Strauss v. Hitler

Richard Strauss, of Nazi Germany, whose only rival to the title of greatest living composer is Jean Sibelius, of Nazi-dominated Finland, has dared to defy the Fuehrer. The story came out last week in the Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung of Zurich, Switzerland.

Strauss had been ordered to put up a dozen air-raid refugees from Munich "as Hitler's guests" at the composer's country house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is near Hitler's Berchtesgaden eyrie. Strauss refused. As an old man of 80, he said, he felt entitled to privacy and peace. Nazi officials took the matter to Hitler himself. The Fuehrer declared that Strauss's recalcitrance would mean the cancellation of his birthday celebrations throughout the Reich. Strauss replied that Hitler could cancel anything he wished, and added: "It was not I who started this war."

In the shocked Nazi silence, the reverberations echoed for days. Then Hitler apparently decided that for the prestige of German Kultur the Reich's chief cultural asset should have his sulky way. The incident was hushed up. Strauss was allowed both his privacy and his birthday parties, his only punishment being the refusal of a passport to Zurich, where he planned to conduct a gala performance of his opera Elektra.

International music circles, remembering Strauss's huge international royalties in the past, knowing him for a highly practical artist, were inclined to discount the heroism in his stubbornness. On the other hand, it was quite conceivable that the 80-year-old composer might have balked at riding the few remaining miles to music's Valhalla aboard the Nazi bandwagon.

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