The Devil’s Music Master

Shirawaka, Sam H. The Devil’s Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwängler. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Sam H. Shirawaka’s The Devil’s Music Master is an overview of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s life and career as Germany’s lead musical conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1922 to 1945 and after the war from 1952 to 1954. A leading interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies and Richard Wagner’s operas, Furtwängler had international fame and renown, which made him a perfect pawn of the Nazi Party when Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. 

As Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power, many artists and intellectuals fled Germany; however, Furtwängler decided to stay because he viewed his unique position as Germany’s foremost conductor as responsible for upholding Germany’s artistic and cultural heritage in the face of Nazi barbarism. In Furtwängler’s mind, art and politics were separate entities with no discernable relationship. However, the Nazis used Furtwängler’s reputation and status to legitimize themselves internationally and further solidify their control over Germany. In one instance, German photographers were positioned to catch Furtwängler bowing to the crowd after a performance with Hitler and the Nazi high command seated in the front row. This photo was used by the Nazis and later, the Americans during the Denazification trials after the war, to prove that Furtwängler was sympathetic to the Nazis and part of the party.

Shirawaka provides an apologia of sorts by trying to paint Furtwängler as the victim of his own naiveté by believing that by remaining in Germany, he had the clout to influence Hitler, propagandist Joseph Goebbels, and Hermann Göring, who was placed in charge of the Prussian State Theaters, on cultural issues. However, the international community viewed Furtwängler’s refusal to leave Germany as acquiescing to Hitler and the Nazi Party, a belief which still hounds Furtwängler’s legacy today even though he never joined the Nazi Party.

While Shirawaka’s claim about Furtwängler’s naivete is convincing, the assertion that Furtwängler was some sort of “leading figure in the resistance” to the Nazis is not.[1] It is true that he resisted the Nazi Party’s attempts to appoint him to prominent posts and that he used his position to help Jews who reached out to him out of the country. With all that said, Furtwängler’s primary motivation was his career and his position as Germany’s foremost conductor. He comes across as a pragmatic opportunist rather than an idealist willing to sacrifice everything to save Germany. While he helped those who sought him out, Furtwängler only did so within the context of his position as the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Even with these criticisms, the book is a good read because it provides a comprehensive overview of Furtwängler’s musical career and explores the tension between art and politics; a tension that Furtwängler never fully resolved during his life.