title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In order to enable the construction of defence and industrial corridors, the Modi administration amend the 2013 Act of land-reform bill that allowed it to acquire private land and without the consent of the owners for "only" these five types of projects (i) defence, (ii) rural infrastructure, (iii) affordable housing, (iv) industrial corridors set up by the government/government undertakings, up to one km on either side of the road/railway of the corridor, and (v) infrastructure including PPP projects where the government owns the land. Under the previous bill(Land Acquisition Act, 2013), the government required 0% consent of landowners for Public Projects of any category, 70% consent of landowners for Public-Private projects and 80% consent for Private Projects. According to the new bill, The government must conduct a survey of its wasteland and maintain a record of the same. The bill was passed via an executive order after it faced opposition in parliament but was eventually allowed to lapse.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The government substantially increased the percentage of central revenue directly granted to states, while decreasing the amount granted through various central government programs. Overall, states' share of revenue increased marginally. The criteria upon which individual states' allocation was determined were changed, such that the revenue to 19 states increased, and that of 10 states decreased. Only one of the ten states was ruled by the BJP when the policy was enacted.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The government signed large deals with General Electric and Alstom to supply India with 1,000 new diesel locomotives, as part of an effort to reform the Indian railway, which also included privatisation efforts. In December 2015, Modi's government signed an agreement with Japan to jointly build a bullet train system linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The Indian government put forward a plan on converting 101 rivers into national waterways for the transport of goods and passengers. The government also began an ambitious program to increase the number of highways in the country, allocating to the project.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 25 June 2015, Modi launched a program intended to develop 100 smart cities. The "Smart Cities" program is expected to bring IT companies an extra benefit of . He also launched a "smart villages" initiative, under which villages would be given Internet access, clean water, sanitation, and low-carbon energy, with Members of Parliament overseeing the program's implementation. The program had a stated goal of at least 2,500 smart villages by 2019.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Give up LPG subsidy is a campaign launched in March 2015 by the Indian government led by Narendra Modi. It is aimed at motivating LPG users who can afford to pay the market price for LPG to voluntarily surrender their LPG subsidy. As at 23 April 2016 1 crore ( 10 million) people had voluntarily given up the subsidy.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The surrendered subsidy is being used by the government to provide cooking gas connections to poor families in rural households free of cost. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu are the top five states to give up the subsidy.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Under his government, Railway budget was merged into the Union Budget of India. The date of presenting the budget was moved from 28 to 1 February and the financial cycle was changed from July to April. Further, the artificial distinction between planned and non-planned expenditure was removed. Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), considered as a hurdle in FDI, was scrapped by the Modi government.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In 2017, Modi government put in place the Goods and Services Tax, the biggest tax reform in the country since independence. It subsumed around 17 different taxes and became effective from 1 July 2017.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Over the first four years of Modi's premiership, India's GDP grew at an average rate of 7.23%, higher than the rate of 6.39% under the previous government. The level of income inequality increased, while an internal government report said that in 2017, unemployment had increased to its highest level in 45 years. The loss of jobs was attributed to the 2016 demonetisation, and to the effects of the Goods and Services Tax. The last year of Modi's first term didn't see much economic development and focused on the policies of Defence and on the basic formula of Hindutva. His government focused on pension facilities for old-age group people and depressed sections of society. The economic growth rate in 2018-19 was recorded to be 6.1%, which was lower than the average rate of the first four years of premiership. The fall in the growth rate was again attributed to the 2016 demonetisation and to the effects of the GST on the economy. In the year 2020, due to the nationwide lockdown and shutdown of the industries, the Indian economy suffered a major economic loss. It experienced a historic fall of -23% rate of the GDP, following which, Prime Minister Modi launched a movement called Atmanirbhar Bharat along with other movements and schemes to support the small scale and indigenous businesses to support the economy and to boycott Chinese products. Following this, Prime Minister Modi also announced a scheme of as a relief package for all damages to the economy.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in August 2014. The initiative aimed to create bank accounts and debit cards for 150 million families, and to allow them an overdraft of and accident insurance. After the launch, 125.4 million accounts were opened by January 2015.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi government launched the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in April 2015. Under this scheme, loans up to are given for non-agricultural activities under the three categories: "Shishu" (loans up to ); "Kishore" (loans from to ) and "Tarun" (loans from to ). According to a report by the SKOCH Group, this scheme has generated 1.68 crore incremental jobs in the first two years until September 2017.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Over the first four years of Modi's premiership, India's GDP grew at an average rate of 7.23%, higher than the rate of 6.39% under the previous government. The level of income inequality increased, while an internal government report said that in 2017, unemployment had increased to its highest level in 45 years. The loss of jobs was attributed to the 2016 demonetisation, and to the effects of the Goods and Services Tax.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: After demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 rupee notes various authorities noticed a surge in shell companies depositing cash in banks, possibly in an attempt to hide the real owner of the wealth. In response, in July 2017, the authorities ordered nearly 2 lakh shell companies to be shut down while Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed trading restrictions on 162 listed entities as shell companies. In September 2017, the government froze bank accounts of nearly 2 lakh shell companies. A day after, the Corporate Affairs ministry decided to ban around 300,000 directors of shell companies from serving on the boards of other firms to track down the beneficial owners of suspected shell companies and take penal action against those who divert funds from these shell companies.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: in June, 2015 under his premiership MoHUA started PM Awas Yojana with an aim to provide affordable Houses by giving financial assistance. Under PMAY, it is proposed to build 2 crore houses for poor including Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups by the year 2022 through a financial assistance of ₹2 lakh crore (US$25 billion) from the central government.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 27 March 2022 Bank employees called a nationwide strike for two days to protest against the Modi government's plan to privatize public sector banks.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: During the 2014 election campaign, Modi expressed hopes for a tenure without communal violence. The BJP sought to identify itself with political leaders known to have opposed Hindu nationalism, including B. R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Ram Manohar Lohia. The campaign also saw the use of rhetoric based on Hindutva, however, by BJP leaders in certain states. Communal tensions were played upon especially in Uttar Pradesh and the states of Northeast India. A proposal for the controversial Uniform Civil Code was a part of the BJP's election manifesto.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Several state governments headed by the BJP have enacted policies aligned with Hindutva after the election of Modi as prime minister. The government of Haryana made changes to its education policy that introduced Hindu religious elements into the curriculum. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj suggested after the election that the "Bhagvad Gita" be adopted as India's "national book". The Modi administration has generally avoided directly supporting policies related to a Hindutva agenda. There has been an increase in the activities of a number of other Hindu nationalist organisations, sometimes with the support of the government. The incidents included a campaign against "Love Jihad", a religious conversion programme, by members of the right wing Hindu Mahasabha. The attempts at religious conversion have been described by the VHP and other organisations involved with them as attempts at "reconversion" from Islam or Christianity. However, no evidence was found by police in many states to support the "love-jihad" narrative. There have been a number of reports of intimidation or coercion of the subjects during these attempts. Officials in the government, including the Home Minister, have defended the attempts. There were additional incidents of violence targeted at religious minorities by Hindu nationalists. Modi refused to remove a government minister from her position after a popular outcry resulted from her referring to religious minorities as "bastards". Commentators have suggested, however, that the violence was perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalists to undercut the authority of Modi.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The Modi administration appointed Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, who had previously been associated with the RSS, chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research. In reaction to his appointment, other historians and former members of the ICHR, including those sympathetic to the ruling party, questioned his credentials as a historian. Several stated that the appointment was part of an agenda of cultural nationalism.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 8 January 2019, India's lower house of parliament approves a bill that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Muslim immigrants who entered the country before 2014 - including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from three Muslim-majority countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan) - and make them eligible for Indian citizenship. The Bill excludes Muslims.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 6 August 2019, the Supreme Court of India passed resolution on creation of Ram Mandir on the disputed land of Ayodhya. The verdict also stated to provide for creation of a mosque on another part of the land. The land was given to the Sunni Waqf Board. On 5 August 2019, Narendra Modi held the Bhoomipujan at the Ayodhya. He became the first prime minister to visit Ram Janmabhoomi and Hanuman Garhi.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 8 March 2019, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project was launched by Narendra Modi to ease access between the temple and the Ganges River, creating a wider space to prevent overcrowding. On 13 December 2021, Modi inaugurated the corridor with a sacred ceremony.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Under Modi's tenure, bulldozers have been used in many Muslim neighborhoods for demolitions of homes, shops and other property owned by Muslims accused in crimes or riots. BJP officials have defended the use of demolitions as they say properties are illegal. In Delhi, the demolition drive even violated the Supreme Court order which asked the authorities to immediately stop the demolitions.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In June 2015, Modi launched the "Housing for All By 2022" project, which intends to eliminate slums in India by building about 20 million affordable homes for India's urban poor. A total of 4,718 camps were held from 2014 to 2017, benefiting 6.40 lakh beneficiaries under Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids/Appliances (ADIP) scheme, as compared to 37 camps from 2012 to 2014.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi also launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on 1 May 2016 to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of BPL families. A budgetary allocation of was made for the scheme. In the first year of its launch, the connections distributed were 22 million against the target of 15 million. As of 23 October 2017, 30 million connections were distributed, 44% of which were given to families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The number crossed 58 million by December 2018. In 2018 Union Budget of India, its scope was widened to include 80 million poor households. 21,000 awareness camps were conducted by oil marketing companies (OMC). The scheme led to an increase in LPG consumption by 56% in 2019 as compared to 2014.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The BJP Government formulated the bill after 100 cases of instant triple talaq in the country since the Supreme Court judgement in August 2017. On 28 December 2017, Lok Sabha passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017. The bill make instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband. MPs from RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and AIML opposed the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal, while Congress supported the Bill tabled in Lok Sabha by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 19 amendments were moved in Lok Sabha but all were rejected.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The central government re-introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha on 21 June 2019. The bill was subsequently passed by the Lok Sabha on 25 July 2019 and then by Rajya Sabha on 30 July 2019 and received assent from President Kovind on 31 July 2019. After its enactment, the Act became retrospectively effective from 19 September 2018.