Der Fuehrer's Face sheet music: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the title song from the 1943 Disney animated short film Der Fuehrer's Face. The cover is an illustration of Donald Duck throwing a tomato at Adolph Hitler’s face, with the Nazi leader depicted as having a swastika instead of his right eye. The sheet music, published by the Southern Music Publishing Co. of New York, NY, features words and music for the song “der Fuehrer’s Face,” written by Oliver Wallace. The song is a parody of the “Horst-Wessel-Lied,” the anthem of the Nazi Party in Germany from 1930 to 1945.

The film Der Fuehrer’s Face, directed by Jack Kinney and written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, was originally set to be released under the title Donald Duck in Nutz Land. However, Spike Jones and his City Slickers released a recording of the title song prior to the film and its popularity influenced Disney to change the film’s name to "Der Fuehrer's Face" to capitalize on the song’s popularity. The film recounts Donald Duck's nightmare of living in Nazi Germany, being forced to work under slavery-like conditions in an ammunition factory and deprived of the comforts and freedoms of life in America while constantly forced to salute Hitler. The film was released January 1, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures, and was an immediate critical and popular success, winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 15th Academy Awards.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1945
• depicted (sitter): Hitler, Adolph
• maker: Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc.
• Object Name: sheet music
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 12 in x 10 in; 30.48 cm x 25.4 cm
• place made: United States: California
• associated subject: Comedy
• associated subject: Animation
• associated subject: World War II
• ID Number: 2018.3023.01
• nonaccession number: 2018.3023
• catalog number: 2018.3023.01
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.