User:Kleuske/Scratchpad

Ludwig van Beethoven was a german german germanic roundhead moorish  black composer of nine symphonies and a lot of other famed works such as the Mondscheinsonate and the Kreuzersonate.

Gobineau, Chamberlain and others
Attempts to claim the Maestro as part of a 'noble' race are nothing new. Gobineau, the inventor of the aryan race, ascribed virtually all cultural accomplishments to the influence of a white race. He claimed, however, that the "sensual and imaginative negro blood" were responsible for any artistic talent, and flatly denied any such talent was present in germannic or slavic populations and hence implies that Beethoven must have had negro blood.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain, however, saw things differently and declared "musical talent is a characteristic of the germanic mind". The pinnacle of this germannic musical talent was, according to Chaimberlain, his father-in-law Richard Wagner, but he does not hesitate to recruit Ludwig van Beethoven, amongst many others, as a member of the aryan race, the only one he considers capable of such talent.

Ludwig Woltmann, who considered "racial mixing" detrimental to the "race" concludes that Ludwig does not fit the germanic type, since he lacked the blond, blue eyed, tallish traits and considers van Beethoven a Mischling, a mix between the germanic race and the european brunette race. He is quick, however, to claim that the Beethoven was genius despite being of mixed race, not because of it.

Allies, Nazis, Commies and the Rest
Following the 19th century racialists, and even surpassing them, the Nazis viewed Beethoven as their own, not just that, they viewed him as the pinnacle of germaness, one of the "three good composers" next to Anton Bruckner and (of course) Richard Wagner. Most notorious is the performance by Wilhelm Furtwängler of the Ninth Symphony in 1942 where Beethoven was reduced to an epigon of Völkische Kultur and the Ninth to heroic bombast. The Communists later rebranded the Ninth as an ode to Proletarian Friendship of the Peoples, which, of course, also lacked all Joy. The ultimate abuse of Beethovens work, however, is the Rhodesian National Anthem, 'Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia', set to the tune of 'Ode to Joy'. Today the much molested ''Ode to Joy' serves yet another political purpose as the official hymn of the European Union.

Ironically, the Western Allies opted for the Fifth Symphony during World War II; the BBC preceded it's news broadcasts to occupied Europe with the famous, and rather ominous, first four notes, which also prominently featured in the film The Longest Day.

An African in Europe
The origins of the African Beethoven can be traced to a claim by the British composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor (not to be confused with the poet) made in 1907 He based his opinion Van Beethovens appearance, especially "his brow and general expression", his friendship with the Polish born virtuoso George Bridgetower and "many little points in his character". Taylor noted, having traveled the US, that the great composer would have had troublegetting a hotel-room in the Jim-Crowed South of the US.

The claim was first popularized by Joel Augustus Rogers. and is still floating around the clogosphere and the rationalisations given mainly provided by Rogers book "100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof" and, more elaborately in Sex and Race.

"Beethoven, the worlds greatest musician, was without a doubt a dark mulatto. He was called "The Black Spaniard." His teacher, the immortal Joseph Haydn, who wrote the music for the former Austrian National Anthem was colored, too"

- J.A. Rogers, "100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof"

"The Black Spaniard", mentioned in the quote above, probably refers to the Schwarzspanierhaus in Vienna, where Beethoven lived (and died) a former monastry founded by Ferdinand II of Austria as a priory of the Benedictine Congregations of Montserrat in Catalonia (Spain). The black is not a reference to the color of anyones skin (let alone Beethoven), but to the black robes of the (Spanish) Benedictine monks.

In Sex and Race, Rogers goes out of his way to provide support for this claim, quoting descriptions of Beethoven by Franz Grillparzer, Bettina van Arnim and goes on to cite Giuseppe Carpani's remark on Haydn describing him as a "blackamoor". Other references include Rasse und Kultur; eine kritische Untersuchung der Rassentheorien ("Race and culture, a critical examination of race theories") by Friedrich Hertz (1915), which aims to debunk then popular racial "theories" by the likes of Gobinaeu, Chamberlain and Woltmann as described above.

Apart from conclusions based on his physical appearance Rogers engages in pseudo-history and suggests that, since Flanders was once occupied by Spain (1526-1792, according to Rogers) and (obviously) the Spaniards employed many a Moor as a soldier, the populace was, ipso facto, infused with blackness, or "a Negroid strain". The takeover by Charles V did not involve any military action in Flanders, it merely changed hands from one Habsburger (Frederic II) to another (Charles V) and the taxes went elsewhere. Alva did rage in the Low Countries, in the protestant North, not in catholic Flanders.

It is, however, pointless to enumerate Rogers historical inaccuracies and misconceptions, since he's not trying to be a historian and does not strive for an accurate description of historical events. First and foremost Rogers is an activist, a contrarian with a cause railing against the racial inequities in the The South and the U.S. in general. However loony unusual Rogers claims seem, there's method in the madness: Rogers is mercilessly applying the infamous one-drop rule against "racial purists" and gives them a taste of their own medicine.

"I am convinced, as I can be convinced of anything, that it is not the individual murderer, or thief, or liar that is the enemy of mankind in this the Twentieth Century, but the racial purist. As the war-makers have taken the inventions created by Science for the betterment of mankind, as the airplane, and turned them into instruments of mass slaughter, so the politicians have taken Ethnology for creating unparalleled discord in the human family."

- J.A. Rogers, Sex and Race, Vol I, p.18