Beethoven in the Shadows of Berlin: Karajan's European Anthem

...However, the European anthem, which has no words, distinguishes itself from the original score by its slower tempo and fuller orchestration (a “trombonification...

...A Political History (University of Chicago Press, 2003...

...It was translated from the French by Neil Ellingson...

...At the same time, they strive to keep up appearances by presenting concerts and expositions abroad in order to mask a reality in violent contradiction with Beethoven’s humanism...

...There is no question that collaborating with a conductor of such renown, whose very profession, moreover, has a long tradition of associations with political and military command, was an asset to the European anthem project...

...von Karajan in Strasbourg,” explains another memo, “he informed the Committee of Ministers that Mr...

...von Karajan is very interested in the prospect of arranging the ‘Ode to Joy’ and conducting it for a recording...

...The resolution proposed “the adoption by member states of the prelude to ”Ode to Joy,“ fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, as the European anthem,” considering that “it is fitting,” states the text, “to choose a musical composition representative of the genius of Europe, and whose use in European events already constitutes the beginning of a tradition...

...In this case they are certainly exemplary, but only of the historical compromises out of which they arose...

...Ode to Joy” was chosen to represent Europe not only for its musical greatness, but also for the values proclaimed in Schiller’s famous verse, which the instrumental melody evokes even in the absence of words: “All men become brothers...

...The anthem, however, is still Beethoven’s music...

...it is disfigured or made the object of the most extreme modernist attempts on its life...

...This initial contact closely followed the adoption of Resolution 492 by the permanent Commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which is made up of representatives from national parliaments...

...Instead, the musical star of the event was Leonard Bernstein, the American Jew who, in a gesture as memorable as it was controversial, chose to perform the Ninth while having Freiheit schöner Götterfunken sung in place of Schiller’s original text in order to more fully enlist Beethoven in the fight against totalitarianism...

...In 1971, Karajan, then dubbed Generalmusikdirektor of Europe, was recruited to create the new symbol because of his celebrity status...

...Of course, one might also wonder if the idea of turning “Ode to Joy” into state music was really a good one, but that is another debate altogether...

...The fact is, however, that the European anthem is still available for purchase from Schott and Deutsche Grammophon...

...In the context of the cold war, this is just one example among many of the tolerance and understanding that a not insignificant portion of the Austrian political class demonstrated toward former Nazis in the name of anticommunism and the need to “move forward into the future...

...Apart from the fact that at certain occasions— the Olympic Games, for example—the Ninth had been used to represent the fragile reconciliation of the two states, its adoption in 1971 as the official emblem of the European institutions of the capitalist world, and in West Berlin of all places, could only be felt as a challenge or provocation on the other side of the wall...

...Symbols are held up as ideals, but often risk weakening the values they represent in the public sphere...

...How this happened and what it says about the new Europe is troubling...

...And it is clear that within the palette that ranges from the white of a member of the Resistance to the black of a death squad executioner this is a case of dark gray, and is on no account model behavior in the face of dictatorship...

...One might also judge that this is a serious contemporary problem, and that Europe ought to align itself with its values...

...In addition to a lifelong post as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and his position as principal guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic...

...This suggests that the idea of assigning Karajan not only to conduct the anthem but to be in charge of its arrangement came not from the Council of Europe but from Karajan himself...

...The response from Salzburg came soon after: “Mr...

...It concludes ritenuto molto exactly like the cadential formula, which, in the choral part of the original, follows each stanza of Schiller’s poem...

...Thus, except for these details, which do give the piece the ceremonial style of “state music,” the work of the arranger involved just cutting and pasting three fragments of Beethoven...

...It is an irony of history that the organization responsible for the Second World War and the Holocaust continues to leave its trace on the symbol of a Europe that claims human rights and democracy as the moral foundations of its political project...

...Apparently the Strasbourg institution was incapable of asserting itself over the most powerful musician in Europe, even through Toncic-Sorinj, who had personal connections with Karajan...

...During the months that followed Resolution 492, the preparations for the launch of the anthem at the Council of Europe were coupled with intense discussions over copyright issues, which according to an internal memorandum dated January 25, 1972, were “a preoccupation for many people...

