ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how intertwining forces of Soviet-imposed socialism and German nationalism determined party music policy in the German Democratic Republic. It discusses the Socialist Unity Party (SED)'s efforts to bring a specifically socialist character to East German musical life, and evaluates the relative influence of the Soviet Union in this process. Although the SED encouraged the performance and publication of folk music and political songs, there was little truly revolutionary about East Germany's socialist music culture. The opera house, concert hall, and music conservatory—once bastions of the middle and upper classes—remained the principal venues for performance and training. Already by the 1920s, Soviet policy promoted bourgeois literature, art, and music in an effort to raise a largely illiterate population of workers and farmers to the level of the elite. Regardless of musical talent, the children of working-class parents were given special preference in admission to music schools.
