Verfolgungsinstrument Schwarze Liste : Antisemitische Musikpolitik im Zeichen der ‚Achse Berlin-Rom‘

The article investigates the importance of ‚blacklists‘ as a tool of Fascist and National Socialist racial policy in the field of music. It critically examines the radicalizing effects that National Socialist antisemitism exerted on Fascist racial policy, which has often been described as yielding to German pressure. In fact, Fascist leaders demonstrated their will to cooperate on the ‚Jewish question‘ very early, though Fascist antisemitism never reached the exterminatory dimensions of the Nazi Holocaust. Already in 1936, cultural policymakers were working towards the goals of their German allies, taking initial steps to discriminate against Jewish musicians long before the Racial Laws were introduced in 1938. Various documents recently discovered in the historical archives of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome also highlight the pivotal role of musical institutions and their rich documentation in the investigation of cultural policy under Fascist rule, especially since the vast majority of the official records belonging to central institutions like the Italian Propaganda Ministry must be considered lost.