...It was thus Karajan himself who first put forward the claim that his conduct was opportunistic, and as such apolitical, a theory that has been more or less accepted everywhere as the last word on this uncomfortable issue for the musician’s admirers...

...And although this story begins during the cold war, it continues into the present day, when, following the progress that has occurred in understanding the gravity of the Holocaust, the hypocrisy of the situation ought to carry more weight...

...Several documents demonstrate high officials’ hope that the conductor would renounce his copyright claims...

...In March 1935, as he was about to be named Generalmusikdirektor in Aachen, he submitted a second request which this time was completed in due form and earned him the Nazi Party number 3,430,914...

...It continues with the melody played in its entirety by the violin section, then with a solemn march variation, exactly as in measures 140 to 187 of the original...

...He is the author of Beethoven’s Ninth...

...That would certainly be possible, given that, on a strictly musical level, Beethoven’s piece can stand alone, without Karajan’s arrangement...

...In fact, the European anthem episode is one of the historical ambiguities of the Austrian Right with regard to the Anschluss and the far Right...

...The European Council—the highest organ of the European Union, composed of leaders of EU member states—gave the melody this official status in 1985...

...The facts, however, are well established...

...On July 24, 1971, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Lujo Toncic-Sorinj, wrote Karajan from Strasbourg: “After consulting with several colleagues in the Assembly, I would like to ask you to conduct the official version of the anthem...

...But Karajan’s participation in the victory of the “free world” was no less symbolic, if only as a pillar of the international market of high culture and the clear conscience it affords—at least to those who believe in it...

...The diplomatic friction was perhaps intentional...

...As with Waldheim, since the eighties von Karajan’s membership in the NSDAP has given rise to controversy...

...But beyond the problem of the theory’s source, one wonders if such cynicism in the service of ambition would not be closer to Nazi ideology than a forced act of allegiance to the Führer...

...Despite a shortage of clues, the first hypothesis to consider, of course, is that he was sympathetic to the ideas of the party...

...One can’t help but wonder what could have compelled this young Austrian to want to join the German Nazi party beginning in April 1933...

...An earlier version of this text was published by Le Monde...

...In East Berlin, the assessment was that in the West, “Beethoven’s music has become a byproduct of the capitalist leisure industry...

...This would have been expected of him as conductor of the orchestra that, after the Second World War, had raised the international profile of the Reich’s former capital, since become the capital of divided Germany...

...And even though the Council of Europe has recently released “variations” of “Ode to Joy” in the styles of jazz, Rom music, and hip-hop, in addition to classical, it still recognizes Karajan’s arrangement as the only official version and remains apparently untroubled by the moral dissonance the strange trilogy of SchillerBeethoven-Karajan evokes...

...It was under these conditions that on May 5, 1972, “Europe Day,” the European anthem debuted on Eurovision with overlaid images of the blue flag with twelve stars and Herbert von Karajan and his orchestra...

...As an artistic contribution, it is far from irreplaceable...

...Since the end of the Second World War, Toncic-Sorinj had been a member of the ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party), and between 1966 and 1968 he served as Austria’s foreign minister...

...The orchestra conductor filled out an inscription form to join the party on April 8, 1933, in Salzburg, but the process came to a halt because of the recruitment freeze following Hitler’s seizure of power...

...his recordings, with Deutsche Grammophon in particular, made him the best-known and highest-paid classical musician in the world...

...Such ambiguities date back to the founding of the Christian Social Party at the end of the nineteenth century by the anti-Semite Karl Lueger and surfaced again in 2000 when Austria incurred EU sanctions because of the alliance between Chancellor Wolfgang Schlüssel’s ÖVP and Jörg Haider’s extremist party, the FP...

...Lujo ToncicSorinj, born in Vienna in 1915 to a line of aristocratic diplomats, had lived in Salzburg during his adolescence...

...This is by definition less convincing coming from the mouth of a Nazi Party member, even if he is, according to some, the most brilliant of orchestra conductors...

...and his time at the Paris Orchestra and other prestigious orchestras...

