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GERMAN WORKERS’ MUSIC MOVEMENT geois entertainment-music works immeasurably grave harm, especially upon young workers. . : The main problem confronting cultural organizations of the proictariat of all countries is: how shall we most effec- tively combat the baneful influence of capitalist entertainment- — music, and how can we create new musical forms and practices with which we shall not only satisfy existing music-needs, but also transform music itself from a stupefying and intoxicating agent of capitalism into a weapon in the education and strug- gies of the revolutionary proletariat? Another question must be closely linked with the previous onc: to what extent is it possible for the proletariat to utilize classical bourgeois music, and what is its relation to the modern bourgeois music movement ? Tre First Stace: From tue Revorvrion or 1848 To THE ANTI-SocIALIST Law The first music organizations of the German proletariat were workers’ choral societies. These were essentially copies of the bourgeois male choral societies. Even the music was taken from bourgeois models. These early music organiza- tions arose simultaneous! with workers’ educational socicties, workers’ sport associations, reading circles, etc., in the indus- trialized districts—e.g., Saxony, the Rhineland and elsewhere. All these institutions were under the influence of the new scientific socialism, which grew in influence among the Ger- man workers through the writings of Karl Marx and Fried- rich Engels, and through the activity of Ferdinand Lassalle. These organizations existed not only for purposes of educa- tion and entertainment but were of a militant nature as well. The young proletarian giant forged his first weapons. This quality of struggle, which ail the cultural organizations pos- sessed, was reflected very characteristically in the music organ- izations. They did not wish to sing merely the bourgeois choral society literature of love and forest lyrics, since it did not express the new feelings and ideas of the youthful German Photograph: en opposite page. (Above) Esler im the Soviet Union, iseraing wm his songs performed os the Renian “Garmoshke”. (Below) Eisler comdocting the singing of his march “Comintern”