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volume adequately documents, an "in­ tellectual" alternative to fu ndamental­ ism. This led him from Plato and the FurtwIDgler's Name Cleared-At last Neoplatonics to the real muck of exis­ tentialism and mysticism. Finally, as eporter Sam H. Shirakawa of reflected in one of the last entries in ABC News has done history, the volume, in a paper on "Religion's Germany,R and Wilhelm Furtwangler Answer to the Problem of Evil" in (1886-1954), in that order, fineservice, 1951, he fo und the path that eventually with his new biography of the great led him to the fo refront of the Civil conductor. Anyone who wishes to save Rights movement: from its present near­ "The ultimate solution is not intel­ death state should read this book. lectual but spiritual. After we have Furtwangler, who began compos­ climbed to the top of the speculative ing music and conducting in 1905, be­ ladder we must leap out into the dark­ fo re he was twenty, was by the 1920's ness of fa ith. But this leap is not a leap rightfully among the premier conduc­ of despair, fo r it eventually cries with tors of Europe, fo r the extent of sing­ St. Paul, 'For now we see through a ing expression and contrapuntal con­ glass darkly; ... but then shall I know struction he could draw from even as I am known.' The Christian Beethoven and other Classical compo­ The Devil's Music Master: answer to the problem of evil is ulti­ sitions. Anyone unfamiliar with him The Controversial Life mately contained in what he does with should purchase his Beethoven sym­ and Career of evil, itself the result of what Christ did phonies, especially, as Mr. Shirakawa Wilhelm Furtwangler with evil on the cross." notes, his firstpostwar performance of by Sam H. Shirakawa the Ninth (Choral) Symphony on July Oxford University Press, Editorial Intent 29, 1951. New York, 1992 For all Dr. King gave the world, he The book's title refers to the vile 506 pages, hardbound, $35.00 certainly deserves to be remembered campaign of lies against Furtwangler, by such a beautiful collection of his run in the U.S. by the Anti-Defama­ "Wilhelm Furtwangler was a crea­ works. And the fa ct that his widow, tion League ofB'nai B'rith (ADL) and ture whose overweening confidencein Coretta Scott King, headed the Advi­ directed by the real pro-Nazis in Brit­ his own capacity to make a diffe rence sory Board of the research project ain, because he did not abandon his against one of the most malevolent which produced the collection, speaks country during World War II. For fo rces the world has known, cata­ well fo r the intentions of the project. this, they called him Hitler's conduc­ pulted him fa r beyond the confines of The resulting editorial product is tor, "The Devil's Music Maker." his profession. That peculiar spark of dangerously flawed, however. It reads In fact, as Shirakawa's preface hubris drove him into resistance, re­ almost as though the editors set out notes: "When thousands of intellectu­ bellion, and sedition, in defense of a to denigrate and slander King as an als and artists joined the exodus of culture being annihilated ... and he illiterate plagiarist. Jews from Germany after the Nazis became a leading figure in the Resis­ One must ask why the editors chose seized power, Furtwangler remained tance inside Germany, despite later ef­ not to edit the writings of an obviously behind with the conviction that he fo rts to prove otherwise." poorly intructed student-whose life's could save the culture which produced work contributed so much to human­ Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and others, Spark of Hope ity, no matter whether or not he could from annihilation by the Third Reich. Shirakawa documents how Furtwan­ spell correctly. And why did they Despite his well-documented and as­ gler used every moment of the war to . choose to document ad nauseum every tonishingly successful efforts to keep save lives and to try to give some small instance of King's student plagiarism? Jews part of German cultural life and spark of hope to the German people, to Surely, given his proven character in his manifold endeavors to assist any­ present an actual alternative to Hitler. later life, this problem could not have one who asked him for help through Many leading musicians fled Ger­ emanated from an evil intent. the Third Reich, saving hundreds many, and even some ofFurtwangler's Nevertheless, the opportunity to from certain death, he was all but fr iends, such as conductor Bruno Wal­ come to know Martin Luther King, branded a war criminal and nearly ter, criticized him fo r staying and Jr. through his own intellectual strug­ framed at a de-Nazification trial at "lending legitimacy to the regime." gles, as presented in this volume, the end of the war. This even though But most Germans could not simply makes it definitelya valuable resource, Furtwangler never joined the Nazi hop on a plane and find employment despite this major flaw. Party and openly acted against the re­ abroad. -Marianna Wertz gime until its fa ll. ... Shirakawa quotes German pianist