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: However, even after five years since Supreme Court’s invalidation of triple talaq, the women petitioners who were abandoned by their husbands, continue to live the life of half-divorcees.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In his first year as prime minister Modi reduced the amount of money spent by the government on healthcare. The Modi government launched a "New Health Policy" in January 2015. The policy did not increase the government's spending on healthcare, but placed emphasis on the role of private healthcare organisations. In its budget for the second year after it took office, the Modi government reduced healthcare spending by 15%. This represented a shift away from the policy of the previous Congress government, which had supported programs to support public health goals including reducing child and maternal mortality rates. The National Health Mission, which included public health programs targeted at these indices received nearly 25% less funds in 2015 than in the previous year. 15 national health programs, including those aimed at controlling tobacco use and supporting healthcare for the elderly, were merged with the National Health Mission, and received less funds than in previous years. Modi initially appointed Harsh Vardhan, a doctor and an advocate of tobacco control, minister of health. However, Vardhan was removed in November 2015. The government also proposed introducing stricter packaging laws for tobacco, but this effort was postponed because of the efforts of the tobacco lobby.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 2 October 2014, Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ("Clean India") campaign. The states goals of the campaign included eliminating open defecation, eliminating manual scavenging, and improving waste management practices. The campaign was announced on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, and was planned to achieve these aims in five years, or in time for the 150th anniversary of his birth. As part of the programme, the Indian government began the construction of millions toilets in rural areas, as well as efforts to encourage people to use them. The government also announced plans to build new sewage treatment plants. The administration plans to construct 60 million toilets by 2019. The construction projects have faced allegations of corruption, and have faced severe difficulty in getting people to use the toilets constructed for them. Modi has generally emphasized his government's efforts at sanitation as a means of ensuring good health. He has also advocated yoga and traditional forms of medicine. An article in the medical journal "Lancet" stated that the country "might have taken a few steps back in public health" under Modi.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi's government developed a draft policy to introduce a universal health care system, known as the National Health Assurance Mission. Under this plan, the government was to provide free drugs, diagnostic treatment, and insurance coverage for serious ailments, although budgetary concerns have delayed its implementation. The government announced "Ayushman Bharat" (National Health Protection Mission) in the 2018 Union Budget of India. It is World's largest health protection scheme, also being called "ModiCare". The scheme will help 10 crore families in their medical need. Under the Ayushman Bharat programme, there is a new scheme has been announced by Arun Jaitley, the finance minister of India, called "National Health Protection Scheme", providing a health insurance cover of ₹5 lac a family per annum. More than a lakh people have taken benefit of the scheme till October 2018.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardisation of skills. Cabinet approved an outlay of for the project. The scheme has a target to train 1 crore Indian youth from 2016 to 2020. As of 18 July 2016, 17.93 lakh candidates were trained out of 18 lakh who enrolled for the scheme. The aim of the PMKVY scheme is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them. Average award amount per person has been kept as . Those wage earners already possessing a standard level of skill will be given recognition as per scheme and average award amount for them is ₹2000 to ₹2500. In the initial year, a target to distribute has been laid down for the scheme. Training programmes have been worked out on the basis of National Occupational Standards (NOS) and qualification packs specifically developed in various sectors of skills. For this qualification plans and quality plans have been developed by various Sector Skill Councils (SSC) created with participation of Industries. National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been made coordinating and driving agency for the same.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: An outlay of has been approved by the cabinet for this project. The scheme has a target to train 1 crore Indian youth from 2016 to 2020. As of 18 July 2016, 17.93 lakh candidates were trained out of 18 lakh who enrolled for the scheme.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The government began formulating a New Education Policy, or NEP, soon after its election. This was the third education policy introduced by the Indian government, following those of 1968 and 1986. The policy was described as having overtones of Hindutva. The RSS had a role in its creation, and it did not explicitly mention the goals of "socialism, secularism and democracy" that had been mentioned in the first two policies. The policy emphasised the education of minority students, as well as those of economically backward groups, in particular on improving enrolment in schools among those groups. The policy proposed bringing religious educational institutions under the Right to Education Act. There was also a debate about removing caste-based reservation in favour of reservation based on income, a move supported by the RSS, but which was criticised as being discriminatory on the basis of caste. As of October 2018, the new policy had not been implemented.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In July 2020, the government unveiled the National Education Policy 2020, "envisioning an India-centric education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all" and making "India a global knowledge superpower".


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Foreign policy played a relatively small role in Modi's election campaign, and did not feature prominently in the BJP's election manifesto. Modi invited all the other leaders of SAARC countries to the ceremony where he was sworn in as prime minister. He was the first Indian prime minister to do so. Observers have stated that due to Modi portraying himself as a strong and nationalist leader during his election campaign, he would be politically unable to follow a policy of restraint that India had previously followed after terrorist attacks, and is more likely to have a military response.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi's foreign policy focused on improving economic ties, improving security, and increased regional relations, which is very similar to the policy of the preceding INC government. Modi continued his predecessor Manmohan Singh's policy of "multialignment." This involved the use of regional multilateral institutions and strategic partnerships to further the interests of the Indian government. The Modi administration tried to attract foreign investment in the Indian economy from several sources, especially in East Asia. The Modi government also upgraded several of India's military alliances, although it was unable to conclude negotiations for a trilateral defense agreement with Japan and Australia. As a part of this policy, the Modi government completed India's application to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is led by China and Russia. (SCO). It also joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank founded by China. Together with the US government, it created a "Joint Strategic Vision" for the Indian and Pacific oceans. The government also tried to improve relations with Islamic republics in the Middle East, such as Bahrain, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as with Israel, with the intent to also "link west." Modi added five bilateral strategic partnerships to the 25 that had been agreed by his predecessors Singh and Vajpayee.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: During the first few months after the election, Modi made trips to a number of different countries to further the goals of his policy, and attended the BRICS, ASEAN, and G20 summits. During these visits, Modi attempted to draw further foreign investment in the Indian economy, with the use of slogans such as "Make in India" and "Digital India," put forward during a visit to Silicon Valley. One of Modi's first visits as prime minister was to Nepal, during which he promised a billion USD in aid. Another early visit was to Bhutan. IModi also made several overtures to the United States, including multiple visits to that country. While this was described as an unexpected development, due to the US having previously denied Modi a travel visa over his role during the 2002 Gujarat riots, it was also expected to strengthen diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries. As of July 2016, Modi had made 51 trips to 42 countries with the intent of strengthening diplomatic relations.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In 2015, the Indian parliament ratified a land exchange deal with Bangladesh about the India–Bangladesh enclaves, which had been initiated by the government of Manmohan Singh. Modi's administration gave renewed attention to India's "Look East Policy", instituted in 1991. The policy was renamed the "Act East Policy", and involved directing Indian foreign policy towards East Asia and Southeast Asia. The government signed agreements to improve land connectivity with Myanmar, through the state of Manipur. This represented a break with India's historic engagement with Myanmar, which prioritized border security over trade.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: He coined the concept of "three Ds" — democracy, demography and demand — to reflect the strength of the country.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: During the 2014 election campaign, Modi and the BJP pledged to revisit India's nuclear weapons doctrine, and in particular India's historical policy of no-first-use. The pressure to revise the doctrine came from a desire for assertiveness among Indian government and defence officials. Soon after being sworn in as Prime Minister, Modi said that no revision would take place in the immediate future. The election manifesto of the BJP had also promised to deal with illegal immigration into India in the Northeast, as well as to be more firm in its handling of insurgent groups. During the election campaign, Modi said that he would be willing to accommodate Hindu migrants who were being persecuted in Bangladesh, but those that came with "political objectives" would have to be sent back to Bangladesh. The Modi government issued a notification allowing Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh to legalize their residency in India. The government described the measure as being taken for humanitarian reasons. However, it drew criticism from several Assamese organizations.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi continued the previous INC administration's policy of increasing military spending every year, announcing an increase of 11% in the military budget in 2015. This increase was larger than the average growth under the Congress.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The Modi administration negotiated a peace agreement with the largest faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCM), which was announced in August 2015. The Naga insurgency in northwest India had begun in the 1950s. The NSCM and the government had agreed to a ceasefire in 1997, but a peace accord had not previously been signed. In 2015 the government abrogated a 15-year ceasefire with the Khaplang faction of the NSCM (NSCM-K). The NSCM-K responded with a series of attacks, which killed 18 people. The Modi government carried out a raid across the border with Myanmar as a result, and labelled the NSCM-K a terrorist organization.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi has repeatedly stated that Pakistan was an exporter of terrorism. Modi increased the monetary compensation for victims of terrorist attacks, and stated that citizens of Azad Kashmir could also apply for this compensation. In September 2016, he urged the BRICS to target and destroy funding channels of terrorist groups. On 29 September 2016, the Indian Army stated that it had conducted a surgical strike on terror launchpads in PoK, Pakistan denied the claim which they always do. The details of the confrontation were later released by the Indian Army. Video footages were released of the confrontations.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi also played a crucial role and known for involving in 2017 China–India border standoff at the Doklam making the Defence policy strict against China and also strengthening relations with Bhutan.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The Modi administration has been active in the Defence policy, he has a major concern and soon on 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The attack resulted in the deaths of 46 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and the attacker. The perpetrator of the attack was from Indian-administered Kashmir. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamistterrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed. On 26 February, twelve Mirage 2000 jets of the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control and dropped bombs into Balakot, Pakistan. India claimed that it attacked a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp and killed a large number of terrorists, reported to be between 300 and 350. Pakistan claimed that they quickly scrambled jets to intercept the IAF jets, who dropped their payloads to quickly return over the Line of Control.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: After the 2019 Lok Sabha election win, he made serious and strict defence policy against China and Pakistan.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Following Galwan valley skirmishes, there were made serious policies against China. On 17 June 2020, Modi addressed the nation regarding the Galwan skirmish, giving a firm message directed at China over the deaths of Indian soldiers. The first communication since the start of the border dispute between the foreign ministers of China, Wang Yi and of India, S Jaishankar also happened after the Galwan skirmish. S Jaishankar accused the Chinese actions in Galwan to be "pre-meditated and planned".


