Jazz Banned: How Jazz Music Shaped Nazi Germany

Jazz is widely known to be a formative element in American history, but it also played an important role during some of Europe’s most formative and memorable years: the time of World War II and Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany and surrounding countries. With its roots in Black American culture, it is easy to believe that Hitler would not have supported the increasing popularity of jazz music in his homeland. However, that did not stop him from using it to his advantage (of course, denouncing any form of jazz that was not sponsored by the state). Also not to be stopped were the jazz fans, who turned to jazz and swing as an act of passive resistance toward the Nazi regime. Thus, jazz music was used by both sides of the political spectrum and everyone in between, playing a role in unifying the resistance movement as well as in spreading Nazi propaganda to the allied forces opposing Germany in the war