Magma´s ideology controversy. Read this!

I certainly hope there isn't some anti-semetic message to Magma's music, but to tell you the truth, I wouldn't stop listening to them.

This smells like some huge bullsh*t. 

While I don't think that Vander was really a Nazi, but if this is true, I probably will lose a lot of respect for Magma.  How could one think such a thing?

There's a very long and drawn out debate on this on the progressiveears site.You might have to go back a few pages to find it.

I read it with interrest, but some of the accusations are quite ridiculous. take for example this:
In MDK, "Fuhl mehn Fuhl ehndoh litaah" actually means "für mein Führer Adolf Hitler".
that is not even correct German (correct would be "für meinen Führer Adolf Hitler". the adjective "mein" becomes "meinen" in the accusative case)


Edited by BaldJean - January 18 2010 at 11:25

Let me make it absolutely clear that I abhor racism and anti-semitism in all its forms. And I hope you do too.

Indeed, I find it almost impossible to enjoy HUNKY DORY (by David Bowie, one of my favourite rock artists) because of Bowie's unwise flirtation with Heinrich Himmler and the concept of "the Superman" (= Uebermensch).

But apart from certain things Christian Vander may have said in interviews and in private (and you know how artists enjoy shocking people), are there any obvious traces of Nazi-worship in Magma's music?

If there are NOT, I think there's a case to be made for (a) enjoying Magma just as before and (b) ignoring Vander's despicable views. You see, I feel tempted to approach Vander in the way Daniel Barenboim (a well-known Argentina-born Jewish conductor) approaches Richard Wagner.

Wagner was a notorious anti-semite, and in his case there can be absolutely no doubt: he actually published anti-semitic literature. But Barenboim believes (as I do) that most of Wagner's operas can be enjoyed in spite of this. Barenboim even took some of Wagner's music to be performed in Israel.

Obviously, not all music-lovers will forgive Wagner as readily for his political views as that. But you could if you wanted to.

To reinforce what Fuxi just wrote, I'd like to bring up the case of one of my favourite writers - HP Lovecraft. He was openly racist (and a lot of his work, as well as his letters, support this fact), and for a time he was a keen admirer of Hitler. Knowing this, I still manage to enjoy reading Lovecraft's stories, though obviously the more racist passages make me cringe. It's not easy, especially for someone like me who has always been very strongly opposed to that kind of ideology. However, I also believe that art, in many ways, transcends the miseries of human nature.

Edited by Raff - January 18 2010 at 11:38

toroddfuglesteg wrote: Magma has denied this. See the opening post here and the links  http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com/2009/11/magma-speaks.html http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com/2009/11/angry-female-kobaian-member-of-magma.html http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-comment-from-member-of-magma.html That is three rebuttals

This is exactly it. There is NO denying. These 3 answers never say things clearly. they prefer saying that Magma is defending an ecological earth, and fights extremist capitalism.... instead of getting precisely to the points and responding to them.

Sorry, d.o.k.  

I was very much mistaken. 

That news are quite old, i know that since 1989