Richard Strauss (11.6.1864 Munich – 8.9.1949 Garmisch-Patenkirchen)

Richard Strauss was the son of the horn player, composer, music teacher and academy professor Franz Strauss; his mother Josephine was a member of the Pschorr brewery dynasty, one of Munich’s richest families. Taught by his father from the age of four, he began studying music theory under court music director Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer at the age of eleven. His first compositions were published in 1881. Strauss soon abandoned his studies in philosophy and art history at the University of Munich to devote himself entirely to composing.

He joined the Munich orchestra Wilde Gungl and made his conducting debut at the age of 20. Through his mentor Hans von Bülow, he became musical director at the Court Theater in Meiningen in 1885. The following year, he decided to return to Munich, where he became third musical director at the State Opera. He was also grand ducal musical director at Weimar Court Theater from 1889 onwards. From 1898 to 1918 he was court conductor in Berlin. Successful operas written by Strauss during this period include Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and Der Rosenkavalier (1911): these made him the epitome of musical modernism at the time, and continue to underpin his status as a leading composer to this day. Strauss was also an early advocate for musicians’ rights: a co-founder of the musicians’ association Genossenschaft der deutschen Tonsetzer, he became chair of the General German Music Association (ADM) in 1901. Together with Franz Schalk, he took over direction of the Vienna Court Opera in 1919, a position he held until 1931.

Though his daughter-in-law was Jewish, Strauss allowed himself to be co-opted by the National Socialists after 1933. As early as April 1933, he was one of the signatories of the ‘Protest of the Richard Wagner City of Munich’ against Thomas Mann, and on November 15, 1933 he became president of the Reich Chamber of Music.  He wrote a number of laudatory greetings for prominent Nazi, conducted at prestigious Nazi events, and composed the Olympische Hymne in 1936. As one of the three most important musicians in Germany at the time, Hitler placed him on his own personal special list of ‘divinely gifted’ artists. But Strauss previously resigned his Nazi posts in 1935, having been arrested because of a letter he wrote to Jewish author Stefan Zweig that was intercepted by the Gestapo. He spent the war years with his family in Vienna under the protection of his friend, Regional Leader Baldur von Schirach.

Strauss spent some time in Switzerland after the war due to an occupational ban imposed by the Allies, but in 1949 he returned to his home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen after being classified as ‘non-incriminated’ as a result of tribunal proceedings. He died there on September 8 of the same year.