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In naming his cabinet, Modi renamed the "Ministry of Environment and Forests" the "Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change." In the first budget of the government, the money allotted to this ministry was reduced by more than 50%. The new ministry also removed or diluted a number of laws related to environmental protection. These included no longer requiring clearance from the National Board for Wildlife for projects close to protected areas, and allowing certain projects to proceed before environmental clearance was received. The government also tried to reconstitute the Wildlife board such that it no longer had representatives from non-governmental organisations: however, this move was prevented by the Supreme court.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi also relaxed or abolished a number of other environmental regulations, particularly those related to industrial activity. A government committee stated that the existing system only served to create corruption and that the government should instead rely on the owners of industries to voluntarily inform the government about the pollution they were creating. The changes were made with the aim of accelerating approval for industrial projects. Other changes included reducing ministry oversight on small mining projects, and no longer requiring approval from tribal councils for projects inside forested areas. In addition, Modi lifted a moratorium on new industrial activity in the most polluted areas in the countries. The changes were welcomed by business people but were criticized by environmentalists.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Under the UPA government that preceded Modi's administration, field trials of Genetically Modified crops had essentially put on hold, after protests from farmers fearing for their livelihoods. Under the Modi government these restrictions were gradually lifted. The government received some criticism for freezing the bank accounts of environmental group Greenpeace, citing financial irregularities, although a leaked government report said that the freeze had to do with Greenpeace's opposition to GM crops.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: At the CoP21 Climate Conference on 30 November 2015 Modi announced the founding of an International Solar Alliance (ISA). The headquarters of the ISA would be located in Gurgaon, and would receive support from the Indian government for a few years. All tropical countries were invited to join the alliance.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: He was also awarded the United Nations Champions of the Earth award in 2018 for his environmental policies.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: In 2022, India was placed at the bottom of the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) getting the lowest rank among 180 countries.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi's first year as prime minister saw significant centralisation of power relative to previous administrations. Modi personally selected the civil servants who served under his ministers, frequently giving them instructions without involving the ministers themselves. Modi's efforts at centralisation have been linked to an increase in the number of senior administration officials resigning their positions. Although the government has a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha, it does not have one in the Rajya Sabha, which led to its policies frequently being stymied there. Thus, Modi resorted to passing a number of ordinances, or executive orders, to enact his policies, leading to further centralisation of power. In 2014, the Prime Minister's Office prevented Gopal Subramaniam from being appointed to the Supreme Court. The stated reason was that his conduct in the 2G spectrum allocation case had been suspect: commentators stated it was because he had been the "amicus curiae" in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, which had implicated BJP leaders including Modi's aide Amit Shah. The government also passed a bill increasing the control that it had over the appointment of judges, and reducing that of the judiciary.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On 31 December 2014, Modi announced that the Planning Commission had been scrapped. It was replaced with a body called the National Institution for Transforming India, or NITI Aayog. The Planning Commission was a legacy of the Indian Independence movement, although critics said that it was slowing economic growth. The new body includes the leaders of all 29 Indian states, but its full-time staff report directly to the prime minister. The move had the effect of greatly centralising the power previously with the planning commission in the person of the prime minister. It also reduced the extent of control individual states had over their financial allocation from the union government, and unlike the planning commission, it does not have the power to allocate funds. The planning commission had received heavy criticism in previous years for creating inefficiency in the government, and of not filling its role of improving social welfare: however, since the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, it had been the major government body responsible for measures related to social justice.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: As Prime Minister, Modi announced the abolition of a number of regulations previously placed on Indian businesses, such as a complex permit and inspection system. The move was aimed at reducing red tape and making it easier to do business. Modi also ordered reform among the bureaucrats of the Indian Administrative Service to ensure a more efficient government bureaucracy.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The Modi government launched a crackdown against a number of civil society organisations. Several tens of thousands of organisations were investigated by the Intelligence Bureau in the first year of the administration, on the grounds that they were slowing economic growth. International humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres was among the groups that were put under pressure. Other organisations affected included the Sierra Club and Avaaz. Cases of sedition were filed against individuals criticising the government. This led to discontent with Modi's style of functioning within the BJP, and drew comparisons to the governing style of Indira Gandhi.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi government has exploited the terrorism prevention law UAPA to intimidate and imprison critics and activists.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in first three years as prime minister, against a total of 1,301 such laws repealed by previous governments over a span of 64 years. The legislations passed in the parliament for the purpose include Repealing and Amending Act, 2015, Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2015, Repealing and Amending Act, 2016, Repealing and Amending Act, 2017 and Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2017.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi launched the Digital India programme, which has the goal of ensuring that government services are available electronically, building infrastructure so rural areas get high-speed Internet access, boosting manufacturing of electronic goods in the country, and promoting digital literacy. Under the programme, 400 railway Stations across the country are being equipped with Wi-Fi technology. In the 2017 Union Budget of India, POS machines, scanners, fingerprint readers, iris scanners and micro ATMs were exempted from all kinds of custom duties. The internet penetration in India rose from 20 percent in 2014 to 28.7 percent in 2016.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: "Unnat Bharat Abhiyan" involve engaging with neighbouring communities and using technologies for their upliftment.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, India saw a decline in media freedom. India fell from 133 out of 180 countries in 2016 to 150 in 2021, in the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: India ranked 46th out of 165 independent countries and two territories in the Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for 2021.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Central investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been instrumentalised for political gains by the Modi government and used against their political opposition. The government has put opposition politicians under house arrest and jailed them in order to prevent them from canvassing or participating in protest movements such as in the cases of TDP politician Nara Lokesh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram. Jaffrelot finds similarities between the way the Modi administration has used investigative agencies, and the use of income-tax raids as a tool of intimidation by the government of Indira Gandhi during the emergency. A pattern of closing cases against political opponents who defect to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has also emerged. The charges of Sharda scam were dropped against Himanta Biswa Sarma when he joined the BJP, cases against Ajit Pawar, Mukul Roy, Y.S. Chowdary and Harshvardhan Patil were also dropped when they defected to the BJP.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: According to the data shared by the Union government in the parliament in July 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered 5,422 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, but only 23 persons have been convicted – less than 0.5% out of which 5,310 cases were under the premiership of Narendra Modi. The government data on convictions by the Income Tax Department is also abysmal. In 6 months between 2018 and 2019, the Income Tax Department had raided the offices of 16 politicians of which 15 belonged to opposition parties. Among the politicians booked, arrested, raided or questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation under the first eight years years of Modi's government, 95% were from the opposition. BJP leaders have boasted about the impunity they get from the investigative agencies and threatening rebels in their party with raids, adds further to the allegations of misuse of investigative agencies under the premiership of Modi.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: Modi's government delayed the release of data on unemployment in 2019. Two members of National Statistical Commission resigned in protest as the release was approved in December 2018 by the commission. The government released the data in May 2019 after the general elections. The government delayed farmer suicide data from 2016 by three years. Before the 2019 general elections, the government did not release data on consumer expenditure, GDP growth, deaths due to lynching, and caste census from 2011.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: The government withheld National Crime Records Bureau data for 2017., discontinued Labour Bureau’s quarterly enterprises survey and the Employment-Unemployment Survey, and instead plan to rely on provident fund data for calculation of unemployment, which is widely criticized.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: During the second wave of the pandemic in April 2021, Modi's government launched a new policy for vaccines which allowed Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to earn huge profit margins making vaccine doses distributed by the private hospitals unaffordable for working class families in India. The requirement to book the vaccination slots online excluded many Indians who did not have smartphones or internet access.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many estimates, including by The Lancet and World Health Organization, say India undercounted number of deaths, ranging from a factor of 5 to 10 times.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: On January 30, 2022, India announced that it administered about 1.7 billion doses of vaccines and more than 720 million people were fully vaccinated.


