Wikipedia:
Fritz Jöde (* August 2, 1887 in Hamburg; † October 19, 1970 ibid) was a German music educator and one of the leading figures in the youth music movement.
Jöde was the son of a master shoemaker. After graduating, Jöde first worked as a pedagogue at an elementary school in Hamburg and joined the youth movement in 1916. At first he was a self-taught musician. Because of his achievements in the field of folk music, he was released from his teaching duties to study musicology. In 1920 and 1921 Jöde studied in Leipzig, mainly under Hermann Abert.
Subsequently, Jöde went to Berlin in 1923 as a lecturer at the State Academy for Church and School Music. There he founded the first state youth music school in the same year. In 1926, Jöde also initiated so-called open singing lessons. In 1930, he was appointed director of the Seminary for the Care of Folk and Youth Music at the Academy with which he was still associated.
After the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933, he was given leave of absence "until further notice". An article by Pfitzner biographer Walter Abendroth in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger and others in the Zeitschrift für Musik and the Allgemeine Musikzeitung may have played a role in this leave. Furthermore, there was a "Declaration against Jöde" in the latter two newspapers, which was signed by Hans Pfitzner, Paul Pretzsch, Heinz Pringsheim and Paul Schwers, among others.
In 1934, Der Musikant: Lieder für die Schule, edited by Fritz Jöde, was published by Georg Kallmeyer Verlag (Wolfenbüttel, Berlin 1934). The songbook is divided into seven chapters. In the last chapter, Deutschland im Lied, the cover has a swastika. Here songs are collected that propagate the strengthening of Hitler's Germany, e.g. Heinrich Spitta (1933): Erwachen, canon for two voices after words by Friedrich Schiller (1798): "Und setzet ihr nicht das Leben ein, nie wird euch das Leben gewonnen sein." or by Otto Riethmüller (1933): Deutschlands Erwachen (set by Heinrich Spitta), in which the 3rd stanza: "Stand einst ein graues Heer, rang von den Alpen zum Meer. You fight for the future country, work and freedom for all classes. Kämpferland, Hitlerland, shield you God's hand".
As a result of disciplinary proceedings in October 1936, Fritz Jöde was removed from all offices effective February 26, 1937; some of his writings were also banned. In 1937, however, he became head of the Munich Youth Radio and in 1938 head of the HJ-Spielschar there. From 1939 to 1945 he worked as a teacher at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. On January 1, 1940, he joined the NSDAP (membership number 7,792,080). From 1940 to 1944 he was also editor of the Zeitschrift für Spielmusik.
Jöde, who had lived in Bad Reichenhall since 1941, initially became director of the Protestant church choir there after the end of World War II in 1945. From 1947 to 1952 he was director of the Office for Youth and School Music in Hamburg. From 1951 to 1953, also in Hamburg, he directed the subject of music education at the Musikhochschule. He then went to Trossingen to direct the International Institute for Youth and Folk Music.
In 1957, Jöde was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
At the age of 83, Jöde died in Hamburg on October 19, 1970. He was buried in the Nienstedten cemetery. In 1977, Jödeweg was named after him in the Nienstedten district.
Jöde's pedagogical principles had grown out of the youth music movement. His goal was to create "a singing youth" and "a singing people". The (school) child should also be cared for outside of school. Open singing hours in markets and squares in the big cities were intended to combat both hits and jazz in a community-building way and to protest against the "bourgeois art hypocrisy" in opera houses and concert halls. Jöde's main principle was: "Making music yourself is better than listening to music." He was therefore mainly concerned with activating young people.
Note: Translated from a German version of Wikipedia into English.
