Although the Jewish minority in Tyrol made up only a vanishingly small percentage of the total population, it has been subjected to open hatred and deeply rooted resentments for centuries, right up to the present. This hatred had many faces and manifested itself in music in various ways. In the sacred plays of the Middle Ages, we find anti-Jewish stereotypes, as well as in songs that reference the widespread ritual murder legends. Satirical songs appeared as early as the Middle Ages and are still present today. Anti-Semitism in the stricter sense, a reaction to the Jewish emancipation efforts during the Late Enlightenment, intensified in the course of nationalism and the spread of ethnic ideas: it culminates in Nazism, which elevates it to state doctrine.

Tyrolean composers also created and edited aggressively anti-Jewish songs. After the end of World War II, hatred against Jews continued to manifest, as current discourses (Petrenko, Levit) indicate.

In this exhibition, we depict the alarming continuity of anti-Jewish sentiment in music through selected thematic complexes and objects – in striking contrast to the marginal role of the Jewish minority and Jewish musical life in Tyrol and its neighboring regions.

Idea, Concept, and Design:

Dr. Franz Gratl, Head of the Music Collection, Tyrolean State Museums

Dr. Milijana Pavlović, Institute for Musicology, University of Innsbruck

A cooperative project of the Music Collection of the Tyrolean State Museums and the Institute for Musicology University of Innsbruck

Free admission

Price information:

Price information at https://www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at/ausstellung/judenhass-in-der-musik/

Image credit(s): Photo: TLM