The conductor’s esteem for Hitler endured and not once did he deny his membership. As they neared the ruins, bombed by the USAF then looted, von Karajan expressed deep sadness, “there is no monument to him.” Roger Vaughan, the conductor’s biographer, tells of the time they drove through Berchtesgaden and up winding forested roads to Adolf Hitler’s mountain home. His was a period dominated by the celebrated Furtwangler and Toscanini. No one can read of Karajan’s struggle for fame without admiration for his tenacity. His was a life of grueling hard work, ingenuity, and God-given talent. Herbert von Karajan represented the culture of the Third Reich.
Upon Germany’s defeat, the conductor was persecuted by the forces of occupation. Like millions of others he was denied the means to support himself or his family.
Until December 1948, when he was finally cleared by the allies, he lived in St.
Anton and remote wooded areas north of Milan. Partisans would have murdered him had they known of his existence.
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