...The official arrangement of the new anthem was conceived by the director of the Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, who published the score under Schott Music, made a recording with the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, and promoted it in the media with his orchestra...

...von Karajan remains the owner/proprietor of the new adaptation of Beethoven’s work conceived as the European anthem...

...Esteban Buch teaches music history at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France...

...In any case, the twenty-year anniversary of the death of Herbert von Karajan, which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the end of the cold war, could provide the opportunity to put his contribution to the European symbol in perspective...

...These connections seem to have been real because, in his first letter, he gives his regards to Karajan’s brother Wolfgang, addresses him informally, and writes “dear friend...

...A January 28 memo cites “the concern of avoiding that the European anthem profit an individual or publishing house financially...

...The decision fulfilled plans for the song first laid out on July 8, 1971, in West Berlin by the Council of Europe, the first postwar European institution whose chief purpose is the defense of human rights...

...Nevertheless, the work bears Karajan’s signature, and it reminds us that this European symbol was born, as it were, in the shadow of the Berlin Wall...

...One might think that this contradiction is but a historical curiosity that is “merely” symbolic and therefore insignificant...

...As this last phrase indicates, the interest in Beethoven on the part of the ideologues of European unification was nothing new, but it had recently been stimulated by the 1970 bicentennial of the composer’s birth, which saw the two Germanys vying to honor Beethoven while at the same time each accusing the other of betraying his legacy...

...Karajan’s death on July 16, 1989, prevented him from seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall and participating in the musical celebrations that followed...

...To make this happen, I will place complete trust in your wishes and suggestions, including everything related to the orchestra and the location of the performance...

...Secretary General Toncic-Sorinj asked him in person to relinquish his rights: “After personally contacting Mr...

...The European anthem is the instrumental melody of “Ode to Joy,” from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, first performed in Vienna in 1824...

...These documents also reveal the tenacity with which Karajan refused any concession on this point and insisted that the score and recording be done with his usual business partners, Schott and Deutsche Grammophon...

...Toncic-Sorinj’s election in 1969 to head the Council of Europe was the crowning achievement of his career...

...COMMENTS AND OPINIONS Beethoven in the Shadows of Berlin Karajan’s European Anthem ESTEBAN BUCH The musical symbol of the European Union is the work of a former Nazi Party member...

...His successor was his coreligionist Kurt Waldheim, future secretary general of the UN, whose name is still linked to the international scandal that erupted during the presidential campaign of 1986 over his past as an intelligence agent for the Wehrmacht...

...As for his successful inscription in 1935, according to statements by Karajan in 1946 before the Austrian Denazification Committee, it was a necessary condition for him to secure the post at Aachen...

...as well as his responsibilities heading the Salzburg Festival and its offshoot, the Easter Festival...

...An anthem is just what people make of it...

...The limits of this clear conscience, however, can be found in the historical compromises of certain figures in the classical music establishment beginning with the period of the Third Reich...

...Karajan’s arrangement is protected under copyright, and the copyright holder belonged to the Nazi Party from 1935 to 1945...

...The real question raised by the use of Karajan’s arrangement of “Ode to Joy” by European institutions transcends that of the convictions or motivations of a man at a particular time of his life...

...It is regularly used by the European Union for its ceremonies, in Europe as well as in other parts of the world...

...Indeed it was at the behest of the Federal Republic of Germany that this meeting of the Council of Europe took place in West Berlin, with the explicit aim of “strengthening the ties” of the city with Western Europe—to which the GDR government reacted by declaring the meeting “illegal...

...This according to the “Declaration of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the Council of State of the GDR, the Council of Ministers of the GDR, the National Council of the National Front of Democratic Germany, and the Confederal Committee of the Confederation of Free German Unions...

...Karajan’s score is in D major, just like the finale of the Ninth, and it begins with a phrase lifted directly from measures 77 to 80 of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Opus 125...

...in any case it was predictable enough and a good deal more foreseeable than the difficulties encountered with Karajan...

...Herbert von Karajan was born in Salzburg in 1908 into an ennobled bourgeois family of a conservative political persuasion...