Jürgen Kuttner Talk—Queer Hits for Hitler’s Hollywood: Bruno Balz, Zarah Leander, and the Nazis

It’s the roaring twenties in Berlin and the songwriter Bruno Balz writes the first gay hit single (“Schlager”). With Hitler’s rise to power, the gay artist becomes the target of homophobic persecution. But the Nazis still wanted his songwriting skills for their own entertainment industry. Under pressure from propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to produce hits for the UfA star Zarah Leander, Balz wrote songs for the regime from the basements of the Gestapo, songs that reveal on a closer look a subtle resistance against Nazism and the desire to survive. 

Jürgen Kuttner's talk will follow the Performing Arts Department's performance of the musical Cabaret. 

Details on the performance: Cabaret | Performing Arts Department (wustl.edu)

Jürgen Kuttner was born in East Berlin and studied Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he received his PhD in 1987. Before, during, and after the fall of the Berlin wall, he worked as a newspaper editor, talk radio host, stage director and performer. He has been giving lectures based on video snippets at the Volksbühne in Berlin and the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Working in Berlin, Hannover, Munich, Basel, Hamburg, and elsewhere, Kuttner has staged plays based on texts by Bertolt Brecht, Heiner Müller, Michael Frayn or Ayn Rand. 

If you have any questions, please email André Fischer at andrefischer@wustl.edu.