Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer/Autumn 2018 | Page 15

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
a recipient of the Lilli Lehmann medal awarded by the Mozarteum in Salzburg and
had already conducted orchestras abroad (Konservatorium Mozarteum 1927; Söllner
1962b:2). Söllner first went to South Vietnam in 1960, when he was supposed to direct
the Saigon Symphony Orchestra for a sixth-month stint. Financed by the West German
Foreign Office, his stay was supervised by the newly founded West German Embassy in
Saigon.
Söllner’s initial six-month trip to Saigon would finally turn into an eight-year stay during
which Söllner took on a number of musical roles in West German cultural diplomacy.
He started out as a conductor, but soon began to found additional ensembles. An accomplished
pianist, he also performed on the piano including with the renowned Cellist
Ludwig Hoelscher. In addition, Söllner worked as an arranger and composer. Beginning
in 1963, he was primarily employed as a music educator. 3 The files on Otto Söllner at
the German Political Archive in Berlin provide insights into the criteria by which the
significance of musicians and their musical activities was measured in the West German
Foreign Office during those years. They reveal that Söllner was treated in accordance
with the varying value the Foreign Office ascribed to him depending on his changing
musical roles.
When Söllner arrived in South Vietnam in April 1960, he was part of a larger U.S.-led
Western political strategy. Western interventions in South Vietnam were motivated by
the framework of modernization. According to Latham, “the concept of modernization
embodied a long-standing conviction that the United States could fundamentally direct
and accelerate the historical course of the post-colonial world. At the height of its influence
during the Cold War, modernization was an intellectual framework as well as a
political objective” (Latham 2011:2). At the core of this modernization framework was
the teleological notion that all cultures were basically directed towards one future end
point that was generally identified with the United States (Latham 2011:3).
Modernization ideology included a vision of nation building in the developing world
that prioritized political stability over the installation of democratic political systems
and practices as a way to contain Communism. South Vietnam was one example for a nation-building
campaign that took place within this framework (Latham 2011:123–157).
By the late 1950s, a coalition of Western nations led by the United States was providing
economic, military, and strategic support to Ngô Đình Diệm’s regime. Between 1955
and 1961, the relatively small nation of South Vietnam therefore became the fifth largest
recipient of United States aid at the time. As Diệm’s land reform aided only a very small
3 Söllner’s shifting roles are reflected in the varying terms that diplomats and journalist used to refer to him
during those years. They include “Generalmusikdirektor” “Musikdirektor,” “Dirigent” (conductor),
“Gastdirigent” (gues conductor), “Kapellmeister” (literally bandmaster), “Musikerzieher” (music
educator), “Orchesterleiter” (literally orchestra leader), “Orchestererzieher”, (literally orchestra
educator) “qualifizierter Musikpädagoge” (qualified music pedagogue), “Lehrmeister” (literally
teaching master), “Musikexperte,” “Musikprofessor,” “maestro,” and “chef de l’orchestre.”
12