This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since April 2008. It may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since August 2009.

Rittergut Neudeck, West Prussia (today Ogrodzieniec, Poland), presented to Reich President von Hindenburg in 1928

In the 19th century Junker (/ˈjʊŋkər/YUUNG-kər; German: [ˈjʊŋkɐ]) was an often pejorative designation for a member of the landed nobility in Prussia and eastern Germany (East Elbia).

Origins[link]

Junker is derived from Middle High German Juncherre, meaning "young lord" (derivation of jung and Herr), and originally was the title of members of the higher edelfrei (immediate) nobility without or before the accolade. It evolved to a general denotation of a young or lesser noble, often poor and politically insignificant, understood as "country squire" (cf. Martin Luther's disguise as "Junker Jörg" at the Wartburg; he would later mock King Henry VIII of England as "Junker Heinz"). As part of the nobility, many Junker families only had prepositions such as von or zu before their family names without further ranks. The abbreviation of Junker was Jkr., most often placed before the given name and titles, for example: Jkr. Heinrich von Hohenberg. The female equivalent Junkfrau (Jkfr.) was used only sporadically. In some cases, the honorific Jkr. was also used for Freiherren (Barons) and Grafen (Counts).

A good number of poor Junkers took up careers as soldiers (Fahnenjunker), mercenaries and officials (Hofjunker, Kammerjunker) at the court of territorial princes. These families were mostly part of the German mediæval Uradel and had carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the Ostsiedlung. Over the centuries, they had become influential commanders and landowners, especially in the lands east of the Elbe River in the Kingdom of Prussia.

As landed aristocrats, the Junkers owned most of the arable land in Prussia. Being the bulwark of the ruling House of Hohenzollern, the Junkers controlled the Prussian Army, leading in political influence and social status, and owning immense estates, especially in the north-eastern half of Germany (i.e. the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia, West Prussia, East Prussia and Posen). This was in contrast to the predominantly Catholic southern states such as the kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg or the Grand Duchy of Baden, where land was owned by small farms, or the mixed agriculture of the western states like the Grand Duchy of Hesse or even the Prussian Rhine and Westphalia provinces.

Modern influences[link]

The Junkers held a virtual monopoly on all agriculture in the East Elbian part of the German Reich. Since the Junker estates were necessarily inherited by the elder son alone, younger sons, all well educated and with a sense of noble ancestry, turned to the civil and military services, and dominated all higher civil offices, as well as the officer corps. Their political influence extended from the German Empire of 1871–1918 through the Weimar Republic of 1919–1933. It was said that "if Prussia ruled Germany, the Junkers ruled Prussia, and through it the Empire itself."^[1]

Supporting monarchism and military traditions, they were seen as reactionary, anti-democratic and protectionist by liberals and Social Democrats, as they had sided with the conservative monarchist forces during the Revolution of 1848. Their political interests were served by the German Conservative Party in the Reichstag and the extraparliamentary Agriculturists' League (Bund der Landwirte). This political class held tremendous power over industrial classes and government alike, especially by the Prussian three-class franchise. When the German chancellor Leo von Caprivi in the 1890s reduced the protective duties on imports of grain, these landed magnates demanded and obtained his dismissal; and in 1902, they brought about a restoration of such duties on foodstuffs as would keep the prices of their own products at a high level.

The expression descending from the disputes over the domestic policies of the German Empire was perpetuated as a general denotation by sociologists like Max Weber and even adopted by members of the landed class themselves. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was a noted Junker, though his family descended from the Altmark region west of the Elbe. After World War I many Prussian agriculturists gathered in the national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), the term was also applied to Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, lord at Neudeck in West Prussia, and to the "camarilla" around him urging the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor, personified by men like Hindenburg's son Oskar and his West Prussian "neighbour" Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau, who played a vital role in the Eastern Aid (Osthilfe) scandal of 1932/33.

However, Hitler mostly ignored the Junkers as a whole during his time in power, taking no action against them and no action in their favour. Landowners like Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and the members of the Kreisau Circle were part of the German resistance. As World War II turned against Nazi Germany several senior Junkers in the Army participated in Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's assassination attempt of 20 July 1944.^{[clarification needed]} Fifty-eight were executed when the plot failed,^[2] among them Erwin von Witzleben and Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, or committed suicide like Henning von Tresckow. During the advancement of the Red Army in the closing months of the war and subsequent, all Junkers had to flee from the eastern territories that were turned over to the re-established Republic of Poland with the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line according to the Potsdam Agreement.

