining Art in Times of War: The International Research Project “Beethoven and His Music in Nazi-Occupied European Countries”
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Who owns Beethoven? In February 2022, the Russian attack against the Ukraine drastically demonstrated how present the ideological claiming of culture is and surprisingly often arguments about the meaning or misuse of music in political conflicts are still based on examples from the time of the Second World War. For this, the reception of Beethoven and his music in Nazi-occupied European countries provide a unique benchmark: In all occupied countries Beethoven’s music had been a traditional part of the concert life, but with the beginning of World War II, the situation became conceivably controversial and contradictory. Suddenly, everyday concerts were juxtaposed with prestigious events by the German propaganda and military music, and while the resistance defended Beethoven as European cultural heritage against the Nazi state’s Germanic rhetoric, his music could also be heard in ghettos and concentration camps.
Since 2022, an international research team of more than 35 musicologists and historians from 22 countries examines these challenging and complex matters, including leading scholars in the fields of Beethoven studies and “Music and Nazism” as well as the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. The results will be presented in an anthology for the upcoming Beethoven year 2027 (further details about the project see https://musicandresistance.net/beethoven-in-nazi-occupied-europe/).
With enough time for discussion the lecture will summarize the genesis of the research agenda, the team building process and the working mode within the project as well as its communication strategy. Furthermore, general difficulties for examining the Beethoven-reception in dictatorships will be addressed, with concluding remarks on main findings about certain works and Beethoven-related political narratives.
BIOGRAPHY
Michael Custodis (*1973) studied sociology, musicology, film studies, comparative politics and education in Mainz, Bergen (Norway) and Berlin. His dissertation (2003) featured the Cologne avant-garde scene after 1945 and in 2008 he completed his habilitation at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2010, he was appointed as professor of musicology at the University of Muenster. With 8 monographs, 11 edited volumes, and more than 80 published articles a main part of his research deals with music in dictatorships, both in the GDR as well as in Hitler-Germany and Nazi-occupied European countries. Additional areas of interest focus on popular music, AI & musicology, progressive rock and metal, as well as musical avant-gardes in the 20th and 21st centuries. Besides other obligations he is member of the executive committee of the German Music Council.