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(08/28/07 1:45am)
BERLIN – The Berlin Philharmonic became a privileged servant of Nazi propaganda after Adolf Hitler’s 1933 takeover, striking a deal with the new regime that won it financial security and perks such as fine instruments and draft exemptions for the musicians.\nThat’s according to a new book recounting how the orchestra – then and now considered one of the world’s best – lent its gloss to the Nazis. The arrangement saw the orchestra touring abroad as an example of supposed German cultural superiority and even serenading Hitler on his birthday.\nIn “Das Reichsorchester,” or “The Reich’s Orchestra,” Berlin-based Canadian historian Misha Aster writes that the relationship between the Nazis and the orchestra was a complex one in which each side exploited the other – although Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels held the upper hand over the orchestra and its star conductor, Wilhelm \nFuertwaengler.\nThe Philharmonic’s predicament began with its financial woes in the depressed German economy of the 1920s and 1930s, \nAster says.\nAs a private company owned by its musicians, the fiercely independent, democratic-minded orchestra was reduced to begging for government subsidies even before the Nazi takeover in January 1933. Then, the orchestra and Fuertwaengler suddenly found an eager partner in Goebbels, who saw music as a political tool. The Nazi government simply bought out the musicians’ shares of the orchestra and turned them into civil servants, guaranteeing steady and generous government support.\nThe Berlin Philharmonic had been unwilling to cut musicians’ salaries or reduce its size, so Nazi financing meant it could continue to hire topflight musicians and play works demanding a large orchestra, thus preserving its elite role at the top of the German \nmusical world.\n“The pact with the Nazi regime resulted from the terrible financial situation of the orchestra since the middle of the 1920s, a certain feeling of superiority on the part of the orchestra collective and Goebbel’s vision of cultural propaganda,” \nAster writes.\nThere was a price to be paid. Services to the regime included blocking out every April 18-21 for celebrations surrounding \nHitler’s birthday.\nThe musicians also played for Hitler Youth gatherings and joined forces with the Nazi cultural organization Strength Through Joy, giving concerts in sports halls to introduce classics to the masses, with swastikas prominently \non display. \nFrom his side, Fuertwaengler used his ties to Goebbels – who was eager to keep the temperamental conductor in Germany – to defend the orchestra’s four Jewish musicians after the Nazi takeover. He rebuffed demands from the few Nazi party members in the orchestra ranks to fire the Jews.\nBut the four Jews, including concertmaster, or lead violinist, Szymon Goldberg, all fled Germany by the beginning of the 1935-36 season amid the intense anti-Semitism of Nazi rule. One, cellist Nicolai Graudan, left after getting an insulting contract renewal offer that omitted his premium as a soloist and section leader. He was apparently unprotected after Fuertwaengler temporarily left the orchestra in 1934 after a dispute with authorities over what works he could perform.\nThe Philharmonic’s privileges included a rare draft exemption that held even until the end of World War II, when the collapsing regime sent children to die fighting approaching Soviet forces – but kept the orchestra playing. It performed Bruckner, Wagner and Beethoven– all Nazi favorites - at a private concert for armaments chief Albert Speer on April 11, 1945, less than a month before the war ended.\nThe players were also offered fine old string instruments. Hitler had complained that musicians in Vienna all seemed to have old violins and cellos, which generally sound better than new ones, while only a few of the Berliners had them.\nThe origins of the instruments remain unclear, but Aster assumes some were purchased while others were probably stolen. Concertmaster Erich Roehn received a 1750 violin made by Italian master Pietro Guarnieri, while another violinist got a valuable Guadagnini.\nFuertwaengler and the musicians were far from alone. Some non-Jewish artists, such as conductors Fritz Busch and Arturo Toscanini, shunned the Nazis, but countless other musicians and famed conductors such as Karl Boehm and Herbert von Karajan kept working under Nazi rule.