Re: Bata, Karajan, and Morality

["Robert C. Kunath" <kunath@hilltop.ic.edu>]

Oops!  Sorry, Karl!

	Karajan's fortune--as I very imperfectly understand it--was derived from
lots of sources, but the root was his conducting and recording income. 
Shrewd investments account for a lot of his money, peripatetic activity
accounts for more (after all, Gould did forego the income from concert
appearances, and that would have been substantial), and very favorable
deals for television and video performances account for more.  I think I
recall reading that the company that made all those later videos of Karajan
and the Berlin Phil was *owned* by Karajan, so he made money coming and
going off of that deal.

	I can understand that Stephen Rieck is upset at the thought that all
Germans are being stigmatized as Nazis, but that is not the case, I am
sure.  Robert Clements is right--Karajan was a Nazi, at least in the
card-carrying-official-member-of-the-party sense.  His career was much
promoted by top Nazis, especially Goering, and he was lionized by the Nazi
press, which saluted him as "das Wunder Karajan" (the miracle of Karajan). 
I might add that I have seen Karajan's personnel file in the Nazi Party
membership archives formerly housed at the Berlin Document Center.  The
best that can be said for Karajan's Nazi Party membership is that it seems
to have been rooted far more in ambitious opportunism
than political conviction, but, given what the Nazis did to Jewish
musicians (and, of course, Jews in general), that's still not very
encouraging.  Gould was perhaps not aware of all these facts about Karajan,
but he must have known generally about Karajan's past, and I've always
thought that Gould should have been more bothered about it than he was.

Robert
----------
> From: K. Berry <kb@cs.umb.edu>
> To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
> Subject: Re: Bata, Karajan, and Morality
> Date: Sunday, March 22, 1998 10:28 AM
> 
>             I'd like to endorse Ken's (it is Ken, isn't it?) skepticism
about Karajan
> 
> Karl, actually :-).
> 
>     an estate valued at over $100 million.
> 
> Wow.  I am amazed.  Surely von K. didn't make all that just from his
music?
> I mean, Gould's estate was only a million or so, and I'd be astonished
> if von K. sold 100 times more than GG did.  I wonder what the numbers
> are for all-time best selling classical folks.  Depressingly low, I
> know, but how low ...