Rubble Music

This musicologist’s exploration of classical music culture in post-WWII Berlin evokes the power of music in the face of trauma and tragedy. As the seat of Hitler's government, Berlin was the most frequently targeted German city for Allied bombing during World War II. Air raids shelled celebrated monuments and reduced much of the city to rubble. After the war's end, this apocalyptic landscape captured the imagination of artists, filmmakers, and writers, who used the ruins to engage with themes of