Heinrich Spitta - eine Musikerkarriere im 20. Jahrhundert

Heinrich Spitta (1902-1972) pursued a career as a school musician after abandoning his composition studies. In 1933, he was appointed to the Cultural Office of the Reich Youth Leadership, where he gained popularity as a composer of songs and cantatas for the Hitler Youth. He became a teacher at the Academy for Church and School Music in the program for Hitler Youth music educators, which was made possible for him by Hitler's personal pardon due to his status as a "quarter Jew." After being a prisoner of war, Spitta worked at the Lüneburg University of Education starting in 1950, where he was appointed to a professorship in 1960 despite his troubled past and was able to operate unrepentantly and almost undisturbed until his retirement in 1970. Spitta's relevant songs continue to be used in music education contexts and in the far-right scene to this day.