An “Ode to Joy” in a Difficult Moment











6 thoughts on “An “Ode to Joy” in a Difficult Moment

  1. Interesting historical story, Dr. Stein. The “Ode to Joy” is one of my favorite classical pieces. What violence! What an abomination of fine music!

    At 2:52 minutes, I watched the cannons fire and the foot soldiers advance with bayonets engaged. Later, at 3:58 minutes, the bombs exploded causing total destruction. Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler writhed in frenzy as he led the charge.


    • Thanks, Rosaliene. He was pretty good at writhing! Musicians who were not familiar with him had great difficulty in following his beat. So did many who knew him well. His relationship with the leaders was very complicated, but he was not a Nazi. Many thought of him as the greatest conductor of his day, including Toscanini.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Quite a profound post Gerald. I can’t describe the feeling I had while I watched that video of the orchestra playing and all the patrons at the theatre and realising that at that same time the concentration camps being in full swing mindlessly killing innocent people and all the horrors of war going on within a short distance of them and going on as if nothing was happening. Calling it a paradox is the understatement of a life time. I also looked up the Dr Goebell who was in attendance that night, he being the leader of hitlers propaganda machine, only a few years later he and his wife went on to kill their 6 children before killing themselves in hitlers bunker. Denial and hatred can have devastating consequences.


    • Thank you, Claire. Your thoughtful approach to this is what any writer wishes from a reader. Goebbels vilified the press before the Nazis vanquished it, just as the “media” are being vilified today. One could say much more. To me, however, the movie reveals the struggle of one man in an impossible situation. And, of course, the disfigurement of a once great nation, as represented in those few seconds that we see, quite literally, faces disfigured in wartime.


  3. Yes I agree, what it took for Furtwangler to put on a front and a literal performance and feeling so compromised and not being able to acknowledge the horrors that were going on around him. And on top of that celebrating the birthday of the perpetrator of these atrocities. I think it made me feel strange like I could relate because I’m constantly trying to live in a normal, present world and maintain happy relationships with people and be normal but inside my mind and memories I have constant reliving and just my own atrocities dwelling in my mind constantly wanting me or someone to bear witness to my past abuse. It’s so hard to find a compromise or balance, when do I move past my inside world and live my outside normal life to the fullest extent without putting myself in denial. Sometimes I feel like I’m pretending, I’m not though I’m trying to be as authentic as possible with both my worlds. The task of that does produce some kind of ‘insanity’ that is written all over furwanglers face and the reason I’ve required so much therapy.


  4. I’m glad this resonated with your experience, Claire. It is not at all easy to judge a person in your situation or in Furtwängler’s, impossible really. There are certain things that must be lived to be understood. While living them is informative to those who must do so, the price is clearly beyond calculation. The least the rest of us can do is to honor your effort to survive the dilemma honorably, one we cannot fully imagine.


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