title: Premiership of Narendra Modi

text: According to a 2022 study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, over 4.2 million lives were saved in India in 2021 due to vaccination against Covid-19.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major influence for many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretative styles.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1922 and 1945, and from 1952 until 1954. He was also principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (1922–26), and was a guest conductor of other major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Although not an adherent of Nazism, he was the leading conductor to remain in Germany during the Nazi regime. Despite his open opposition to antisemitism and the ubiquity of Nazi symbolism, the regime did not seek to suppress him, at Joseph Goebbels' insistence, for propaganda reasons. This situation caused lasting controversy, and the extent to which his presence lent prestige to Nazi Germany is still debated.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Wilhelm Furtwängler was born in Schöneberg (now a district/borough of Berlin) into a prominent family. His father Adolf was an archaeologist, his mother a painter. Most of his childhood was spent in Munich, where his father taught at the city's Ludwig Maximilian University. He was given a musical education from an early age, and developed an early love of Ludwig van Beethoven, a composer with whose works he remained closely associated throughout his life.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Although Furtwängler achieved fame chiefly from his conducting, he regarded himself foremost as a composer. He began conducting in order to perform his own works. By age of twenty, he had composed several works. However, they were not well received, and that, combined with the financial insecurity of a career as a composer, led him to concentrate on conducting. He made his conducting debut with the Kaim Orchestra (now the Munich Philharmonic) in Anton Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. He subsequently held conducting posts at Munich, Strasbourg, Lübeck, Mannheim, Frankfurt, and Vienna.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwangler succeeded Artur Bodanzky as principal conductor of the Mannheim Opera and Music Academy in 1915, remaining until 1920. As a boy he had sometimes stayed with his grandmother in Mannheim. Through her family he met the Geissmars, a Jewish family who were leading lawyers and amateur musicians in the town. Berta Geissmar wrote, "Furtwängler became so good at [skiing] as to attain almost professional skill...Almost every sport appealed to him: he loved tennis, sailing and swimming...He was a good horseman..." She also reports that he was a strong mountain climber and hiker.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Berta Geissmar subsequently became his secretary and business manager, in Mannheim and later in Berlin, until she was forced to leave Germany in 1935. From 1921 onwards, Furtwängler shared holidays in the Engadin with Berta and her mother. In 1924 he bought a house there. After he married, the house was open to a wide circle of friends.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In 1920 he was appointed conductor of the Berlin Staatskapelle succeeding Richard Strauss. In January 1922, following the sudden death of Arthur Nikisch, he was appointed to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, again in succession to Nikisch. Furtwängler made his London debut in 1924, and continued to appear there before the outbreak of World War II as late as 1938, when he conducted Richard Wagner's "Ring". (Furtwängler later conducted in London many times between 1948 and 1954). In 1925 he appeared as guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, making return visits in the following two years.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In January 1945 Furtwängler fled to Switzerland. It was during this period that he completed what is considered his most significant composition, the Symphony No. 2 in E minor. It was given its premiere in 1948 by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Furtwängler's direction and was recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Following the war, he resumed performing and recording, and remained a popular conductor in Europe, although his actions in the 1930s and 40s were a subject of ongoing criticism. He died in 1954 in Ebersteinburg, close to Baden-Baden. He is buried in the Heidelberg Bergfriedhof. His second wife Elisabeth died in 2013, aged 103, outliving him by 59 years.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler's relationship with and attitudes towards Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were a matter of much controversy.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was very critical of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, and was convinced that Hitler would not stay in power for long. He had said of Hitler in 1932, "This hissing street pedlar will never get anywhere in Germany".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: As Nazi Germany increased the persecution of Jews, Jewish musicians were forced out of work and began to leave Germany. The Nazis were aware that Furtwängler was opposed to the policies and might also decide to go abroad, so the Berlin Philharmonic, which employed many Jews, was exempted from the policies. In 1933, when Bruno Walter was dismissed from his position as principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Nazis asked Furtwängler to replace him for an international tour. Their goal was to show to the world that Germany did not need Jewish musicians. Furtwängler refused, and it was Richard Strauss who replaced Walter.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: On 10 April 1933, Furtwängler wrote a public letter to Goebbels to denounce the new rulers' antisemitism:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: As stated by the historian F. Prieberg, this letter proved that if the concepts of nation and patriotism had a deep meaning for him, "it is clear that race meant nothing to him".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In June 1933, for a text which was to be the basis for a discussion with Goebbels, Furtwängler went further, writing, "The Jewish question in musical spheres: a race of brilliant people!" He threatened that if boycotts against Jews were extended to artistic activities, he would resign all his posts immediately, concluding that "at any rate to continue giving concerts would be quite impossible without <nowiki>[the Jews]</nowiki> – to remove them would be an operation which would result in the death of the patient."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Because of his high profile, Furtwängler's public opposition prompted a mixed reaction from the Nazi leadership. Heinrich Himmler wished to send Furtwängler to a concentration camp. Goebbels and Göring ordered their administration to listen to Furtwängler's requests and to give him the impression that they would do what he asked. This led him to believe that he had some positive influence to stop the racial policy. He subsequently invited several Jewish and anti-fascist artists (such as Yehudi Menuhin, Artur Schnabel, and Pablo Casals) to perform as soloists in his 1933/34 season, but they refused to come to Nazi Germany. Furtwängler subsequently invited Jewish musicians from his orchestra such as Szymon Goldberg to play as soloists.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The Gestapo built a case against Furtwängler, noting that he was providing assistance to Jews. Furtwängler gave all his fees to German emigrants during his concerts outside Germany. The German literary scholar Hans Mayer was one of these emigrants. Mayer later observed that for performances of Wagner operas in Paris prior to the war, Furtwängler cast only German emigrants (Jews or political opponents to the Nazis) to sing. Georg Gerullis, a director at the Ministry of Culture remarked in a letter to Goebbels, "Can you name me a Jew on whose behalf Furtwängler has not intervened?"


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler never joined the Nazi Party. He refused to give the Nazi salute, to conduct the Horst-Wessel-Lied, or to sign his letters with "Heil Hitler", even those he wrote to Hitler. F. Prieberg has found all the letters from the conductor to the dictator: these are always requests for an audience to defend Jewish musicians or musicians considered to be "degenerate". The fact that he refused to sign by 'Heil Hitler' was considered a major affront by the Nazi leadership and explains that many of these requests for a hearing were refused. However, Furtwängler was appointed as the first vice-president of the "Reichsmusikkammer" and "Staatsrat of Prussia", and accepted these honorary positions to try to bend the racial policy of Nazis in music and to support Jewish musicians. For concerts in London and Paris before the war, Furtwängler refused to conduct the Nazi anthems or to play music in halls adorned with swastikas. During the universal exposition held in Paris in 1937, a picture of the German delegation was taken in front of the Arc de Triomphe. In the picture, Furtwängler is the only German not giving the Nazi salute (he has his hand on his shoulder). This picture was suppressed at the time. The photo was, moreover, carefully preserved by the Gestapo, providing new proof that Furtwängler was opposed to Nazi policy.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In 1933, Furtwängler met with Hitler to try to stop the new antisemitic policy in the domain of music. He had prepared a list of significant Jewish musicians: these included the composer Arnold Schoenberg, the musicologist Curt Sachs, the violinist Carl Flesch, and Jewish members of the Berlin Philharmonic. Hitler did not listen to Furtwängler, who lost patience, and the meeting became a shouting match. Berta Geissmar wrote, "After the audience, he told me that he knew now what was behind Hitler's narrow-minded measures. This is not only antisemitism, but the rejection of any form of artistic, philosophical thought, the rejection of any form of free culture..."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: On 26 April 1933, Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic performed a joint concert in Mannheim with the local orchestra to mark the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death and to raise money for the Mannheim orchestra. The concert had been organised before the Nazis came to power. The Nazified Mannheim Orchestra Committee demanded that the Jewish leader of the Berlin orchestra, Szymon Goldberg, give way to the leader of the Mannheim orchestra for the evening. Furtwängler refused, and the concert took place as planned.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Before the banquet organized for the evening, members of the Mannheim Orchestra Committee came to remonstrate with Furtwängler, accusing him of "a lack of national sentiment". Furtwängler furiously left before the banquet to rejoin Berta Geissmar and her mother. The fact that Furtwängler had preferred to spend the evening with his "Jewish friends" rather than with Nazi authorities caused a controversy. He subsequently refused to conduct again in Mannheim, only returning 21 years later in 1954.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In 1934, Furtwängler publicly described Hitler as an "enemy of the human race" and the political situation in Germany as a "Schweinerei" ("disgrace", literally: "swinishness").


