Comments by "SymphonyBrahms" (@SymphonyBrahms) on "R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra - BBC Proms 2012" video.

@krischan67 Richard Strauss never supported the Nazis. He hated oppression. He called the Nazis "a disgrace to German honor". As a conductor he performed works of Jewish composers. His daughter-in-law was Jewish, and he had Jewish grandchildren. He was fired by the Nazis from his position as music director in 1935 because he wouldn't cooperate with them. He lived out World War II in seclusion at his home. At the end of the war he wrote "The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom." After the war he was cleared by the Allies.
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