Goebbels, Rosenberg, Strauss, Hindemith e Fürtwangler

O primeiro foi o Dr. Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), ministro da propaganda de Hitler, que à imagem do seu líder se suicidaria quando já não havia esperança possível para o nazismo, arrastando consigo para a morte toda a família (mulher, cinco filhas e um filho), a 1 de maio de 1945. 

O segundo foi o grande ideólogo da raça Albert Rosenberg (1893-1946), rival de Goebbels, por este considerado, desdenhosamente, «um intelectual». O autor do livro que citamos em seguida chama-lhe «cão de guarda ideológico».

O terceiro foi o famoso compositor Richard Strauss (1864-1949), não o das valsas (com quem não tinha parentesco, apesar de partilharem o mesmo apelido), mas o de Assim Falava Zaratustra (e do hino dos Jogos Olímpicos de Berlim, em 1936).

O quarto foi o compositor 'modernista' Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), que se tornaria cidadão americano.

O quinto foi o grande maestro Willhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954). titular da Filarmónica de Berlim durante mais de duas décadas.

Apresentações feitas, vamos a um excerto da excelente biografia de Goebbels por Ralf Georg Reuth que dá conta das intrigas no meio musical alemão durante o nazismo.

«Rosenberg attacked the composer Richard Strauss, probably the most significant figure in German music, a man with an international reputation whom Goebbels himself admired. Rosenberg asserted
that having this composer serve as president of the Reich Chamber of Music could result in a "cultural scandal," because Strauss was having the libretto of his opera Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) "written by a Jew" who served as "the artistic advisor to a Jewish emigré theater" in Switzerland. Rosenberg's attack made Goebbels "furious," the more so because Hess sided with Rosenberg. Goebbels took satisfaction in pointing out that Rosenberg had his facts wrong; Strauss's librettist was Stefan Zweig, "an Austrian Jew, not to be confused with the emigré Arnold
Zweig."

But the ideological watchdog stuck to Goebbels's trail. His next attack was directed against Paul Hindemith, who had been described in the journal Die Musik, published by Rosenberg's Cultural Community, as "not acceptable from the standpoint of cultural policy." Rosenberg now accused Hindemith of spending most of his time in the company of Jews and turning German music into kitsch, which made him unfit to belong to "the highest art institutes of the new Reich."49 Goebbels himself
had praised Hindemith in June as "one of the strongest talents in the younger German generation of composers," although he had to reject "the basic intellectual position that finds expression in most of his works up to this point."

Wilhelm Furtwängler, vice president of the Reich Chamber of Music, whom Goebbels regarded as an inspired conductor, came to Hindemith's defense in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Demand for Furtwängler's article was so great that the paper had to reprint it. Furtwängler argued that, given the worldwide shortage of truly productive musicians, one could not cast aside a man like Hindemith. He asked a question, implicitly directed at Rosenberg: what would happen "if political denunciation were applied to the fullest extent in the arts?" The evening the article appeared, Goebbels and Goering happened to be at the Staatsoper. Furtwängler received long and pointedly enthusiastic applause. Goering apparently took this incident as the occasion to inform Hitler that a public expression of disapproval of a Reichsleiter had occurred. Goebbels for his part threatened Furtwängler, saying he "would show him which of them was stronger." Furtwängler thereupon resigned as vice president of the Reich Chamber of Music and director of the Staatsoper and decided, with heavy heart, to emigrate to the United States. The "Hindemith case" had thus broadened to become the "Furtwängler case," the case of the Reich Chamber of Music.

Officially it looked as though Rosenberg had won a complete victory in this instance. But then Furtwängler's plan of going to America was thwarted by his rival Arturo Toscanini, who publicly spoke out against him. With Hitler's approval Goebbels then used a combination of offers and threats to persuade Furtwängler to issue a sort of apology for his article." He said he had never intended to meddle in the Reich's cultural policy; such policy should be made "solely by the Führer... and by the
expert minister appointed by him." Goebbels had killed three birds with one stone: he had enabled Furtwängler to save face, frustrated Rosenberg, and kept this distinguished conductor in Germany. Goebbels probably had the last point in mind when he wrote in his diary, "a great moral success for us." But there remained "the troubling question of how we're going to keep him occupied."

Rosenberg continued to snipe. He demanded that Furtwängler apologize to him as well, for "his political attacks on the NS Cultural Community." Probably at Hess's urging, Furtwängler complied, after which Rosenberg directed his organization, which had no official party status, to "preserve strict neutrality toward Furtwängler." All the prerequisites seemed in place for an official reconciliation between the conductor and Hitler. In the end Furtwängler kept his old positions and in 1936 was
made musical director of the Bayreuth Wagner Festival.»

Ralf Georg Reuth, Goebbels - the life of Joseph Goebbels the mephistophelian genius of nazi propaganda, Constable, p. 202-203