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: On 25 November 1934, he wrote a letter in the "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung", "Der Fall Hindemith" ("The Hindemith Case"), in support of the composer Paul Hindemith. Hindemith had been labelled a degenerate artist by the Nazis. Furtwängler also conducted a piece by Hindemith, "Mathis der Maler", although the work had been banned by the Nazis. The concert received enormous acclaim and unleashed a political storm. The Nazis (especially Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party's chief racial theorist) formed a violent conspiracy against the conductor, who resigned from his official positions, including his titles as vice-president of the "Reichsmusikkammer" and of "Staatsrat of Prussia". His resignation from the latter position was refused by Göring. He was also forced by Goebbels to give up all his artistic positions.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler decided to leave Germany, but the Nazis prevented him. They seized the opportunity to Aryanise the orchestra and its administrative staff. Most of the Jewish musicians of the orchestra had already left the country and found positions outside Germany, with Furtwängler's assistance.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The main target of the Nazis was Berta Geissmar. She was so close to the conductor that she wrote in her book about Furtwängler that the Nazis had begun an investigation to know if she was his mistress. After being harassed for a period of two years, she moved to London when she became Sir Thomas Beecham's main assistant. In the book she wrote on Furtwängler in England in 1943, she said:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler, although he had decided to remain in Germany, was certainly no Nazi [...] He had a private telephone line to me which was not connected "via" the exchange [...] Before going to bed, he used to chat with me over telephone. Sometimes I told him amusing stories to cheer him up, sometimes we talked about politics. One of the main threats the Nazis used against Furtwängler and myself later on was the assertion that they had recorded all these conversations. I should not have thought that it was possible! Was there enough shellac? If the Nazis really did this, their ears must certainly have burnt, and it was not surprising that Furtwängler was eventually put on their black list, let alone myself.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Goebbels refused to meet Furtwängler to clarify his situation for several months. During the same period, many members of the orchestra and of his public were begging him not to emigrate and desert them. In addition, Goebbels sent him a clear signal that if he left Germany he would never be allowed back, frightening him with the prospect of permanent separation from his mother (to whom he was very close) and his children. Furtwängler considered himself responsible for the Berlin Philharmonic and for his family, and decided to stay.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: On 28 February 1935, Furtwängler met Goebbels, who wanted to keep Furtwängler in Germany, since he considered him, like Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner, a "national treasure". Goebbels asked him to pledge allegiance publicly to the new regime. Furtwängler refused. Goebbels then proposed that Furtwängler acknowledge publicly that Hitler was in charge of cultural policy. Furtwängler accepted: Hitler was a dictator and controlled everything in the country. But he added that it must be clear that he wanted nothing to do with the policy and that he would remain as a non-political artist, without any official position. The agreement was reached. Goebbels made an announcement declaring that Furtwängler's article on Hindemith was not political: Furtwängler had spoken only from an artistic point of view, and it was Hitler who was in charge of the cultural policy in Germany.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Goebbels did not reveal the second part of the deal. However, the agreement between them was largely respected. At his subsequent denazification trial, Furtwängler was charged with conducting only two official concerts for the period 1933–1945. Furtwängler appeared in only two short propaganda films.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Other Nazi leaders were not satisfied with the compromise, since they believed that Furtwängler had not capitulated: Rosenberg demanded in vain that Furtwängler apologise to the regime. Goebbels, who wanted to keep Furtwängler in Germany, wrote in his diary that he was satisfied with the deal and laughed at "the incredible naïvety of artists".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Hitler now allowed him to have a new passport. When they met again in April, Hitler attacked Furtwängler for his support of modern music, and made him withdraw from regular conducting for the time being, save for his scheduled appearance at Bayreuth. However, Hitler confirmed that Furtwängler would not be given any official titles, and would be treated as a private individual. But Hitler refused Furtwängler's request to announce this, saying that it would be harmful for the "prestige of the State".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler resumed conducting. On 25 April 1935, he returned to the Berlin Philharmonic with a program dedicated to Beethoven. Many people who had boycotted the orchestra during his absence came to the concert to support him. He was called out seventeen times. On 3 May, in his dressing room before conducting the same program, he was informed that Hitler and his entire staff would attend the concert. He was given the order to welcome Hitler with the Nazi salute. Furtwängler was so furious that he ripped the wooden panelling off a radiator. Franz Jastrau, the manager of the orchestra, suggested that he keep his baton in his right hand all the time. When he entered the hall, all the Nazi leaders were present making the Hitler salute, but Furtwängler kept hold of his baton and began the concert immediately. Hitler probably could not have imagined that such an affront was possible but decided to put up a good show: he sat down and the concert went on.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: At the end of the concert, Furtwängler continued to keep his baton in his right hand. Hitler understood the situation and jumped up and demonstratively held out his right hand to him. The same situation occurred during another concert later on, when a photographer had been mobilized by the Nazis for the occasion: the photo of the famous handshake between Furtwängler and Hitler was distributed everywhere by Goebbels. Goebbels had obtained what he desired: to keep Furtwängler in Germany and to give the impression to those who were not well informed (especially outside the country) that Furtwängler was now a supporter of the regime.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler wrote in his diary in 1935 that there was a complete contradiction between the racial ideology of the Nazis and the true German culture, the one of Schiller, Goethe and Beethoven. He added in 1936: "living today is more than ever a question of courage".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In September 1935, the baritone Oskar Jölli, a member of the Nazi party, reported to the Gestapo that Furtwängler had said, "Those in power should all be shot, and things in Germany would not change until this was done". Hitler forbade him to conduct for several months, until Furtwängler's fiftieth birthday in January 1936. Hitler and Goebbels allowed him to conduct again and offered him presents: Hitler an annual pension of 40,000 Reichsmarks, and Goebbels an ornate baton made of gold and ivory. Furtwängler refused them.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was offered the principal conductor's post at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which was then the most desirable and best paid position in international musical life. He was to have followed Arturo Toscanini, who had declared that Furtwängler was the only man to succeed him. Furtwängler accepted the post, but his telephone conversations were recorded by the Gestapo.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: While Furtwängler was travelling, the Berlin branch of the Associated Press leaked a news story on Hermann Göring's orders. It suggested Furtwängler would probably be reappointed as director of the Berlin State Opera and of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This caused the mood in New York to turn against him: it seemed that Furtwängler was now a supporter of the Nazi Party. On reading the American press reaction, Furtwängler chose not to accept the position in New York. Nor did he accept any position at the Berlin Opera.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler included Jewish and other non-Aryan musicians during his overseas tours in the 1930s. This was the case in France in April 1934 where he conducted operas by Wagner. Hans Mayer, a professor of literature, a communist Jew exiled from Germany, reported after the war that Furtwängler had voluntarily chosen a cast made up almost entirely of Jews or of people driven out of Germany during these concerts. Likewise, during the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1937, Furtwängler performed a series of Wagnerian concerts which were a triumph. Goebbels announced in the German press that Furtwängler and Wagner had been acclaimed in Paris. In fact, those who made Furtwängler a triumph were precisely German exiles, including many Jews, who lived in Paris and who saw Furtwängler as a symbol of anti-Nazi Germany. Furtwängler also refused to conduct the Nazi anthem and demanded that all swastikas be removed from his concert halls The Nazis realized and complained that Furtwängler did not bring back any money from his tours abroad. They initially believed that Furtwängler was spending everything for him, and later realized that he was giving all the money to the German emigrants. It confirmed after the war that the conductor gave them everything he had "to the last penny" when he met them. Furtwängler always refused to practice the Nazi salute and conduct the Nazi hymns. When the Berlin orchestra performed abroad, he had to start the concert with the Nazi anthem Horst-Wessel-Lied. As the English and French could see during the period 1935–1939, Furtwängler was replaced by the steward Hans von Benda and only entered the room afterwards.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler conducted at the Bayreuth festival in 1936 for the first time since 1931, in spite of his poor relationship with Winifred Wagner. Here, he conducted a new staging of "Lohengrin" (the first time this work was performed at the festival since 1909) for which Hitler ensured no expense was spared; the costume and set design were on a larger and more expensive scale than anything previously seen at Bayreuth. This performance was broadcast throughout Europe and in the Americas, and was used as part of a propaganda effort intended to portray the "New Germany" as the triumphant inheritor of the German musical tradition rather than a break from the past, to which Furtwängler's place at the podium was instrumental. Both Hitler and Goebbels attended the festival and attempted to force him to accept an official position. Friedelind Wagner, the composer's anti-Nazi granddaughter, witnessed a meeting between Hitler and Furtwängler at her mother's Bayreuth home:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: I remember Hitler turning to Furtwängler and telling him that he would now have to allow himself to be used by the party for propaganda purposes, and I remember that Furtwängler refused categorically. Hitler flew into a fury and told Furtwängler that in that case there would be a concentration camp ready for him. Furtwängler quietly replied: "In that case, Herr Reichskanzler, at least I will be in very good company." Hitler couldn't even answer, and vanished from the room.