\nThe book is being welcomed by the orchestra, which will put on a historical exhibit in conjunction with the book’s publication about its role in the Nazi years starting Saturday in the lobby of its Berlin concert hall. Today, people of 19 different nationalities play with the Berlin Philharmonic, including an Israeli concertmaster, Guy Braunstein, and a British conductor, Sir Simon Rattle.\nAster, whose sources included state, orchestra and private archives, said he received financial support during his research from the Friends of the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra’s donor organization, but that he had a contract for the book on his own with the publisher, Siedler, a branch of of Random House.\n“Neither the orchestra nor the foundation had any control over the contents,” he said.\nThe Philharmonic’s Nazi ties were not secret and parts of its story have been told in histories of Nazi cultural policy. Much historical writing, however, focused on Fuertwaengler, while Aster emphasizes the orchestra as an institution, using private archives of former musicians.\nAster said one reason a general history of the orchestra’s experience is being written only now, more than 60 years after the end of the regime, is that questions about the Nazi era were not welcome at the Philharmonic during the 1955-1989 tenure of conductor Karajan, a former Nazi Party member.\nThe Berlin orchestra’s compromises with the Nazis reflected those of the larger German society, Aster told The Associated Press.\n“The even sadder truth is, it was symptomatic of what became of Germany and German society as a whole – how easy it was to be seduced,” he said. “The moral compromises that started it seemed to be small prices to pay.”
(09/19/05 3:39am)
BERLIN -- Conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party won the most votes in German elections Sunday but fell short of a clear mandate to govern, according to official results. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder staged a dramatic comeback and proclaimed he should head the next government.\nThe inconclusive result made it likely that Germany's next government would be weakened because of the narrow vote margin and difficulties in forming a coalition.\nIf Merkel is to become Germany's first female chancellor, she must now find a majority in a coalition that would likely force her to water down finance reform plans. And such a deal might also lead to a dampening of her strong opposition to Turkish membership of the European Union.\nThe vote centered on different visions of Germany's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy. Schroeder touted the country's role as a European leader and counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the economy and strengthen relations with Washington.\nWith 298 of 299 districts declaring, the results showed Merkel's Christian Democrats party leading with 35.2 percent of the vote compared to 34.3 percent for Schroeder's Social Democrats. Voting in the final district, Dresden, was delayed until Oct. 2 because of the death of a candidate. But that outcome was not expected to affect the final result.\nThe outcome gave Merkel's party 225 seats, three more than the Social Democrats; the Free Democrats got 61, the Left Party 54 and the Greens 51.\nMerkel's preferred coalition partners -- the pro-business Free Democrats -- had 9.8 percent, leaving such an alliance short of outright victory. The Greens, the Social Democrats' current governing partner, had 8.1 percent; together, the two parties failed to reach a majority, heralding the end of Schroeder's seven-year-old government.\nThe overall election turnout was 77.7 percent.\nIf the new parliament cannot elect a chancellor in three attempts, President Horst Koehler could appoint a minority government led by the candidate with a simple majority.\nThe result was a major setback for Merkel, whose party was at 42 percent in polls the week before the election.\nShe smiled but twisted her fingers in apparent agitation as she argued that she had a mandate to be the next leader after exit polls showed the race almost neck and neck. \n"What is important now is to form a stable government for the people in Germany, and we ... quite clearly have the mandate to do that," Merkel said.
