Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer/Autumn 2018 | Page 20

MUSIC EDUCATION AND THE PRODUCTION OF PRESTIGE
Spanning a period of eight years, Söllner’s activities in Vietnam illuminate the practice
of West German music diplomacy during the 1960s, when West Germany sought to
draw from the myth of Germans as a “people of music” (Applegate and Potter 2002) in
order to rehabilitate its image. The notion of Germans as a people of music�as it was
embodied by Söllner when he conducted the Saigon Symphony Orchestra�was not
only a source of prestige from which the reputation of Germany could be re-built. But
it also provided an important means in larger modernization efforts which propelled
nation-building campaigns in the developing world. In Söllner’s case, the West German
government had provided a conductor who would help the South Vietnamese regime in
gaining the recognition and prestige they desired as a legitimation of leadership.
Conclusion
On March 18, 1962, the German Consul General to Singapur, Heinrich Carl
Franz Röhreke, who at the time was hoping that Söllner would be sent to Singapur
next, described the political value of Söllner’s work as a conductor in a
letter to the West German Foreign Office:
We Germans, burdened with the wanton heritage of our shameful past
and our small talent for tactful acquaintance with foreign peoples, should
seize the opportunity to befriend an entire group of people through the
baton of a musician. What does the ordinary citizen of Singapore know
about Germany? The name at best, and the fact that it was allied with
the Japanese conquerors of Singapore, who are the topic talk of the day
due to the recent location of mass graves of tens of thousands of Chinese
murdered during the occupation.
When the keyword Germany immediately makes many people think
of the German musician who educated their orchestra, however, then
this mental association also impacts other areas and contradicts the
myth of a reemergence of German militarism, that favorite shawm of
the communists. [ ... ] The Bachsolisten 5 come and go and are forgotten
after a few weeks. But the work of Söllner remains, and after years,
maybe even decades, people will say: This orchestra has been trained
by a German. 6 (Röhreke 1962:1–2)
5 Deutsche Bachsolisten, a German baroque ensemble that repeatedly toured for the German Foreign
Office.
6 “Wir Deutschen mit dem herostratischen Erbe unserer schmachvollen Vergangenheit und unserer
geringen Begabung für taktvollen Umgang mit fremden Völkern sollten die Chance wahrnehmen durch
den Taktstock eines Musikers uns eine ganze Personengruppe einer bedeutenden Stadt zu Freunden
zu machen. Was weiß schon der Durchschnittsbürger Singapurs von Deutschland. Bestenfalls den
Namen und die Tatsache, dass es verbündet war mit den japanischen Eroberern Singapurs, die zur
Zeit durch Auffindung von Massengräbern zehntausender während der Besatzungszeit ermordeter
Chinesen hier wieder das Tagesgespräch sind. Wenn hingegen [ ... ] viele Menschen beim Stichwort
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