 In response to strong public pressure and numerous reports in the German press, he expressly dissociated himself from the ideas of these and all other right-wing and left-wing radical organizations.The Bundespräsidialamt did not grant a demand by the member of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, the SPD politician Tom Schreiber, to deprive the conductor of the Federal Cross of Merit awarded in 2000.Prominent pupils, such as Vladimir Jurowski in the Leipziger Volkszeitung, stressed that his teaching had taken place in a humanist spirit.