A 1938 Composer Anton Bruckner Commemorative Plaque

Bronzed zinc, obverse illustrating the left-facing bust of Anton Bruckner inside a full wreath of laurel leaves, engraver marked "F. PLANY 1938", inscribed in Gothic script "Anton Bruckner" above and "das Brucknerland Oberdonau den Verehrern seines grohen Meisters." below, reverse maker inscribed "Vertrieb durch das HEIMATWERK OBERDONAU", 46.5 mm x 70.5 mm, scattered bronzing wear, better than very fine. Footnote: Anton Bruckner (September 4, 1824 - October 11, 1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. Decades after his death, the Nazis strongly approved of Bruckner's music because they saw it as expressing the zeitgeist of the German volk, and Hitler even consecrated a bust of Bruckner in a widely photographed ceremony in 1937 at Regensburg's Walhalla temple. Bruckner's music was among the most popular in Nazi Germany and the Adagio from his Seventh Symphony was broadcast by German radio (Deutscher Reichsrundfunk) when it broadcast the news of Hitler's death on May 1, 1945.