[edit] Bodenreform

1985 Bodenreform memorial in Wolfshagen, Uckermark

After World War II, during the communist Bodenreform (land reform) of September 1945 in the Soviet Occupation Zone, later East Germany, all private property exceeding an area of 100 hectares (250 acres) was nationalised and redistributed to Volkseigene Güter ("publicly owned estates", VEG). As most of these large estates, especially in Brandenburg and Western Pomerania, had belonged to Junkers, the government promoted their plans with the slogan Junkerland in Bauernhand! ("Junker land into farmer's hand"). The former owners were reproached with war crimes and involvement into the Nazi regime by the Soviet Military Administration, many of them were interned in NKVD special camps (Speziallager), while their property was plundered and the manor houses demolished. From 1952 smaller estates were also collectivised and incorporated into Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften ("agricultural production comradeships", LPG).

After German reunification, some Junkers tried to regain their former estates through civil lawsuits. Though the Federal Administrative Court of Germany has adjudged the expropriations political repression, the German courts have upheld the land reforms and rebuffed all claims for compensation, according to a—disputed—Soviet Aide-mémoire during the negotiations of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (Two Plus Four Agreement). The last decisive case was the unsuccessful lawsuit of Prince Ernst August of Hanover in September 2006, when the Federal Administrative Court decided that the prince had no right to compensation for the disseized estates of the House of Hanover around Blankenburg Castle in Saxony-Anhalt. Other families, however, have quietly purchased or leased back their ancestral homes from the current owners (often the German federal government in its role as trustee). A petition for official rehabilitation of the ousted landowners has been rejected by the German Bundestag parliament in 2008.

See also[link]

• German nobility
• Baltic Germans
• Gentry

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Ogg, Frederick Austin, The Governments of Europe, MacMillan Company, 1920.
• MacDonogh, Giles, After the Reich, Basic Books, (2007) ISBN 0-465-00337-0.

Further reading[link]

• On German agrarian history in the 19th century see Economic Development of Modern Europe, Frederic Austin Ogg, Chap. IX (bibliography, pp. 210–211).
• Ordinary Prussians – Brandenburg Junkers and Villagers, 1500–1840, by William W. Hagen (Cambridge University Press) Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-81558-1 | ISBN 0-521-81558-4, Also available in Paperback, Published January 2003
• National Character and the Junkers, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (Routledge classics in sociology) Paperback: 490 pages, Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (7 Mar 1991), Language English, ISBN 0-415-06056-7,ISBN 978-0-415-06056-1.[1]

External links[link]

•  "Junkers". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Champion Jack Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree performing at the Dennis Swing Club, Hamburg
Background information
Birth name	William Thomas Dupree
Also known as	Champion Jack Dupree, Harelip Jack Dupree
Born	Disputed
Died	January 21, 1992 Hanover, Germany
Genres	Blues, boogie woogie
Occupations	Pianist
Instruments	Piano
Labels	Atlantic, Okeh

William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.

Biography[link]

Champion Jack Dupree was the embodiment of the New Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist, a barrelhouse "professor". His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African American and Cherokee. He was orphaned at the age of two, and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs (also the alma mater of Louis Armstrong).

He taught himself piano there and later apprenticed with Tuts Washington and Willie Hall,^[1][2] whom he called his 'father' and from whom he learned "Junker's Blues". He was also "spy boy" for the Yellow Pochahantas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians and soon began playing in barrelhouses and other drinking establishments.

As a young man he began his life of travelling, living in Chicago, where he worked with Georgia Tom, and in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he met Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. Whilst he was always playing piano, he also worked as a cook, and in Detroit he met Joe Louis, who encouraged him to become a boxer. He ultimately fought in 107 bouts, winning Golden Gloves and other championships and picking up the nickname 'Champion Jack', which he used the rest of his life.

He returned to Chicago at the age of 30 and joined a circle of recording artists, including Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, who introduced him to the record producer Lester Melrose, who claimed composer credit and publishing on many of Dupree's songs. Dupree's career was interrupted by military service in World War II. He was a cook in the United States Navy and spent two years as a Japanese prisoner of war.

