Why are they called Schrage Musik?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

For decades, I've read and heard that "Schrage Musik"--the upward-slanted guns on Luftwaffe night fighters--was translated into English as "jazz music." That never made any sense to me. What did guns have to do with jazz? "Well, jazz was forbidden in Germany," I was told. (Actually it wasn't, but never mind...)

Huh? Forbidden guns?

So tonight I looked into a German/English dictionary and discovered that the word Schrage (I can't figure out how to inset the proper umlaut, sorry) means "oblique," or "slanted." Which makes perfect sense: the guns are mounted at an oblique, slanted angle to the fuselage. So the guns are slanted, and their fire is music, at least to the attacker.

Where did the "jazz music" nonsense come from?

[Chris Goss]

I think you have a reply to this on the Flypast Forum

[hanshauprich]

Hello,
"Schräge Musik" german slang for all kind of Jazz, Swing etc. Reason: Most of the Bandmembers were black and this kind of music were offical forbitten!!
h.

[dogsbodymk1]

It was just a code word. The British used lots of code words for different things, especially their electronic weapons and counter-weapons. H2S, Airborne Cigar, Rebecca, Village Inn. Those are just the ones that come quickly to mind.


Chris

[Stephan Wilkinson]

I don't think so. The phrase wasn't used by the British, it was used by the Germans. Certainly it was used by Brits after they learned what the Germans called the guns, but not before.

The translation "jazz music" is complete nonsense, at least when it comes to the weapons called "Schräge Musik". It also has nothing to do with code or code words and nothing with music and does not orginate from the British.
Stephan Wilkinson's explanation is correct. The guns were called "schräg" because this is exactly how they were mounted: at an oblique angle.
And since the crews and soldiers in every army and airforce tend to give "easy" names to everything they soon got their name "Schräge Musik" by the german aircrew. It's that easy.

[veltro]

IMHO, Terra Inc., I would not say that any reference to jazz is "completely nonsense"... as you defined maybe too hastily...

I quote a reply that was supplied in another forum and that I share wholeheartedly, giving also more historical depth and context to this term...

"..."Schräge Musik" in context with jazz might come from the derogative meaning (use) of "schräg" describing jazz by German propaganda. Maybe due to the improvisation in performing jazz in contrast to classical music, where you have to play your part by strict rules. And also that it might have sound unconventional, schräg. In other context "schräg" has no derogative meaning at all, just sloping, slanted. So in fact it was playing with words, 1. using their actual meaning (slanted guns),, and 2. their unusual, unconventional aspect, not playing by strict rules (like jazz), and 3. it could as well be a tongue in cheek reference to the unloved (by the officials) so called "Negermusik" (negro music). So it was not the reference to jazz itself, but the meaning that was imposed officially."

Being open to other's opinion is not a weakness, but a strenght...

[dogsbodymk1]

Originally Posted by Stephan Wilkinson

I don't think so. The phrase wasn't used by the British, it was used by the Germans. Certainly it was used by Brits after they learned what the Germans called the guns, but not before.

I never said it was a British code word. I put some of the British code words there as an example. The Germans used lots of their own code words.



Chris

[GrafWolf]

Hello!

I think "Schräge Musik" is a nickname which was given by german soldiers.
See "Ameisenbär"-Do 335 ,or "Fliegender Bleistift"-Do 17.

Herzliche Grüsse aus Oberschwaben,

Wolfgang

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello

'Schräge' in combination with 'Musik' is not accidentally choosen: of course gun fire is sometimes metaphorically described as music and in this case the oblique placed canons in the nightfighters could be nicknamed as such BUT...

Even when the official Nazi doctrine abhorred jazz music as 'negro music', that could not deny the popularity of jazz music among the German armed forces. There are more of such anachronisms: what officially was forbidden, was secretly enjoyed. The Germans called jazz music 'schräge Musik', long before this was associated with upward firing guns. But when these weapons arrived on the armament scene, the choice for this 'code name' was not an act of slight resistance against Nazi doctrine but a witty code name like 'Knochenbecher' for soldiers boots, 'Himmelfahrtskommando' for dangerous missions or 'Beutedeutscher' for foreigners serving in the Wehrmacht.

All the best, Marcel