Bronisław Huberman: From child prodigy to resistance fighter against National Socialism

Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1928. Unknown photographer, Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Washington, DC
Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1928. Unknown photographer, Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Washington, DC

In a detailed letter dated 10 July 1933, Huberman responded to his “dear friend” Furtwängler and the next day asked if he may be allowed to publish this response in the international press. Although Furtwängler did not agree to this (“the consequence would surely be that you […] would perhaps no longer by allowed to perform in Germany at all”[34]), Huberman sent copies of his letter to Louis P. Lochner (1887-1975), the head of the Berlin office of the Associated Press, in the hope that the letter would be published in the New York Times. Lochner, who was to stay in Marienbad ten days later, managed to get the public version of the letter published in the Prager Tagblatt on 13 September 1933 (Fig. 8). The next day, an English translation appeared in the context of an article in the New York Times by the American journalist Frederick T. Birchall (1871-1955) under the headline “Huberman Bars German Concerts”.[35]

In his letter, not only did Huberman appeal to the conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), who had recently declined to participate at the Bayreuth Festival because of the anti-Jewish and anti-foreigner sentiment in Germany, he also expressed his admiration for Furtwängler “for the fearlessness, tenacity, sense of responsibility and tenaciousness” with which he had carried out his “campaign that he had begun in April to rescue concert life from the threat of annihilation by the race cleansers”. However, Huberman felt that the assurances negotiated with Reich Minister Rust about select artists participating in the German music scene based on the “principle of performance”, which the Prager Tagblatt cited in detail, could “not be considered a sufficient basis” for him “to be part of the German music scene again”. The “selection principle” smacks of the intention “to continue to apply the unthinkable, race selection, to all other areas of culture.” Whilst there was to be an exemption for music, museum directors, researchers and teachers would continue to be marginalised. The “few foreign or Jewish musicians called upon to participate” were only there to “be paraded before the whole world to show that all is well with culture in Germany. In reality, however, German thoroughness would keep on applying new definitions about racial purity to immature art lovers, schools, laboratories etc.”

 

[34] Furtwängler to Huberman dated 27 July 1933, Huberman Estate (see Note 1), cited from von der Lühe 2004 (see Literature), page 72

[35] Complete bibliography for both newspaper articles, see under Sources.

Media library
  • Fig. 1: The child prodigy, 1889

    Bronisław Huberman as a seven-year-old, 1889
  • Fig. 2: As a youth, ca. 1895

    Bronisław Huberman at a young age, ca. 1895 Unknown photographer, albumin print, 14.7 x 10.1 cm, Nationalmuseum Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Inv. No. DI 103634 MNW
  • Fig. 3: As a fourteen-year-old, 1896

    Bronisław Huberman as a fourteen-year-old, 1896 Photograph by R. Wilhelm, New York, Philip Hale Photograph Collection, Boston Public Library
  • Fig. 4: Bronislaw Huberman, 1900

    Bronisław Huberman as an eighteen-year-old, 1900
  • Fig. 5: Emil Orlik: Huberman, ca. 1915

    Emil Orlik: Portrait of Bronisław Huberman with violin, ca. 1915 Etching, 24.5 x 29.3 cm
  • Fig. 6: Lesser Ury: Huberman, ca. 1916

    Lesser Ury: Portrait of Bronisław Huberman, ca. 1916 pastel on board, 97.2 x 70.7 cm, Jewish Museum Berlin, Inv. No. GHZ 78/1/0
  • Fig. 7: “Vaterland Europa”, 1932

    Bronislaw Huberman: Vaterland Europa, Berlin 1932
  • Fig. 8: Open letter to Furtwängler, 1933

    Open letter from Bronisław Huberman to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Prager Tagblatt from 13 September 1933, Austrian National Library
  • Fig. 9: Einstein meets Huberman, 1936

    The physicist Albert Einstein meets Bronisław Huberman 1936 in his house in Princeton, New Jersey
  • Fig. 10: Toscanini rehearses with the Palestine Orchestra, 1936

    The Palestine Orchestra during a rehearsal under the leadership of Arturo Toscanini, presumably in December 1936