Kevin Sutton wrote:

>If Herr Doktor von Karajan had no affiliation with the Nazi party, please
>explain why he had to depend upon Walter Legge to get him a gig after the
>war.  There are all kinds of documents to prove that he was a card carrying
>member of the party.  If he did it to save his career, then the motives etc
>are open for debate...

Along with Paul Moor, whose Karajan researches were mentioned in a posting
by Steve Schwartz, I also looked into Karajan's politics when, long ago,
I was a correspondent for Time magazine here in Germany.  Karajan was most
certainly a member of the NSDAP; his initial application for membership
was made in Austria at a time when the Nazis were still banned there.  The
application was later legitimized by the party in Germany and a membership
number was asssigned.  Thus, the way I got it, Karajan really joined only
(!?) once but his membership was then reaffirmed in Germany after the
Anschluss of Austria.  This procedure incidentally harvested him a very
low and therefore very prestigious party membership number, as it marked
him as an early believer.  That was useful both to Karajan's intention to
make a career of music in Germany but also useful to the party as cultural
dressing for itself.  However, from all I've heard/read in my long
innings here in Germany, I've concluded that Karajan, like Strauss and
Furtwaengler, was too preoccupied by his music to volunteer any time for
politics.  When required to, he did his bit, but at the same time let the
powers that were know that he was a very, very busy man.  Moreover, like
Strauss, his party membership must have been refracted by the need to
protect a family member who was partly Jewish.  To be sure, there were
other conductors better known at the time than Karajan, notably von Benda,
who were convinced and pious Nazis, at least until shortly before the
Goetterdaemmerung.

Denis Fodor                     Internet:[log in to unmask]