Robert Peters writes:
>...Richard Strauss took Bruno Walters job as president of the
>Reichsmusikkammer. He and Furtwangler thought naively they could do
>some good by staying in Germany but (volutarily - involuntarily?) served
>the regime and lied afterwards about their time under Hitler. Karajan
>became a party member to make a tremendous career....
There were quite a few German composers who took their nazism more
seriously than those named above. Pfitzner and Webern are exemplar of
German/Austrian musicians who really sided with the Nazis --at least for
a time. And then there were the orchestras. Both Vienna and Berlin
were loaded with party members and the fact that the Berlin orchestra
voted in Karajan, has something to say about that, though admittedly not
everything (Karajan's ascension took place back in the day when postwar
allied military government and its cultural officers also has some say
in the matter.)
Denis Fodor