Popular Music and the Postwar Era—Between Cultural Self-Affirmation, Entertainment, and Denial (1945 to 1960)

Conference at the Center for Popular Culture and Music, November 26–28, 2026

Contributors

Program

How do postwar periods shape popular music, and how does popular music shape postwar periods? This conference explores these questions using the example of developments in Germany between 1945 and 1960. In this historical context, popular music was viewed by the four occupying powers, for instance, as a cultural-political tool for shaping German society according to post-fascist values.

People also used popular music as a medium to convey collective identity and community, but also to articulate—or repress—emotions such as loss, grief, and guilt. Furthermore, popular music served as entertainment and, as a commodity, contributed to the so-called “economic miracle.”

The conference is being held in cooperation with the research group “Postwar Periods: Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions” at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and the Freiburg Research and Teaching Center for Music (FZM).

Prof. Dr. Carolin Stahrenberg will deliver her lecture on November 26, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the Humboldtsaal (Humboldtstraße 2, Freiburg).

Click here for the program flyer (PDF) (this file is not accessible).

Event dates and location: November 26–28, 2026, at the ZPKM (Rosastraße 17–19, Freiburg)