The Baton and the Jackboot. By Berta Geissiaar. (Harnish
Shorter Notices
Hamilton. 15s.)
DR. BERTA GEISSMAR, born in Mannheim and for many years secretary to Wilhelm Furtwangler, Germany's most famous con- ductor since Nikisch, and to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, has written an instructive and entertaining book which she describes as Recollections of Musical Life. She became known to all musicians on the Continent through the tours of the Berlin Orchestra and was of invaluable help to the reserved and sensitive Furtwangler. But with the Nazi revolution she, as a Jewess, suffered the persecution and humiliations which Hitler's regime inflicted on the Jews for political purposes, and in spite of the great services she had rendered to Germany's leading orchestra was compelled to abandon her native country and take refuge in England. She relates with dignified resentment but unfailing good humour and vivacity all the penalties and injuries unscrupulously imposed by the Nazis, and describes with great tact and loyalty to him the difficult position of Fun wangler, who struggled hard to remain an artist as well as a German, but in the end was overwhelmed by the difficulties of his situation, and was outwitted by Goebbels, Goring and their underlings in his efforts to maintain his own and music's independence of politics. Dr. Geissmar was lucky in finding a similar position in England as secretary to Sir Thomas Beecham, and the stories she tells of her association with that brilliant and erratic personality are among the most entertaining chapters in her book..
Previous page
