Das Reichsorchester - Die Berliner Philharmoniker und der Nationalsozialismus (2007)

This documentary explores the role played by the Berlin Philharmonic during World War II, from 1933 to 1945, to be exact. Some people describe the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at this stage as a "Nazi orchestra". This documentary makes an in-depth argument on this point in order to identify the true and false and clarify the facts. When the documentary began filming in 2004, there were only two surviving members of the Berlin Philharmonic during World War II: violinist HansBastiaan and bass bass player ErichHartmann. The interview between the two people is widely used in the film. Other local directors have used the conversations of their children, as well as documentary films-- which is also the film's most attractive feature-- the precious film materials of Futwengler, Kreb Sr. and Cherie Biddachi conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra cannot be described as a Nazi band in many ways. The truth is that before the Nazi party came to power in 1933, it existed as an independent institution. What happened later is seldom recorded in the literature. At first, only a very small number of musicians in the band were Jewish, but of course they lost the band in the 1930 s.