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler avoided the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and canceled all his public engagements during the following winter season in order to compose. He returned to the Berlin Philharmonic in 1937, performing with them in London for the coronation of George VI, and in Paris for the universal exposition, where he again refused to conduct the Horst-Wessel-Lied or to attend the political speeches of German officials.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The Salzburg Festival was considered to be a festival of the "free world" and a centre for anti-fascist artists. Hitler had forbidden all German musicians from performing there. In 1937, Furtwängler was asked to conduct Beethoven's ninth symphony in Salzburg. Despite strong opposition from Hitler and Goebbels, he accepted the invitation.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Arturo Toscanini, a prominent anti-fascist, was furious to learn that Furtwängler would be at the Festival. He accepted his engagement in Salzburg on the condition that he would not have to meet Furtwängler. But the two did meet, and argued over Furtwängler's actions. Toscanini argued: "I know quite well that you are not a member of the Party. I am also aware that you have helped your Jewish friends [...] But everyone who conducts in the Third Reich is a Nazi!". Furtwängler emphatically denied this and said: "By that, you imply that art and music are merely propaganda, a false front, as it were, for any Government which happens to be in power. If a Nazi Government is in power, then, as a conductor, I am a Nazi; under the communists, I would be a Communist; under the democrats, a democrat... No, a thousand times no! Music belongs to a different world, and is above chance political events." Toscanini disagreed and that ended the discussion.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler returned to the Bayreuth festival, his relationship with Winifred Wagner worse than ever. He did not appear again in Bayreuth until 1943. He wrote a letter to Winifred Wagner, sending copies to Hitler, Göring and Goebbels, accusing her of having betrayed Wagner's heritage by applying racial and not artistic rules in the choice of the artists, and of putting her "trust in the powers of an authoritarian state". This clear attack on Hitler caused a sharp reaction: Hitler wanted to drop Furtwängler from Bayreuth after all. Goebbels wrote in two entries of his diary in 1937 that Furtwängler was constantly helping Jews, "half-Jews" and "his small Hindemith".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: According to the historian Fred Prieberg, by the end of 1937 nobody who was correctly informed could accuse Furtwängler of working for the Nazis. (This citation is incorrect, Prieberg does not state this on this page. For the Nazi leadership, especially for Hitler, it became necessary to prove to him that he was not irreplaceable.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The Nazi leaders searched for another conductor to counterbalance Furtwängler. A young, gifted Austrian conductor now appeared in Nazi Germany: Herbert von Karajan. Karajan had been a member of the Nazi Party since 1935, and was much more willing to participate in the propaganda of the new regime than Furtwängler.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler had attended several of his concerts, praising his technical gifts but criticizing his conducting style; he did not consider him a serious competitor. However, when Karajan conducted "Fidelio" and "Tristan und Isolde" in Berlin in late 1938, Göring decided to take the initiative. The music critic Edwin von der Nüll wrote a review of these concerts with the support of Göring. Its title, "The Karajan Miracle", was a reference to the famous article "The Furtwängler Miracle" that had made Furtwängler famous as a young conductor in Mannheim. Von der Nüll championed Karajan saying, "A thirty-year-old man creates a performance for which our great fifty-year-olds can justifiably envy him". Furtwängler's photo was printed next to the article, making the reference clear.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The article was part of a broader attack made against Furtwängler. The Nazi press criticized him for being "a man of the Nineteenth century" whose political ideas were obsolete and who did not understand and accept the new changes in Germany. The situation became intolerable for Furtwängler. He obtained from Goebbels a pledge to cease these attacks.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: However, Furtwängler's position was weakened: he knew that if he left Germany, Karajan would immediately become the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. It was the beginning of an obsessive hate and contempt for Karajan that never left him until his death. He often refused to call Karajan by his name, calling him simply "Herr K". Hitler's opinion was that even if Furtwängler was infinitely better than Karajan as a conductor, it was necessary to keep Karajan "in reserve" since Furtwängler was "not politically trustworthy".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was very affected by the events of "Kristallnacht". Berta Geissmar, who met him in Paris, described him as "greatly depressed". Friedelind Wagner, who saw him also in Paris, wrote that he was a "very unhappy man". Andrew Schulhof, who met him in Budapest said that "he had the impression that what he had done before for his Jewish friends had been lost".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler approved of the "Anschluss" that had occurred on 12 March 1938. But he quickly disagreed with the Nazi leaders' decision to "annex Austrian culture" by abolishing independent cultural activity in Austria and subordinating it to Berlin. Just after the Anschluss, Furtwängler discovered that a huge Swastika flag was displayed in the hall of the Musikverein. He refused to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic "as long as the rag is visible". The flag was finally removed.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Goebbels wanted to eliminate the Vienna Philharmonic and to convert the Vienna Opera and the Salzburg Festival into branches of the Berlin Opera and the Bayreuth Festival respectively. In addition, he wished to confiscate the largest musical collection in the world, belonging to the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" in Vienna and to move it to Berlin. Hitler's goal was to deny that Austria had developed its own culture independently of Germany. Austrian musical circles asked Furtwängler, who was the honorary president of the Vienna "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde", to help them.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler campaigned to convince Nazi leaders to abandon their plans. According to historian Fred K. Prieberg, he conducted concerts (often with the Vienna Philharmonic) in the presence of German leaders during this period in exchange for the conservation of the orchestra. He organized several concerts of Austrian music in Berlin and Vienna for Hitler, to highlight Austrian culture. The Nazi leadership, who wanted to take advantage of this situation, invited Furtwängler in 1938 to conduct "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" with the Vienna Philharmonic in Nürnberg for the Nazi party congress. Furtwängler accepted to conduct, as long as the performance was not during the party congress. Hitler eventually accepted Furtwängler's conditions: the concert took place on 5 September and the political event was formally opened the following morning. This concert, along with one given in Berlin in 1942 for Hitler's birthday, led to heavy criticism of Furtwängler after the war. However, Furtwängler had managed not to participate in the party congress. He had also succeeded in conserving the Vienna Philharmonic, and the musical collections of Vienna and the Vienna Opera, where he persuaded Hitler and Goebbels to agree to the appointment of Karl Böhm as artistic director. At the Vienna Philharmonic, as at the Berlin Philharmonic, Furtwängler succeeded in protecting 'half-Jews' or members with 'non-aryan' wives until the end of the war (these were exceptional cases in Germany during the Nazi period). However, in contrast to his experience with the Berlin Philharmonic, he could not save the lives of 'full-blooded' Jews: they were persecuted, with a number dying in concentration camps.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Goebbels was satisfied that Furtwängler had conducted the concerts in Vienna, Prague and Nürnberg, thinking that these concerts gave a "cultural" justification to the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. During this period he said that Furtwängler was "willing to place himself at my disposal for any of my activities", describing him as "an out-and-out chauvinist". However, he regularly complained that Furtwängler was helping Jews and 'half-Jews', and his complaints continued during the war. Goebbels wrote in his diary that Furtwängler's goal was to bypass Nazi cultural policy. For instance, Goebbels wrote that Furtwängler supported the Salzburg festival to counterbalance the Bayreuth festival, a keystone of the Nazi regime.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was very affected by the events of the 1930s. Fred K. Prieberg describes Furtwängler in 1939 as a "broken man". The French government awarded him the Legion of Honour in 1939, which may support the theory that western diplomatic services knew Furtwängler was not a supporter of the Nazi regime. Hitler forbade news of the award to be spread in Germany.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: During the war, Furtwängler tried to avoid conducting in occupied Europe. He said: "I will never play in a country such as France, which I am so much attached to, considering myself a 'vanquisher'. I will conduct there again only when the country has been liberated". He refused to go to France during its occupation, although the Nazis tried to force him to conduct there. Since he had said that he would conduct there only at the invitation of the French, Goebbels forced the French conductor Charles Munch to send him a personal invitation. But Munch wrote in small characters at the bottom of his letter "in agreement with the German occupation authorities." Furtwängler declined the invitation.