His biggest commercial success was "Walkin' the Blues", which he recorded as a duet with Teddy McRae. This led to several national tours, and eventually to a European tour Dupree moved to Europe in 1960, first settling in Switzerland and then Denmark, England, Sweden and, finally, Germany.^[3] During the 1970s and 1980s he lived at Ovenden, in Halifax, England where a bronze plaque has been commissioned in his memory.^{[citation needed]} Details of his time in Yorkshire, including the reminiscences of his family, are to be found at [www.smalltownsaturdaynight.co.uk] and in the book of the same name . A piano used by Dupree was recently re-discovered by pianist Matthew Bourne at Calderdale College in Halifax.^[4]

Dupree continued to record in Europe (with Kenn Lending Band, Louisiana Red and Axel Zwingenberger) and also made many live appearances there, also still working as a cook specializing in New Orleans cuisine. He returned to the United States from time to time and appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Dupree died on January 21, 1992 in Hanover, Germany of cancer.

Musical style and output[link]

Dupree's playing was almost all straight blues and boogie-woogie. He was not a sophisticated musician or singer, but he had a wry and clever way with words: "Mama, move your false teeth, papa wanna scratch your gums." He sometimes sang as if he had a cleft palate and even recorded under the name Harelip Jack Dupree. This was an artistic conceit, as Dupree had excellent, clear articulation, particularly for a blues singer. Dupree would occasionally indulge in a vocalese style of sung word play, similar to Slim Gaillard's "Vout", as in his "Mr. Dupree Blues" included on The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions album.

He sang about life, jail, drinking and drug addiction; although he himself was a light drinker and did not use other drugs. His "Junker's Blues" was also transmogrified by Fats Domino into his first hit, "The Fat Man".^[3] Dupree's songs included not only gloomy topics, such as "TB Blues" and "Angola Blues" (about Angola Prison, the infamous Louisiana prison farm), but also cheerful subjects like the "Dupree Shake Dance": "Come on, mama, on your hands and knees, do that shake dance as you please".

On his best known album, Blues from the Gutter for Atlantic, in 1959 he was accompanied on guitar by Larry Dale, whose playing on that record inspired Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. Dupree was also noted as a raconteur and transformed many of his stories into songs. "Big Leg Emma's" takes its place in the roots of rap music as the rhymed tale of a police raid on a barrelhouse. In later years he recorded with John Mayall, Mick Taylor and Eric Clapton.^[3]

Although Jerry Lee Lewis did not record Dupree's "Shake Baby Shake", the lyrics in his version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" - "You can shake it one time for me!" - echo Dupree's song.

Although best known as a singer and pianist in the New Orleans style, Dupree occasionally pursued more musically adventurous projects, including Dupree `n` McPhee, a collaboration with English guitarist Tony McPhee, recorded for Blue Horizon Records.

Quotations[link]

• "When you open up a piano, you see freedom. Nobody can play the white keys and don't play the black keys. You got to mix all these keys together to make harmony. And that's what the whole world needs: Harmony."

• "I'd rather have that piano than a wife. 'Cause that piano ain't goin' to leave me."^[3]

• "Nasty Boogie Woogie" by Jack Dupree

"Mama bought a chicken, she took him for a duck

Laid him on the table with his legs stuck up

Yonder come the children with a spoon and a glass

Catch the gravy droppin' from his yes, yes, yes"

• "Death of Martin Luther King", recorded just after his assassination

"I know you people, I know you glad you ain't one of me

I know you people glad, I know you glad you white and free

Oh yeah, white and free, oh, what will, what will become of me?

Oh I am begging, yes, I'm begging to be free"

• "[I] found England was a heavenly place for me. I don't care who else find it difficult, but to me it's heaven. When you leave from slavery and go into a place where you're free... I couldn't go back there, because anybody that spit on me, I'd kill them."^[5]

Discography[link]

78s[link]

• Warehouse Man Blues (1940, Okeh 05656)
• Black Woman Swing (1940, OKeh 05713)

Albums[link]

• Blues from the Gutter (1958, Atlantic SD-8019)
• Americans in Europe Vol. 2 (Impulse!, 1963)
• Cabbage Greens (1963, Okeh OKM 12103)
• Champion Of The Blues (1963, Atlantic SD-8056)
• Champion Jack Dupree and his Blues Band; featuring Mickey Baker, (1967, Decca SKL 4871)
• When You Feel The Feeling You Was Feeling (1968, Blues Horizon ([CBS])
• The Incredible... Champion Jack Dupree (1970, Sonet SNTF 614)
• King Curtis & Champion Jack Dupree - Blues at Montreux (1973, Atlantic CD 81389-2)
• Forever And Ever (1991, Bullseye Blues/Rounder Records CD BB-9512)
• Champion Jack Dupree Archive of Folk Music, Everest Records FS-217 (no date)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Champion Jack Dupree at Allmusic
• Illustrated Champion Jack Dupree discography (lists 185 separate records, 1940 - 2010)