Berta Geissmar has bequeathed to the world of music a great legacy. If she was not a woman for all seasons, she was most certainly a woman for two seasons, both of them straddling World War II, and each intimately connected to the ebb of the great musical and cultural life of Germany, and its subsequent flow in England, even as the bombs were dropping. Her 1946 book, Music in Two Worlds records in chilling detail parallel societies, one free, one under the yoke of an all-powerful dictatorship, and how the differences came to affect civilization itself. 

Born to a distinguished Jewish family in Mannheim, in 1892, Berta Geissmar, like many of her assimilated class was brought up in the Protestant faith. Her mother was descended from an important family that had lived in Mannheim for almost two hundred years. Her paternal grandfather and father were respected lawyers.  Her father was deeply committed to music, as well. An accomplished amateur violinist, and a connoisseur of fine stringed instruments, he founded a concert society in Mannheim. In 1900 he had an opportunity to acquire for himself the Vieuxtemps Stradivarius of 1710. When he consulted with Joachim regarding the purchase, Joachim sent him a postcard in reply saying, "This Antonio is no cardboard saint!" Thereupon the sale was completed. Years later, when it became necessary for Berta Geissmar to leave Germany, she brought the Vieuxtemps Strad with her to England, where the Hill firm sequestered it for safekeeping during the Blitz, alongside the Vieuxtemps Guarneri, which had also been hidden away in their secret shelter.

Dr. Geissmar earned her PHD in philosophy from Frankfurt University with her thesis, "Art and Science as Concepts of the Universe" She was an enthusiastic violinist, as well. In her memoir she recalls a reading of the Brahms Piano Quintet with Szymon Goldberg, first violin, Geissmar on second violin, Paul Hindemith on viola, and Nicolai Graudan, cello, with Wilhelm Fürtwangler at the piano.

It was with Fürtwangler that Berta Geissmar began her professional career. An old friend of her family's - she had known him since they were children - he requested that she become his personal secretary, which she did in the early 1920's. In addition to those duties, she was given a large part in the daily management of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It is from that key perspective that she carefully records for the reader the rich kaleidoscope of the musical world of Germany in the early 20th Century. But by 1933, when the Third Reich was declared, and Hitler became Reichkanzer, her strength of character, poise and intelligence had come under severe challenge.

During the ascendancy of the Nazi party, things had gone on pretty much as usual, and Berta Geissmar reveled in her work at the center of a grand cultural hub. From 1933 however, with the Nazi regime in full control, things began to take an altogether sinister turn. Suddenly fervor in art was displaced by political expediency. Aryan purity was paramount, and Jewish members of the Berlin Philharmonic were in danger of losing their jobs. Geissmar had Furtwangler's powerful support, and that sustained her for a time, but finally the pressure became intolerable, and in 1935 she was forced to flee.

The issue of politics overtaking art in social importance, or of the suppression, or corruption of art by political will has grave significance for any society. Indeed, knowing as we do other moments in history when artistic expression has been sacrificed to political will - Maoist China, or the Soviet Union under Communist rule for example, the free expression of art  may be considered a bellwether of a balanced society. The overnight turnabout in the German community once deeply committed to the arts, and especially the art of music is often most disturbingly revealed in the details of the lesser events. In a field where excellence, or its lack is readily discernible, at least as far as the technical abilities of the performer are concerned, it is disheartening to see petty party members using political connections to further their musical careers. When the Berlin Philharmonic joined the Strasbourg Orchestra for a joint concert, the great concert-master Szymon Goldberg was asked to step aside in favor of the concertmaster of the Strasbourg group, who was not Jewish. The management of the orchestra had become infiltrated by party functionaries, ambitious for position and power, but utterly inept at running the business of the Berlin Philharmonic. While Jews were almost wholly disenfranchised and later obliterated, non-party members were also at a distinct disadvantage, regardless of their abilities. Fürtwangler, due to his enormous reputation was able to maintain his musical career while remaining aloof from politics and the Party. While, according to Geissmar, he felt that he should remain at his post as a force for good, his disengagement remains a subject of deep controversy even now. Dr. Geissmar relates how many artists of the day rose in protest of the Nüremberg legislation and the destruction of intellectual freedom. The violinist Bronslaw Huberman refused to play for the Berlin Philharmonic concerts. His open letter, manifesto really, of March 7, 1936 to the Manchester Guardian reads in part, "Before the whole world I accuse you, German intellectuals, you non-Nazis, as those truly guilty of all these Nazi crimes, all this lamentable breakdown of a great people - a destruction which shames the whole white race."