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© 1992 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Walter Gieseking's succinct comment: silken homogeneity of orchestral and ductor, to becoming the world's most After the war, Furtwangler's critics vocal sound .... No conductor of the powerful, and in that objective he at­ "evidently believed that seventy mil­ twentieth century made more of a fe ­ tained the highest glory ... for fe w lion Germans should have evacuated tish of it than . musicians leave an estate worth more Germany and left Hitler there alone." Whether it was an achievement in mu­ than $270 million. But the Alberich sical expression did not seem to matter [gnome] within Karajan made him The New York Times, much .... miserable. After a sensational perfor­ the ADL, and the Real Nazis "But von Karajan always fe lt cowed mance, his men came to congratulate While Shirakawa seems not to know by his fe ar that Furtwangler was irre­ him. 'Quatsch!' he grunted. 'Furtwan­ of the ADL and how the lies against futably superior, and he turned from gler would not have liked it.' " Amen. Furtwangler were orchestrated by striving to be the world's greatest con- -Kathy Wolfe London, he exhaustively documents the campaign and how fa lse it was. It started, he shows, as early as 1937, when Macy's executive Ira Hirsch­ mann, a fo rmer board member of the A Trilateral Ideologue's New York Philharmonic and the New Yo rk Times, began attacking Furtwan­ Guide fo r 'Democratic' Subversion gler as "anti-Semitic." Both Hirsch­ mann and the Times' Sulzberger-fam­ here is a certain irony about Sam­ ily owners were leading members of uel Huntington's The Third Samuel P. the ADL, closely connected to the TWa ve. Here is the Trilateral Commis­ London Royal Institute of Interna­ sion ideologue, who penned the Com­ Huntington tional Affairs, which actually backed mission's 1975 call fo r "fascism with a Hitler by promoting Nazi Economics democratic face," putting himself fo r­ THE Minister Hjalmar Schacht. ward as the mastermind of an interna­ Shirakawa also documents the hor­ tional offensive on behalf of "de­ ror of the Allied postwar occupation, mocracy." THIRD during which Walter Legge promoted The book jacket promotes The committed Nazi Party member Her­ Th ird Wa ve as "a valuable tool fo r any­ bert von Karajan as a star. Walter one engaged in the democratization WAVE Legge was the British Intelligence process." The Trilateral Commission's DBMOCRAJUAnON IN THE agent who ran London's EMI Records, first executive director, Zbigniew lATE TWENnETH CENTURY and who made it almost impossible fo r Brzezinski, calls the book "exception­ Furtwangler to record. Meanwhile, ally important," and its author, "a The Third Wave : the anti-Nazi Furtwangler was fo rced democratic Machiavelli." Democratization in the through a brutal "de-Nazification" While the book is written In an Late Twentieth Century trial. Again in 1949 and 1950, Shira­ inane sociological style, at five points by Samuel P. Huntington kawa shows, the Hirschmann-New Huntington abandons "the role of so­ University of Oklahoma Press, Yo rk Times cabal orchestrated the Chi­ cial scientist," as he puts it, and Norman, Oklahoma, 1991 cago demonstrations against Furtwan­ assumes that of political consultant, 366 pages, hardbound, $14.95 gler and kept him out of the U.S., setting fo rth "Guidelines fo r Democ­ threatening any musician who would ratizers." Huntington's "Guidelines" all else fa ils, abolish the military." not boycott him, as are a manual for how to overthrow reveals in Chapter 19. governments unacceptable to the Who Is Samuel Huntington? Shirakawa is at his best in his devas­ would-be rulers of the Anglo-Ameri­ Huntington's specialty as a Harvard tating expose of the evil genius of EM I, can New World Order. These include professor has been security and gov­ Walter Legge, and hisgolem von Kar­ instructions for "democratizers" to ernment, going back to his 1957 book ajan, who destroyed postwar music "develop co�tacts with the global me­ on The Soldier and the State: The The­ with the recording industry. In the dia, fo reign human rights organiza­ ory and Politics of Civil-Military Rela­ finalchapt er, he notes that while Furt­ tions and transnational organiza­ tions. Since then he has served as coor­ wangler fa ded into obscurity, the re­ tions"; and fo r governments installed dinator of security planning at the cording industry "became a mighty through international pressure to National Security Council under money machine ... a vast parade of "purge or retire all potentially disloyal Brzezinski during the firstyear of the younger conductors" who offered only officers ... make major reductions in Carter presidency; from 1980-91 he "an ever-increasing trend toward the size of your military fo rces served on the Advisory Board of the .... It

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