The "Haydn As German" Hypothesis
In the 1930s, the German musicologist Ernst Fritz Schmid took up the issue of Haydn's origins, searching in parish records and elsewhere for evidence of Haydn's ancestry. He concluded on the basis of his research that Haydn's ethnic roots were not Croatian, but German, and that the names "Haydn" and "Koller" are of German origin.
Schroeder (2009) describes Schmid's work as entirely convincing; "an enormously detailed examination of Haydn's genealogy" that "put all theories to rest." He notes further, however, that the "timing of this type of study was unfortunate. Only a few years later similar genealogical studies affirming the German (and Aryan) roots of the Germanic musical giants had become a musicological preoccupation as a propaganda service to the National Socialist government ... Schmid's book pre-dates those sponsored by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, but it is a matter of regret that his proved to be a model for those which followed."
Read more about this topic: Joseph Haydn's Ethnicity
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