German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra

German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra
Musical ensemble
Native nameDeutsches Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester
Short nameDTU
Founded1942 (1942)

The German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra (German: Deutsches Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester; DTU)[1] was a musical ensemble formed in 1942 by musicians Franz Grothe and Georg Haentzschel[1] on the initiative of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.[2] It was an attempt to create an acceptable alternative to jazz, which was a popular genre among Germans but was considered a form of degenerate music by the Nazis due to its racial associations.[3] The self-styled "rhythmic dance music"[3] produced by the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra was intended especially to satisfy the musical desires of military personnel, thus preventing them from listening to British radio broadcasts which also contained anti-Nazi propaganda material.[2] Walter Dobschinski worked with the ensemble.

  1. ^ a b Kater, Michael H. (1992). Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. p. 127.
  2. ^ a b Lusane, Clarence (2002). Hitler's Black Victims: the Historical Experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era. Routledge. p. 203.
  3. ^ a b Cuomo, Glenn R. (1995). "The diaries of Joseph Goebbels as a source for the understanding of National Socialist cultural politics". National Socialist Cultural Policy. Palgrave Macmillan: 210.