(01/27/03 4:38am)
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Millions of people in the Middle East believe the United States is indifferent to the region's fate, Jordan's King Abdullah said Sunday, urging Washington to commit itself anew to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\nAddressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Abdullah said there was little chance of avoiding war in Iraq. "We're a bit too little too late," he said. "Today I think the mechanisms are in place ... It would take a miracle to find dialogue and a peaceful solution."\nHe said peace must give the Palestinians a state big enough for a functioning economy, and guaranteed securities for both populations.\n"With clear, committed leadership from Washington, the vast majority of Palestinians and Israelis will choose coexistence and peace," Abdullah said.\nThe king's remarks drew extended applause from business and political leaders, many of whom are skeptical about the U.S. push to force Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm.\n"Millions have been left to believe that the powerful West is indifferent or worse," Abdullah said. "Despair, hatred and division have helped extremists recruit for global campaigns of terror."\nSecretary of State Colin Powell also called for a viable Palestinian state in his speech at the forum, though his larger focus was laying out reasons for U.S. concern over Iraq's failure to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.\nPowell urged Israel to stop constructing settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, from which the Palestinian state will be formed.\n"A Palestinian state, when it's created, must be a real state, not a phony state that's diced into a thousand different pieces," he said.\nAmir Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, praised the reference to a "real" Palestine.\n"This is a very, very positive statement about the nature of the Palestinian state and a serious message to Israel," he said.\nAsked whether Powell's speech had changed his opinion on Iraq, Moussa replied, "No, but I enjoyed his speech."\nPowell "did very well at relating to the mood in Davos, talked a lot about trust, talked a lot about all the positive and constructive things the United States does," said Ellen Laipson, former vice chairman of the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council and now head of the Henry L. Stimson Center think tank.\nHe received two standing ovations, but Laipson said she thought it was more because of the audience's respect for Powell as a person rather than for U.S. policy.\nThe Palestinian issue broke into a panel discussion that was supposed to be about the development of democracy in Arab countries. Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and newly named ambassador to Britain, warned Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., that America's perceived failure to push its ally Israel for a solution undermined Washington's standing among Arab countries.\nBiden responded by saying that both sides shared blame, and challenged the audience of several hundred, some of them Arabs, to raise their hands if they thought Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would sign a peace deal. Only a few did.\n"Three of you -- OK, I won that poll," said Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also urged new efforts toward peace, saying, "We had better get about it."\nPolice said Sunday that three police officers were injured and 30 people were arrested when "militant activists" rampaged overnight in the Swiss capital of Bern, smashing windows and two parked cars.\nPolice used water cannons, tear gas and fired rubber pellets against the protesters, who were blocked from reaching the forum on Saturday. Officials said there was about $74,000 in damage.\nAbout 1,000 anti-capitalist demonstrators marched peacefully through Davos on Saturday, but thousands more never reached the mountain resort after militants blocked the rail and road to protest security checks.
(08/31/01 3:51am)
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Copies of Europe's colorful new Euro bills, each two stories high, rippled in the breeze above Frankfurt on Thursday as the European Central Bank unveiled its design for the notes that will replace 12 national currencies next year. \n"With the new single currency the people of Europe have one more fundamental thing in common, their money," bank President Wim Duisenberg said during a packed ceremony at Frankfurt's opera house. \nTwelve clear stars with the bills sandwiched inside were lowered from the ceiling, and large plastic sheets were lowered to reveal the giant replicas draped from the central bank's nearby headquarters. \nDuisenberg has promised the bills will be the most sophisticated in the world. \nThe bank, which governs monetary policy for the 12 nations, has kept the new cash under wraps for so long in part to give counterfeiters as little time as possible to unravel security features. The new currency begins circulating Jan. 1. \nThe features unveiled Thursday include synthetic security strips, a cotton-based paper used only for the bills, raised printing, watermarks and an iridescent hologram strip that will carry the denomination and the euro symbol. \nThe bills have large numbers and increase in size the higher their denomination, in part to help the blind. They feature windows and gateways on one side to represent openness, and they carry bridges on the reverse side, a symbol of cooperation. \nThey carry Duisenberg's signature and the bank's initials, but lack any national symbols, unlike euro coins. \nThe notes will be issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros starting Jan. 1. They are being printed in 15 different locations across the euro zone. \nThursday's launched kicked off the last stage of an information campaign meant to boost acceptance of the new money. \n"The euro is much more than a common currency," Duisenberg insisted. "It is a symbol of European integration"