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler did conduct in Prague in November 1940 and March 1944. The 1940 program, chosen by Furtwängler, included Smetana's "Moldau". According to Prieberg, "This piece is part of the cycle in which the Czech master celebrated 'Má vlast (My Country), and [...] was intended to support his compatriots' fight for the independence from Austrian domination [...] When Furtwängler began with the 'Moldau' it was not a deliberate risk, but a statement of his stance towards the oppressed Czechs". The 1944 concert marked the fifth anniversary of the German occupation and was the result of a deal between Furtwängler and Goebbels: Furtwängler did not want to perform in April for Hitler's birthday in Berlin. He said to Goebbels in March (as he had in April 1943) that he was sick. Goebbels asked him to perform in Prague instead, where he conducted the Symphony No. 9 of Antonín Dvořák. He conducted in Oslo in 1943, where he helped the Jewish conductor Issay Dobrowen to flee to Sweden.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In April 1942, Furtwängler conducted a performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic for Hitler's birthday. At least the final minutes of the performance were filmed and can be seen on YouTube. At the end, Goebbels came to the front of the stage to shake Furtwängler's hand. This concert led to heavy criticism of Furtwängler after the war. In fact, Furtwängler had planned several concerts in Vienna during this period to avoid this celebration. But after the defeat of the German army during the Battle of Moscow, Goebbels had decided to make a long speech on the eve of Hitler's birthday to galvanize the German nation. The speech would be followed by Beethoven's ninth symphony. Goebbels wanted Furtwängler to conduct the symphony by whatever means to give a transcendent dimension to the event. He called Furtwängler shortly before to ask him to agree to conduct the symphony but the latter refused arguing that he had no time to rehearse and that he had to perform several concerts in Vienna. But Goebbels forced the organizers in Vienna (by threatening them: some were physically assaulted by the Nazis) to cancel the concerts and ordered Furtwängler to return to Berlin In 1943 and 1944, Furtwängler provided false medical certificates in advance to be sure that such a situation would not happen again.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: It is now known that Furtwängler continued to use his influence to help Jewish musicians and non-musicians escape Nazi Germany. He managed to have Max Zweig, a nephew of conductor Fritz Zweig, released from Dachau concentration camp. Others, from an extensive list of Jews he helped, included Carl Flesch, Josef Krips and the composer Arnold Schoenberg.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler refused to participate in the propaganda film "Philharmoniker". Goebbels wanted Furtwängler to feature in it, but Furtwängler declined to take part. The film was finished in December 1943 showing many conductors connected with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, including Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, Hans Knappertsbusch, and Richard Strauss, but not Furtwängler. Goebbels also asked Furtwängler to direct the music in a film about Beethoven, again for propaganda purposes. They quarrelled violently about this project. Furtwängler told him "You are wrong, "Herr Minister", if you think you can exploit Beethoven in a film." Goebbels gave up his plans for the film.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler has never been a National Socialist. Nor has he ever made any bones about it, which Jews and emigrants thought was sufficient to consider him as one of them, a key representative of so-called 'inner emigration'. Furtwängler['s] stance towards us has not changed in the least.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Friedelind Wagner (an outspoken opponent of the Nazis) reported a conversation with her mother Winifred Wagner during the war, to the effect that Hitler did not trust or like Furtwängler, and that Göring and Goebbels were upset with Furtwängler's continuous support for his "undesirable friends". Yet Hitler, in gratitude for Furtwängler's refusal to leave Berlin even when it was being bombed, ordered Albert Speer to build a special air raid shelter for the conductor and his family. Furtwängler refused it, but the shelter was nevertheless built in the house against his will. Speer related that in December 1944 Furtwängler asked whether Germany had any chance of winning the war. Speer replied in the negative, and advised him to flee to Switzerland from possible Nazi retribution. In 1944, he was the only prominent German artist who refused to sign the brochure 'We Stand and Fall with Adolf Hitler'.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler's name was included on the Gottbegnadeten list ("God-gifted List") of September 1944 as one of only three musicians in the special category designated as "unersetzliche Künstler" ("indispensable artists"; the others were Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner). He was removed on 7 December 1944, however, because of his relationships with German resistance. Furtwängler had strong links to the German resistance which organized the 20 July plot. He stated during his denazification trial that he knew an attack was being organized against Hitler, although he did not participate in its organization. He knew Claus von Stauffenberg very well and his doctor, Johannes Ludwig Schmitt, who wrote him many false health prescriptions to bypass official requirements, was a member of the Kreisau Circle. Furtwängler's concerts were sometimes chosen by the members of the German resistance as a meeting point. Rudolf Pechel, a member of the resistance group which organized the 20 July plot said to Furtwängler after the war: "In the circle of our resistance movement it was an accepted fact that you were the only one in the whole of our musical world who really resisted, and you were one of us." Graf Kaunitz, also a member of that circle, stated: "In Furtwängler's concerts we were one big family of the resistance."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Grove Online states that Furtwängler was "within a few hours of being arrested" by the Gestapo when he fled to Switzerland, following a concert in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic on 28 January 1945. The Nazis had begun to crack down on German liberals. At the concert he conducted Brahms's Second Symphony, which was recorded and is considered one of his greatest performances.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In February 1946, Furtwängler met in Vienna a German Jew by the name of Curt Riess who had fled Germany in 1933. The latter was a musician and writer, he later wrote a book on Furtwängler. Riess was then a journalist and correspondent in Switzerland for American newspapers. He thought Furtwängler was a Nazi collaborator and objected to having Furtwängler directing in Switzerland in 1945. Furtwängler asked to meet him and when Riess had studied all the documents concerning Furtwängler, he completely changed his mind. Realizing that Furtwängler had never been a Nazi and had helped many people of Jewish origin, he became his "denazification advisor". A long friendship ensued and Curt Riess spent the next two years doing everything to get Furtwängler exonerated. As Roger Smithson writes at the conclusion of his article "Furtwängler, The Years of Silence (1945-1947)": "Ultimately Furtwängler's return to conducting was very largely the result of skill and stubbornness of Curt Riess. Furtwängler's admirers owe him a great debt".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler initially wanted Curt Riess to write articles about him based on the many documents he had provided him because Curt Riess was a journalist. However, Curt Riess preferred to go himself to meet General Robert A. McClure who was in charge of the Furtwängler file. The general, after meeting Riess and having all the documents translated into English, admitted that no serious charge could be brought against Furtwängler and that they had made a mistake concerning the conductor who was "a very good man". He asked Riess to tell Furtwängler not to speak to the press, so as not to give the impression that he was exerting pressure on the Allied forces. He said the case would be closed within weeks. Riess sent a telegram to Furtwängler to this effect, but the telegram took a long time to reach its destination and arrived too late.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In the meantime, Furtwängler had made a very serious mistake: he had gone to Berlin, which was occupied by the Soviets. The latter received him as a Head of State because they wanted to recover the one that Arsenyi Gouliga, the representative of the Soviet Union at the Furtwängler trial, called the "greatest conductor in the world" to lead a great cultural policy in Berlin. Precisely, the Soviets offered the post of director of the Berlin State Opera, which was in the Soviet zone, to Furtwängler. General Robert A. McClure was forced to pass Furtwängler by the normal denazification procedure. He explained to Curt Riess, by telephone, that otherwise it gave the impression that the Americans had ceded to the Soviets on the Furtwängler file. The American authorities knew that the conductor would necessarily be cleared by the denazification court and the Soviet authorities declared that this trial made no sense and was "ridiculous". Thus, with the backdrop of the Cold War, Furtwängler, who absolutely wanted to recover the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra which was in the British occupation zone, was obliged to go through the denazification court.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler was thus required to submit to a process of denazification. The charges were very low. He was charged with having conducted two official Nazi concerts during the period 1933–1945. Furtwängler declared that for two concerts that had been "extorted" from him, he had avoided sixty. The first was for the Hitler Youth on 3 February 1938. It was presented to Furtwängler as a way to acquaint younger generations with classical music. According to Fred Prieberg: "when he looked at the audience he realized that this was more than just a concert for school kids in uniform; a whole collection of prominent political figures were sitting there as well [...] and it was the last time he raised his baton for this purpose".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The second concert was the performance of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" with the Vienna Philharmonic on 5 September 1938, on the evening before the Nazi congress in Nüremberg. Furtwängler had agreed to conduct this concert to help preserve the Vienna Philharmonic, and at his insistence the concert was not part of the congress.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: He was charged for his honorary title of "Prussian State Counselor" () (he had resigned from this title in 1934, but the Nazis had refused his resignation) and with making an anti-semitic remark against the part-Jewish conductor Victor de Sabata (see below). The chair of the commission, Alex Vogel, known for being a communist, started the trial with the following statement:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: "The investigations showed that Furtwängler had not been a member of any [Nazi] organization, that he tried to help people persecuted because of their race, and that he also avoided... formalities such as giving the Hitler salute."