FERRUCCIO BUSONI AND HIS EUROPEAN CIRCLE IN BERLIN IN THE EARLY WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Abstract

World War One reduced Berlin from a splendid, bustling, exciting intellectual and financial German capital to a dark, isolated, foreboding ruin. When the war ended in 1918 Berlin had lost its cultural prominence in Europe. German politicians, intellectuals and artists emerged from their isolation with a fervent desire to establish sound international relations. Leo Kestenberg, the newly elected advisor on musical affairs of the Weimar government's Ministry of Arts, Sciences and People's Education, resolved to reestablish Berlin as a cosmopolitan musical center by single-handedly bringing the best musicians from all over Europe to work there. He committed himself to bringing back to the German capital his teacher, mentor, and friend, Ferruccio Busoni. Like most of his contemporaries he saw Busoni as a quasi-mythical figure, a pure, deepley humanistic spirit whose mixed German-Italian blood had enabled him to rise above the turmoils and petty nationalistic squabbles of his day. Kestenberg remembered Busoni's avant-garde concert series