Berlin Symphony Orchestra (1925-1932)

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The Berlin Symphony Orchestra existed from 1925 to 1932. In 1952, the name was taken over by a newly founded municipal institution in East Berlin , today's Konzerthausorchester Berlin .

history

The Berlin Symphony Orchestra emerged from the Blüthner Orchestra in 1925 . It organized popular concert series and played at city and school events, but also premiered new works. The directors were Oskar Fried (1925–26), Emil Bohnke (1926–28), Ernst Kunwald (1928–32) and Frieder Weissmann (1931–32). As soloists u. a. the famous violinists Georg Kulenkampff , Alma Moodie and Joseph Szigeti ; the foreign guest conductors included Ernest Ansermet and Lazare Saminsky .

In the early 1930s, the orchestra - like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - ran into financial difficulties in the wake of the global economic crisis . The city of Berlin , no longer in a position to subsidize both orchestras, presented a plan in 1932 to dissolve the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. According to this, some of its ensemble members should be taken over by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which in return should give more popular concerts and school events. The other musicians were to be distributed among the radio and municipal opera orchestras , provided they did not retire .

The merger of the two orchestras took place during the year, but it was not without difficulties. The chief conductor of the Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and his orchestra felt that taking on foreign musicians and the obligation to give folk and school concerts restricted their previous independence; the increase in the ensemble exacerbated the Philharmonic's financial problems; and the members of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra who were invited to audition as a selection saw this as a degrading procedure. The audition in the Philharmonic Hall on September 7, 1932 in front of Furtwängler, Max von Schillings and the city counsel Friedrich CA Lange took place in a "horrific atmosphere", so that Schillings no longer wanted to do this "executioner activity" and withdrew. The Philharmonic finally took over 23 members of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, which was dissolved on October 1, 1932.

Another problem arose from the fact that among the new members of the Philharmonic Orchestra were NSDAP members who disrupted the working atmosphere with political and anti-Semitic activities. At Furtwängler's instigation, fifteen of the former members of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra were released on November 1, 1933.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [ http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/4557 , http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/4702/ Konzerthinweise]
  2. ^ Peter Muck: One Hundred Years of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Representation in documents , Tutzing 1982, Vol. II, pp. 89-92.
  3. ↑ Gerassimos Avgerinos: The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as an independent organization: 70 years fate of a GmbH from 1882 to 1952 , Berlin 1972, p 54-55.
  4. ^ Muck: One Hundred Years of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra , Vol. II, pp. 96–97.
  5. ↑ Misha Aster: "The Reich Orchestra". The Berlin Philharmonic and National Socialism , Munich 2007, pp. 91–95.