The Nazis needed both Furtwängler and he needed to Germany. Hitler greatly admired his skill. The party itself knew that Furtwängler was the main symbol of ancient glory of German culture and that its loss would be the final blow to national prestige, which would validate all the foreign criticism.
By this time the consistent Furtwängler takes advantage of the respect that the Nazis were forced to pay taxes. When he had contracts with terms of style, "only Aryans", refused to sign, and went even further, picking the promoters to highlight Jewish members of the orchestra as soloists. At one point, when ordered to replace its Jewish violinist, threatened to cancel all his appearances. When it imposed the ban on employment of Jewish artists in live shows, Furtwängler demanded a meeting with propaganda minister, Goebbels, to veto the order. The Berlin Philharmonic was about to be "aryanised", and met personally with Hitler to reverse the decree. (Of course, all these measures were later revoked, but this does not detract at all the value it had at the time).
Despite what seemed to the outside world, Furtwängler did not cooperate.
never made the Nazi salute, even when Hitler himself was present at a concert. In general, refused to act in classrooms where swastikas had been deployed. Avoid appearing at official functions. He declined to conduct orchestras in occupied countries. Never started his concerts with the Nazi anthem. And never presented patriotic-themed works socialist flooded other concert programs.
The fact that Furtwängler had his way in such conduct "traitor", accounts for the esteem he had the party and the people.
Furtwängler's relationship with the Nazis in 1934 was clearly defined when you set the new opera by Paul Hindemith, "Mathis der Maler." The composer's wife was Jewish, and therefore their music, although he still had not heard, had been automatically condemned as degenerate. The script (the work of Hindemith) probably did not help. The main character was a visionary painter trapped in a civil war, desperately seeking a way to apply their talents to the betterment of mankind. Despite the atmosphere of this medieval opera, its focus on the obligation of the artist's embrace of constructive social issues was painfully modern and the Nazis certainly understand the challenging parallels with the history of time-perhaps the very reason why Furtwängler decided to submit a opera that spoke so directly in their own lingering concerns.
When Göring banned the book, Furtwängler replaced it with an orchestral suite of the time. This concert was hailed as a real focal point for anti-Nazi frustrations. Furtwängler later published a lengthy article in defense of Hindemith, which insisted that the ideology was irrelevant and that the only criterion was valid aesthetic quality of art itself.
state media, led by Goebbels, attacked him, insisting with the same vigor that only ardent Nazis could be true artists.
Overwhelmed and sick by the repressive ideology of the Nazi regime, Furtwängler resigned all positions (except, of course, the "Staatsrat" life), and devoted himself to composing, directing his gaze longingly overseas. And this was when it appeared the timely supply of the New York Philharmonic.
During the following months, Furtwängler felt broken, deprived of the means to promote German music (which he himself was his guardian). But the government was also very annoying: there was low attendance at concerts substitutes, subscribers demanded they return the money, the orchestra was mired in deficit and the foreign press took advantage of this incident to denounce the oppression of a regime that apparently had to silence his most prominent artist.
Finally everything was resolved when Furtwängler agreed to publicly acknowledge the primacy of artistic policies of Hitler (he could hardly refuse) in exchange for being allowed to work for self and never had to accept a political position or acting in any official capacity. As expected, state media reported on it as a full capitulation by Furtwängler, and never mentioned the remainder of the agreement.
But Furtwängler did not simply withdraw into themselves or into the sanctuary of art. But, according to several testimonies, unfolded an enormous moral courage, putting in jeopardy his life and reputation. During the next ten years he spent much of his time speaking with party officials in almost impossible task to protect and rescue potential victims seeking help, including professional foreign enemies. Although evidence is often anecdotal, the archivist Fred Prieberg argues that only his research has documented more than eighty people at risk who were saved through the efforts of Furtwängler.
While external passivity Furtwängler (crushed by the Nazis distorted news) was interpreted abroad as a "collaboration", we now know that his quiet heroism saved many more lives than the abrasive rant or symbolic migration. As rightly pointed out Paul Minchin, president Wilhelm Furtwängler Society: "It takes more courage to oppose a totalitarian regime from within." It is clear that Furtwängler had at least a lot more courage than the self-proclaimed defenders of humanity who labeled him a coward who threw all his verbal grenades from the safe harbor of the free world.
So helpless Furtwängler was a saint? Not quite. Unfortunately there are not so commendable side of its activities during the war.
Peter Gutmann: Wilhelm Furtwangler, Genius Forged in the Cauldron of War / in: Classical Notes
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