ABSTRACT
Dutch society in the 1930s was characterised by ‘pillarised’ social divisions, each with its own set of institutions. People’s lives took place almost exclusively within these organisations, and a cultural divide existed, with each pillar striving to preserve its own cultural identity. Following the Dutch capitulation to the Germans in 1940, the German Reichskommissar attempted to sway the population in favour of National Socialism and thereby erode previous divisions. Yet the attempted politicisation of culture received a mixed response from Dutch society with particular resistance towards the creation of a Nazi-style chamber of culture and the programme of purging Dutch cultural life of all its non-Aryan elements. Nonetheless music, in contrast to the other creative arts, provided a means of expression that was considered, as one Dutch composer noted, ‘intangible to the enemy’. As musicians united against state control of the arts, a call went out for expression of an authentic Dutch music. This chapter examines the extent to which Aryanisation of the arts in occupied Holland resulted in an erosion of societal and cultural pillars and gave way to the realisation of a more homogeneous national cultural identity.
