Politisierte Orchester

Fritz Trümpi’s dissertation is intended as a comparison between the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic orchestras under National Socialism and in the Third Reich. This comparison, showing similarities as well as differences, has not been successful for various reasons. One obvious one is that the Vienna orchestra also served as the Vienna State Opera’s instrumental vehicle, whereas the Goebbels-controlled Berlin Philharmonic had an operatic rival in the form of the Göring-controlled Preussische Staatsoper (and yet another, lesser one, in the form of the Goebbels-controlled Deutsche Oper). There is no mention of those additional Berlin orchestras by the author, nor is there any reference to the rivalry between Goebbels and Göring in the high-culture field. Another serious flaw is Trümpi’s organisational style. He treats each orchestra in alternate short sections, giving the reader a chronological history from their beginnings in the nineteenth century up to 1945. But the Austrian and German sections perforce are aligned asynchronously, because different political caesuras determined the history of each country. This applies particularly to the twentieth century, when the beginning of fascism, in varying intensity, was different for both Austria and Germany. Content-wise, matters are related in one section that cannot be picked up logically in the next. For example, in one Austrian section Trümpi speaks about a change in dress code for the members of the Vienna Philharmonic at the beginning of the twentieth century, and concludes the section, without continuing this theme in the next one about the Berlin Philharmonic

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