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I've had two meetings with him. He's a great musician. Maybe the greatest conductor in the world. His Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert unequalled.
I was in Vienna. I had with me an Austrian chauffeur, Max his name was, he spent time in the camps. We were looking at these Viennese cleaning up the bomb damage, scavenging for rotting food, butt ends, anything. I said, 'To think a million of these people came out to welcome Adolf on the day he entered the city, a million of 'em, and now look at 'em.' And Max said, 'Oh, not these people, Major. These people were all at home hiding Jews in their attics.' You get the point, Colonel? The point is they're all full of shit.
Furtwngler's in a different category.
We're dealing with degenerates here.
A great artist will have great privileges in a Russian zone.
That's why he didn't get the hell out of here when he had the chance! I put that to him, he couldn't answer. Why didn't he go and direct in America, like that Italian, Toscanini.
Colonel. He had no sisters, no brothers, only a lot of love affairs.
Anyway, Major, why should he leave his country, his mother tongue, his family, his history, his past, his future, just because now, suddenly, there is a dictatorship? Why?
But what... before that turns rotten... What if they surround the space with barbed wire, Colonel?
Don't talk about things you know nothing about. He was in a dictatorship!
Yeah, yeah, art and politics, yeah, yeah, I heard all about that.
In a dictatorship, art belongs to the Party. If you want to be a conductor, you have to have an orchestra. And you can only get an orchestra if you have contact with the power. All over the world you need the right contacts and you have to make the right compromises.
This is what I'm saying. He must have had Party contacts.
There are good Party members who help, and there are dirty nonParty members who inform on you. Of course, they gave him privileges.
And suddenly, Steve, suddenly you notice that they like you. They honour you, suddenly you are the director of the best museum in the world, for example.
What museum?
I'm sorry. Museum? Not... I said orchestra. Sorry. Believe me. Help me, Steve. You say you answer for someone from high up. I, too, have orders from high up. Very high up. We want Furtwngler. I'll give you in return the whole orchestra, four, five conductors. I need him, Steve.
No can do.
Let Furtwngler go. Please.
I have a duty.
Duty? I am sorry, duty? Duty fucking duty. Trouble is, you Americans want everybody to live like you. We liberated Berlin, Major Steve, not you. Our duty also is to bring back the best of German culture.
I'm gonna get that fucking bandleader, Colonel. No deal. No fucking deal.
Then you're going to kill me.
Lieutenant Wills reporting to Major Arnold. Sir.
For Chrissakes I hate that shit, cut it out.
I'm very sorry.
I'm Steve. What's your name?
David. David Wills. I'm your liaison officer with the Allied Kommandatura Cultural Affairs Committee. Sir.
Sounds a lot of run. So they sent the big guns to check up on me. We recruiting children now?
I guess so, sir.
You call me sir again and I'll make you listen to Beethoven.
Where you from, David?
was born here, in Leipzig. I escaped in '36. My parents, they sent me to my uncle in Philadelphia. They were to follow. But they delayed and...
I guess you admire musicians.
Some.
Don't. This is like a criminal investigation, David. Musicians, morticians, doctors, lawyers, butchers, clerks. They're all the same.
You think a whole orchestra, what, a hundred and forty or so guys, could be orchestrated?
I guess it's possible.
So, what does the Russki want?
Colonel Dymshitz asked specially to see you.
'Dimshits'?
What the hell are they doing?
They're trying to sort out some of the works of art the Nazis stole from occupied territories. Who really owns what? That's Colonel Dymshitz, on the far side.
David, need to ask you something. You heard this rumour the British found something called the Hinkel Archive?
Yes.
So what is it?
The British occupy the building where this guy, Hinkel, ran the Nazi Ministry of Culture and it seems they've... they've discovered his secret archive.
What's that mean?
I don't know, but the British are excited about it, I know that. The rumour is Hinkel kept a file on every artist working in the Third Reich.
Jeez. And you think the British'll share it with their Allies?
Major Richards said he'd call to let us know.
That's big of him.
Okay, better question the next witness. I bet you a bottle of French champagne he tells us the baton story inside ten minutes.
Five minutes.
It's a bet. You're the witness, Emmi.
You have a question for Helmuth, David?
Yes. What was the orchestra's reaction when they asked you to play for Hitler's birthday?
Yes, David?
Why not show Dr. Furtwngler the evidence. It may refresh his memory?
You see, Wilhelm, I'm talking about ordinary, everyday reasons. Which is why I want to discuss your private life. How many illegitimate children do you have?
Major, I don't see how this line of questioning could...
David, what are you Counsel for the Defence now? Did you hear the question?
Isn't it true that before every concert you got a woman in your dressing room and gave her the old conductor's baton, isn't that true?
Major, this is deeply offensive and repugnant!
You bet.
and totally irrelevant.
Not so, Counsellor. That secretary of yours, she wasn't just your secretary, she procured women for you, didn't she? As many and as often as you wanted.
Major, that's not a good argument. If Dr. Furtwngler did indeed enjoy all these... these privileges, he enjoyed them because of who he is and what he is. That's true of any leading artist in any country in the world.
But it still doesn't make them saints. They still have to get up and piss in the middle of the night, don't they? They can still be vindictive and envious and mean just like you and me. Well, just like me. Can't they?
What?
Your manner.
My manner? Why don't you go downstairs, get a cup of coffee and calm down? What's the matter, Emmi? What's going on with you? What's wrong?
Can I ask you a favour, Major?
Yeah.
When you question him again, could you treat him with more respect?
With more what? More what?
Major, he may just be the greatest conductor of this century and that merits respect.
David, I don't understand a thing about you. You're a Jew. Are you a Jew?
Yes, I'm a Jew. But I like to think first I'm a human being.
A human being, oh, good, I'm relieved, I thought you were going to say you were a music lover. This man, this great artist has made antiSemitic remarks like you wouldn't believe. I got letters.
Major, show me someone who hasn't made an antiSemitic remark and I'll show you the gates of paradise.
What is it with you, David? Where are your feelings? Where's your hatred, your disgust? Where's your fucking outrage, David?
That's because you had a proper upbringing.
That's right. I was raised very strictly. So don't speak before you are spoken to!
Oh! And don't wave your hands about!
Respect your elders and your betters!
And no elbows on the table!
Eating is eating... and...
And talking is talking! Well, I think we better get on.
Right. So, this is going to be very formal, too, now. Lieutenant David Wills requests die pleasure of die company of Fraulein Emmi Straube at dinner any night she cares.
What does he mean, too correct?
I don't know.
Don't see me to my door, there's no need.
But I promised your mother.
Yesterday I read that Furtwngler was asked to lead the New York Philharmonic back in '36, Toscanini suggested it. Had he accepted, he would have become the most celebrated conductor in America.
When he made his decision, he couldn't have known everything. Especially not the way people like you do, who've returned from exile and feel that you have a right to pass judgement. Because you are blameless, you think you know best who is a sinner and who deserves forgiveness. But you have no idea how people lived here.
When he met Hitler at his birthday and shook hands with him, was he pleased?
I don't know. But you and I already know that he has saved lives.
'Please remember that Dr. Furtwngler risked his life to help anyone who asked him. I personally testify to having seen literally hundreds of people lined up outside his dressing room after concerts to ask for his help. He never turned anyone away. After he heard me play... I am a violinist... he gave me money because I was unable to feed myself or my family and then he helped me to escape to Sweden. He helped countless people in similar ways.'
And this, only one of these letters, Major. I have lots of them.