Verstummte Stimmen

Ernst Jokl was born on October 6, 1878, in Kremsier (present-day Kroměříž), which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attended the German school in Brünn (present-day Brno) and subsequently studied musicology at the University of Vienna, where he completed his doctorate in 1905. The following year, he began his musical career as a music director and répétiteur at the Vienna Volksoper. This was followed by an appointment as music director in Plauen in 1908, an engagement at the Stadttheater in Bremen in 1909, and a position as répétiteur at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1910. In 1911, he returned as music director to the Vienna Volksoper before serving in the same capacity in 1912 at the theater in Olmütz (present-day Olomouc) and in 1913 at the Stadttheater in Bremerhaven. During the First World War, he served in the army of Austria–Hungary, which was allied with the German Reich.

In 1924, Jokl was engaged as chief répétiteur at the Kroll Opera. After its closure in 1931, he continued his work at the State Opera. In addition, he taught piano accompaniment at the Berlin Academy of Music from 1925 until 1932. In the spring of 1933, the Nazi factory cell placed him, like the other Jewish members of the ensemble, on its list of Jews. Although as a “front-line soldier” of the First World War he was in principle protected from summary dismissal, he was discharged on June 1, 1933. Management circumvented this legal protection by proposing to the Prussian Minister of Culture that his contract, which was due to expire in August, not be renewed, citing the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.”

Jokl fled Europe and arrived in New York on October 27, 1936, traveling from Antwerp on the SS Westernland. He initially continued on to Cuba but returned to the United States via Miami on September 5, 1937. He first settled in New York, but soon moved to Los Angeles, where he obtained American citizenship in October of 1943.

How the musician spent his remaining years remains unclear. Ernst Jokl died on February 20, 1949, in Los Angeles.

When the National Socialists came into power in 1933, it set off an unprecedented wave of expulsions from German opera and theater stages: For countless singers, actors, musicians, and members of the technical and stage staff, this meant the end of their careers. “Silenced Voices” makes the fates of those persecuted for “racial” or political reasons visible and audible.

An interactive map traces their life journeys: from major stages to the places of exclusion, exile, or murder. This creates a powerful connection between the past and the present: The biographies of those persecuted are narrated by ensemble members from some of Germany’s most important theaters, both past and present—the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Semperoper, the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, and the Staatstheater Stuttgart.

The portal thus serves simultaneously as a tool for scientific research, a digital space for remembrance, and a resource for exploring local history.