”Rauhanomainen, aina täysin epäpoliittinen työmme.”

Itsedenatsifikaation strategiat säveltäjä Yrjö Kilpisen ja baritoni Gerhard Hüschin kirjeenvaihdossa 1946–1959

Abstrakti

”Our peaceful, always completely apolitical work.”

Strategies of self-denazification in the correspondence between composer Yrjö Kilpinen and baritone Gerhard Hüsch in 1946–1959

This article examines the relationship of composer Yrjö Kilpinen to National Socialist politics and ideology in the years after the Second World War. The issue has not been studied before. Kilpinen was active musician in Hitler’s Germany, and his most important collaborator was baritone Gerhard Hüsch.

The research material consists of correspondence between Kilpinen and Hüsch from 1946 to 1959, and the analyses are supported by newspaper and magazine material and previous literature. This article 1) identifies seven discursive strategies of self-denazification common to musicians, and 2) explores the discursive strategies Kilpinen and Hüsch used to deal with their relationship with National Socialism after the war. Emphasizing the inherent apolitical nature of music, distorting facts, avoidance of responsibility, and emphasis on one’s own good deeds are examples of strategies of selfdenatzification contained in the correspondence. For both musicians, the post-war correspondence was an integral part of personal post-war identity construction as well as controlling of the past. Kilpinen was appointed Academic, and Hüsch continued to perform KIlpinen’s songs. Neither dealt with the past with regret.