For Berta Geissmar, with her Jewish ancestry, staying the course was impossible. The difficulties the Nazis had in deposing her, in threatening her with arrest, in seizing her passport, attest to her pre-eminent stature, but ultimately it was her payment of $5,000 to the Nazi government which allowed her to emigrate to England.

After a brief interlude at the center of New York's concert world, and engaged in archival work with several important, original, musical manuscripts in the Morgan Library, she safely settled herself in England, and accepted the job of personal secretary to Sir Thomas Beecham, and manager of Covent Garden. Ever grateful for her freedom, once more she was at the core of the rich and thriving cultural life of a city, and she conveys its crises and triumphs in glorious detail, and with joyous abandon. Politics had become a distant and disturbing rumble which nevertheless frequently threatened or impacted the business at hand.

In 1936, filled with trepidation, Berta Geissmar accompanied Beecham and the London Philharmonic on a tour of Germany, which she had arranged and oversaw. The tour was an extraordinary success, and in her new role, with Sir Thomas at her side, the Nazi's were forced to bow respectfully to her. She describes the multitude of receptions and social events surrounding the tour. The repetitious political jingoism spouted at these events finally drove even the gallant and witty Beecham to call an end to them. 

When war inevitably broke out, the effect on musical life was mixed. While many events were cancelled, others continued, even thrived, in defiance of the tumult. But the loss of revenue took its toll, and Geissmar joined with many others to find creative ways to keep the great musical institutions alive, while spending nights in bomb shelters and enduring other privations of war. The effort was successful; the music played on, up to and beyond the allied advance, and the London Philharmonic enjoyed record attendance.

Berta Geissmar died in 1949, only three years after the publication of her book. Her steadfast adherence to her work, in the face of turbulence and exile, reveal her to be a woman of courage, determination and intelligence. Her meticulously and lovingly detailed eyewitness account of the musical world of the early 20th Century, against the backdrop of great social upheaval is a unique historical document for the serious student. For the merely curious it's a very good read. ###

Two Worlds of Music, published in the UK as
The Baton and the Jackboot, is currently out of print, but still widely available from used book sellers.

                                                                           Paul Hersh

Paul Hersh is a pianist and violist on the faculty of 
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Aryan Laws of 1933

April 7, 1933
Laws for the Restoration
of the Professional Civil Service
"Civil servants who are
not of Aryan, non-Jewish
descent are to be retired."

April 7, 1933
Law Regarding
Admission to the Bar
"Persons who, according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service 
of April 7, 1933,
are of non-Aryan descent may be denied admission 
to the bar." 

April 25, 1933
Law Against the Crowding 
of German Schools
and Institutions of 
Higher Learning
"In new admissions, 
care is to be taken that
the number of
Reich Germans who,
according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933, are of non-Aryan descent, out of the total attending
each school and each faculty, does not exceed the proportion of non-Aryans
within the Reich German
population." 

Article 5
1) A Jew is anyone who descended from at least three grandparents who were racially full Jews. Article 2, par. 2, second sentence will apply.

2) A Jew is also one who descended from two full Jewish parents, if: (a) he belonged to the Jewish religious community at the time this law was issued, or who joined the community later; (b) he was married to a Jewish person, at the time the law was issued, or married one subsequently; (c) he is the offspring from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section 1, which was contracted after the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor became effective; (d) he is the offspring of an extramarital relationship, with a Jew, according to Section 1, and will be born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.

Nüremberg Legislation
Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of 15 September 1935
Thoroughly convinced by the knowledge that the purity of German blood is essential for the further existence of the German people and animated by the inflexible will to safe-guard the German nation for the entire future, the Reichstag has resolved upon the following law unanimously, which is promulgated herewith:

Section 1
Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they are concluded abroad...

Section 2
Relation[s] outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden.

Section 3
Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred blood in their household.

Section 4
Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the colors of the Reich...

Section 5
A person who acts contrary to the provisions of sections 1,2,3 or 4 will be punished with one of these penalties; hard labor. imprisonment up to a year and with a fine or with one of these penalties...