Urwaldmusik and the Borders of German Identity: Jazz in Literature of the Weimar Republic

To the popular imagination of the Weimar Republic jazz functioned as an acoustical sign of national, social, racial, and sexual difference. In extraliterary texts as well as in the literature of the period concerned with jazz, the new music provided a locus for the projection of these diverse concerns. The perception of jazz as a sign of national and racial difference may be attributable in part to the fact that the music was first heard in Germany during, and immediately following the nation's occupation by Black soldiers from French colonies. Its role in these texts illustrates a social, extramusical function of music found throughout German culture at this time.