Berta Geissmar (14 September 1892 in Mannheim – 3 November 1949 in London)[1] was the secretary and business manager for two prominent orchestral conductors, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Sir Thomas Beecham.
The family was very musical and Berta's father was one of the organisers and guarantors of a local society which presented concerts by leading soloists and chamber ensembles.
Later, in 1915, Furtwängler was appointed principal conductor of the Opera and Music Academy in Mannheim, and his friendship with the Geissmars was renewed.
[7] To stabilise the orchestra's finances, Furtwängler began taking the BPO on foreign tours, bringing in revenue and putting the musicians on a full-time basis.
Geissmar persuaded Louise Wolff to cede this monopoly, making a major contribution to the BPO's financial recovery.
Geissmar's memoirs, written during the war, describe how Nazi ideology eroded the artistic ideals of German musicians.
Without warning, in late March 1933 every newspaper carried on the front page a notice forbidding Jewish employees from working.
When in 1934 Furtwängler resigned all his state positions in protest at a ban on the composer Hindemith, all Jews, including Geissmar, were purged from the BPO.
A friend introduced her to Anthony van Hoboken who had created a Photographic Archive of Musical Scores at the Austrian National Library and wished to expand it.
[15] In December 1935, thanks to a new application containing evidence of the Hoboken offer and an indirect contact with Goering she obtained her passport and left Germany immediately.
Geissmar played a key part in organising European contributions to Covent Garden's celebrations of the forthcoming Coronation, working with Beecham, who had artistic control there.
A German lawyer specialising in such problems navigated her status through the Nazi minefield and make her free to leave Germany for good.
[19] She played a key part in organising European contributions to Covent Garden's celebrations of the coronation of King Edward VIII planned for 12 May 1937.
(In the event, Edward VIII abdicated and the same day was used to crown King George VI and Queen Elizabeth).
His artistic judgement was generally respected, as was Furtwängler's, but Beecham also had wit, charm, political nous and money.
In Germany, where Furtwängler had had to resign because of political interference, Beecham's prestige was respected and the Nazis had no power to direct him.
You will discuss [a French opera] in general with M. Rouché [Director of the Paris Opéra]-and then you will proceed to Switzerland and meet Furtwängler.
Although Geissmar was glad to receive Ribbentrop's assurances she was also angry that the Nazis had tormented her for a whole year but suddenly now that Beecham was her protector she was ‘welcome’.
Her inquiries convinced her that Ribbentrop's men lacked the necessary experience so she placed the German work in the hands of the BPO who were delighted by the opportunity.
[23] In 1937 she established herself on the top floor of 36 Red Lion Square, a lovely old house with room to hold her furniture and other things from Germany and to play chamber music.
[36] Geissmar had a visit from a pastor, a friend of Martin Niemöller, who had inspired her on 31 Dec 1934 when she was at a low ebb after leaving Furtwängler.
One day, in the BPO office, she had taken a phoned order from him to cancel the pianist who had been engaged for a concert and replace him with Wilhelm Backhaus.
Pablo Casals gave a concert in the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Spanish child victims of the war there.
[47] Like many, Geissmar was deeply worried about the future but in particular, with talk about internment of German residents, whether she would be rejected by the British, as she had been by the Nazis.
[48] The LPO reached a financial crisis but a few big donations, a national appeal and agreement by the musicians to switch to ad hoc pay got them started.
[49] The Proms continued as usual with Sir Henry Wood conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the Queen's Hall.
[50] Geissmar moved her mother from Red Lion Square to safer accommodation in Hampstead while she herself spent the night in public shelters until the time came to meet Beecham in the US, which would be soon.
She and her mother were sitting in the box of Sir Malcolm Sargent before the Royal Choral Society Christmas 1942 concert.
The staff reporter says that she retired in 1944 but Thomas Russell, who was a member of the LPO committee[56] says that she devoted the last ten years of her life to the orchestra until her final illness.
Among them her uncle Friedrich, who committed suicide shortly before deportation in 1940, and her aunt Johanna Geissmar, who was gassed in Auschwitz in 1942.