Following the ideological co-option of German folk music by the Nazi regime during the Third Reich (1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), the genre's performative practice was highly marginalized. Revivalists in both German post-war states initially recast German folk music in a recourse to the soundscape and song themes of Irish vernacular music, before reconnecting with a 19 th century oppositional German folk song repertoire. In the GDR, songs of the 1848 Revolution were curated as the state's 'democratic' cultural heritage and could not be readily censored. This allowed artists to perform historical folk songs to metaphorically critique circumstances existing in East Germany. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted among former GDR folk musicians, this paper explores their encounters in relation to established postwar German folk music discourses on the relationship between artists and state authorities. Concrete analysis of a 19 th century emigration song uncovers how folk musicians could subversively pass comment on state-imposed travel restrictions to the West.
Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research, this article explores the performance of Irish rebel songs among former members of the GDR folk-scene (1976–1990). It proposes that the political and nostalgic alignment of East German revivalists with folk songs in which Irishness is inscribed as a longue durée of oppression and anti-colonial rebellion constitutes a powerful discourse that has recursively shaped performance practices. The article argues that this top-down imaginary, circulated through popular culture, could be harnessed by GDR artists from the bottom up. Simultaneously, this adaptation of Irish Republican leanings resonated with the official socialist rhetoric of anti-imperialist resistance.
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