ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the destructive and utopian philosophies associated with Neubauten to their musical context. It outlines the role music has played in defining German national identity and the manipulation of this during the Third Reich and the Cold War years. The chapter explores the emergence of an independent West German youth music scene as the prerequisite for Neubauten. Music was not always regarded as the most German of the Arts, to appropriate Pamela Potter's phrase. Berlin's musicians had to make immediate choices between East and West in electing where to teach, to study and to send their union dues if they wished to stay working in their city. Meanwhile the Americans encouraged western artists to cut all ties with the East and began to refashion New Music to de-emphasize its pre-1933 social basis against what they saw as the demons of politically controlled art.
