In 1942, on Hitler's birthday, he had conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. West Germany was caught up in the Allies' denazification process, which conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler also had to face.
"They said that Hitler had been defeated with the help of the Red Army, and that they were therefore allowed to utilize that which is peaceful and European in Beethoven's music," explains Michael Custodis. In the GDR, Beethoven was seen as a pioneer of socialism. In the first years after the end of the war, an ideological dispute broke out between East and West Germany over the right to claim Beethoven's music for themselves.
After the war, Wilhelm Furtwängler was able to return to his profession and greeted his orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, in 1947
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