Karl Böhm (1894–1981)

Böhm moved to Germany in 1921. His career skyrocketed after the NSDAP came to power in Germany: On the recommendation of Adolf Hitler, he became general music director of the Semperoper in Dresden in 1934. In Nazi Vienna, he became director of the Vienna State Opera in 1943. In 1944, Nazi cultural policy placed him on the so-called Gottbegnadetenliste (God-gifted list). Böhm was thus officially declared one of the most important Nazi artists and was also exempted from service in the Wehrmacht. After the end of Nazi rule, the allies banned the conductor from performing until 1947. He then established Vienna's reputation as the ‘city of Mozart’, building on the plans of Nazi cultural policy.

In 1955, he briefly returned to the Vienna State Opera as director. For the reopening of the opera house, he chose two works that were ideologically strongly associated with National Socialism: in the morning, he opened with a ceremony featuring the overture to Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, an opera with strong anti-Semitic undertones. He spoke openly about his career as director under Nazi rule. For the opening performance in the evening, Böhm played Beethoven's Fidelio, which had also been performed at the official gala evening celebrating the ‘Anschluss’ of Austria in 1938. Despite these strong signals, Böhm became the trademark of the new Austrian consciousness as a ‘cultural nation,’ especially through international tours.

Weiterführende Links:

https://e-gov.ooe.gv.at/bgdfiles/p3820/Achamer-Pifrader_Humbert.pdf 

https://dfg-vk-darmstadt.de/Lexikon_Auflage_2/AchamerPifraderHumbert.htm 

Wissenschaftliche Literatur:
 

Matthias Gafke, Heydrichs Ostmärker. Das österreichische Führungspersonal der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1939–1945, Darmstadt 2015, S. 128 ff. 

Wolfgang Graf, Österreichische SS-Generäle. Himmlers verlässliche Vasallen, Klagenfurt–Ljubljana–Wien 2012, S. 303–313. 

Elisabeth Boeckl-Klamper / Thomas Mang / Wolfgang Neugebauer, Gestapo-Leitstelle Wien 1938–1945, Wien 2018, S. 396 f. 

Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945, Frankfurt/Main 2003, S. 10. 

Helmut Krausnick / Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges. Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938–1942, Teil I und Teil II, Stuttgart 1981. 

Barbara Stelzl-Marx / Andreas Kranebitter / Gregor Holzinger (Hg.), Exekutive der Gewalt. Die österreichische Polizei und der Nationalsozialismus, Wien 2024.