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The prosecution believed it had something more substantial because Hans von Benda, a former member of the Nazi Party who had been the artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Nazi period and had therefore been in constant contact with Furtwängler for many years, absolutely wanted to testify to accuse Furtwängler of anti-Semitism. He said he heard, during an argument with another German musician, that Furtwängler allegedly said: "a Jew like Sabata cannot play Brahms' music" . This story soon became ridiculous: Furtwängler had played Brahms' music with many Jewish musicians (especially those from his orchestra). This was either a mistake or a misunderstanding: Furtwängler probably had no anti-Semitic feelings towards Sabata who had been his friend. On the other hand, Hans von Benda was forced to admit that he was not directly present when Furtwängler allegedly spoke these words, and his testimony was therefore not taken seriously by the prosecution.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The reason for Hans von Benda's behavior was as follows: he had been dismissed from his post as artistic director of the Berlin Orchestra on 22 December 1939 for numerous serious professional misconduct. He had wished to take the opportunity of the lawsuit for take revenge on Furtwängler, considering him responsible for his dismissal because he would have supported Karajan, a version very strongly contested by Furtwängler and his wife. Moreover, historian Fred Prieberg has proved that, on the contrary, Hans von Benda had never ceased to send information to the Nazis (to denounce it) proving that Furtwängler was helping Jews and opposing their policies.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Two of the main people who prepared Furtwängler's defense for his denazification trial were two German Jews who had to flee the Nazi regime: his secretary Berta Geissmar and Curt Riess. The two had very different backgrounds. Berta Geissmar knew Furtwängler personally and had witnessed everything he did at the start of the Nazi period; she left Germany in 1936 but returned from exile. Curt Riess didn't know Furtwängler at all and initially had a very negative outlook on the conductor. Geissmar had collected hundreds of files to prepare the conductor's defense, files which contained a list of over 80 Jewish and non-Jewish people who had claimed to have been helped or saved by him. This list was not exhaustive, but it concerned cases where Geissmar had managed to find indisputable concrete evidence. Among the many people involved were Communists, Social Democrats, as well as former Nazis whom the regime had turned against. Berta Geissmar had forwarded the documents to General Robert A. McClure in charge of the Furtwängler trial, but the documents had mysteriously disappeared in Berlin, when they were to be handed over to the general of the American zone of occupation. Curt Riess also did not find these documents in the Washington archives. Furtwängler therefore found himself without a means of proving the help he had given to many people. However, three people of Jewish origin had made the trip to Berlin and certified on 17 December 1946, the second day of the trial, that Furtwängler had risked his life to protect them. One of them was Paul Heizberg, former opera director. The other two were members of the Philharmonic such as Hugo Strelitzer, who declared:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: If I am alive today, I owe this to this great man. Furtwängler helped and protected a great number of Jewish musicians and this attitude shows a great deal of courage since he did it under the eyes of the Nazis, in Germany itself. History will be his judge.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: I knew Germany was in a terrible crisis; I felt responsible for German music, and it was my task to survive this crisis, as much as I could. The concern that my art was misused for propaganda had to yield to the greater concern that German music be preserved, that music be given to the German people by its own musicians. These people, the compatriots of Bach and Beethoven, of Mozart and Schubert, still had to go on living under the control of a regime obsessed with total war. No one who did not live here himself in those days can possibly judge what it was like. Does Thomas Mann [who was critical of Furtwängler's actions] really believe that in 'the Germany of Himmler' one should not be permitted to play Beethoven? Could he not realize that people never needed more, never yearned more to hear Beethoven and his message of freedom and human love, than precisely these Germans, who had to live under Himmler’s terror? I do not regret having stayed with them.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The prosecution itself acknowledging that no charge of anti-Semitism or sympathy for Nazi ideology could be brought against the conductor, Furtwängler was cleared on all the counts. Even after Furtwängler's acquittal at the denazification trials, Mann still criticized him for continuing to conduct in Germany and for believing that art could be apolitical in a regime such as Nazi Germany, which was so intent on using art as propaganda. In a drafted letter to the editor of "Aufbau" magazine, Mann praises Furtwängler for assisting Jewish musicians and as a "preeminent musician", but ultimately presents him as a representative example of a fatal "lack of understanding and lack of desire to understand what had seized power in Germany".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: The violinist Yehudi Menuhin was, with Arnold Schoenberg, Bronisław Huberman, and Nathan Milstein, among the Jewish musicians who had a positive view of Furtwängler. In February 1946, he sent a wire to General Robert A. McClure in February 1946:


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Unless you have secret incriminating evidence against Furtwängler supporting your accusation that he was a tool of Nazi Party, I beg to take violent issue with your decision to ban him. The man never was a Party member. Upon numerous occasions, he risked his own safety and reputation to protect friends and colleagues. Do not believe that the fact of remaining in one's own country is alone sufficient to condemn a man. On the contrary, as a military man, you would know that remaining at one's post often requires greater courage than running away. He saved, and for that we are deeply his debtors, the best part of his own German culture... I believe it patently unjust and most cowardly for us to make of Furtwängler a scapegoat for our own crimes.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: In 1949 Furtwängler accepted the position of principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. However the orchestra was forced to rescind the offer under the threat of a boycott from several prominent musicians including Arturo Toscanini, George Szell, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, and Alexander Brailowsky.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: According to a "New York Times" report, Horowitz said that he "was prepared to forgive the small fry who had no alternative but to remain and work in Germany." But Furtwängler "was out of the country on several occasions and could have elected to keep out". Rubinstein likewise wrote in a telegram, "Had Furtwängler been firm in his democratic convictions he would have left Germany". Yehudi Menuhin was upset with this boycott, declaring that some of the main organizers had admitted to him that they had organized it only to eliminate Furtwängler's presence in North America.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Wilhelm Furtwängler died on 30 November 1954 of pneumonia, in Baden-Baden. He was buried in Heidelberg cemetery, the Bergfriedhof, in his mother's vault. A large number of personalities from the artistic and political world were present, including Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: He was totally German and he remained so, despite the attacks. This is why he did not leave his defiled country, which was later counted to him as a stain by those who did not know him well enough. But he did not stay with Hitler and Himmler, but with Beethoven and Brahms.


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: At the end of his life, Yehudi Menuhin said of Furtwängler, "It was his greatness that attracted hatred".


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Furtwängler had a unique philosophy of music. He saw symphonic music as creations of nature that could only be realised subjectively into sound. Neville Cardus wrote in the "Manchester Guardian" in 1954 of Furtwängler's conducting style: "He did not regard the printed notes of the score as a final statement, but rather as so many symbols of an imaginative conception, ever changing and always to be felt and realised subjectively..."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: And the conductor Henry Lewis: "I admire Furtwängler for his originality and honesty. He liberated himself from slavery to the score; he realized that notes printed in the score, are nothing but SYMBOLS. The score is neither the essence nor the spirit of the music. Furtwängler had this very rare and great gift of going beyond the printed score and showing what music really was."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: Many commentators and critics regard him as the greatest conductor in history. In his book on the symphonies of Johannes Brahms, musicologist Walter Frisch writes that Furtwängler's recordings show him to be "the finest Brahms conductor of his generation, perhaps of all time", demonstrating "at once a greater attention to detail and to Brahms' markings than his contemporaries and at the same time a larger sense of rhythmic-temporal flow that is never deflected by the individual nuances. He has an ability not only to respect, but to make musical sense of, dynamic markings and the indications of crescendo and diminuendo[...]. What comes through amply... is the rare combination of a conductor who understands both sound and structure." He notes Vladimir Ashkenazy who says that his sound "is never rough. It's very weighty but at the same time is never heavy. In his fortissimo you always feel every voice... I have never heard so beautiful a fortissimo in an orchestra", and Daniel Barenboim says he "had a subtlety of tone color that was extremely rare. His sound was always 'rounded,' and incomparably more interesting than that of the great German conductors of his generation."


title: Wilhelm Furtwängler

text: On the other hand, the critic David Hurwitz, a spokesman for modern literalism and precision, sharply criticizes what he terms "the Furtwängler wackos" who "will forgive him virtually any lapse, no matter how severe", and characterizes the conductor himself as "occasionally incandescent but criminally sloppy". Unlike conductors such as Carlos Kleiber or Sergiu Celibidache, Furtwängler did not try to reach the perfection in details, and the number of rehearsals with him was small. He said: