VPO Quickly Deletes SS Reference

By William Osborne

[Sent to various lists on Jan. 1, 2000]

For those who read my post yesterday about the Vienna Philharmonic's website, there is yet more interesting news.

I reported that the website quoted SS officer, Wilhelm Jerger, to substantiate the Vienna Philharmonic's claim to stylistic uniqueness and purity. Jerger, a former Chairman of the orchestra, and an SS Lieutenant, wrote a highly racist book about the orchestra in 1942. I mentioned that Jerger's book contains long father/son genealogical tables of some of the major string players in the orchestra, and that asterisks are placed by the names of all individuals who were "non-Aryan." I also noted that the Vienna Philharmonic is the only all-white orchestra in the world, and the only one that substantiates its claims to stylistic purity by quoting an SS officer.

This morning I looked at the Vienna Philharmonic's website again, and sure enough, they have deleted all references to SS officer Jerger! There must have been quite a panic somewhere! They must have thought no one would know who Jerger really was, or about what his racist book (which has become relatively rare) really says.

The website's section on the Philharmonic's string sound is now only about half as long as it was yesterday. Also, a side bar that allowed one to jump from section to section on the website is gone--a change that was probably necessitated by the emergency sanitization.

It seems that the Vienna Philharmonic, Columbia Artists, and/or Carnegie Hall has someone on the IAWM list keeping a watch on what we have to say and what plans we make.

Let's keep that sexist, racist orchestra and its supporters hopping until significant changes are made in the Philharmonic's employment policies.

Their latest little gesture of "de-Nazification" is a good way to start the next millennium.

William Osborne