Where’s Thielemann? At the art fairs, bidding
mainThe Vienna newspaper Der Standard has a feature on Christian Thieleman who spends his down time hunting art and antiques from the lost German territories of East Prussia. He is now considered an authority on its treasures. Read here.
And here’s Thielemann in his own words, talking about his collecting habit.
This is great. Maybe he’ll find Raphael’s “Portrait of a Young Man” stolen from a private Polish collection by the Nazis.
Would you perhaps tell me what the Nazis have to do with Thielemann collecting art from East Prussia around 1800?
Certainly. The post states that Thielemann hunts “art and antiques from the lost German territories of East Prussia.” Raphael’s portrait was stolen, by the Nazis, from a Polish collection. Therefore the portrait could be hidden or undiscovered somewhere in East Prussia, where Thielemann is poking around.
He isn’t my favourite conductor, but in my opinion it shows a certain degree of ignorance to take his interest in Prussia around 1800 for another proof of his “fancying” the brown brood.
East Prussia around 1800 certainly wasn’t about “pomp and circumstances”, but even the nobility there lived rather frugal. It was all about duty and the “moral” was embossed by the protestantic beliefs. And the people from the Wartenburg circle who were heavily involved in the resistance against Hitler (and who mostly died for it)were East Prussian aristocrats who saw themselves standing in the tradition of their ancestors.
Many people nowadays think “Prussia = militarism, jingoism, war mongerers”. The irony is: That wasn’t Prussia, but came up with the emperor Wilhelm II – and he wasn’t emperor of Prussia, but of Germany. His grandfather had given up (with tears ins his eyes and feeling forced by Bismarck) his old title as King of Prussia.
Besides: Thielemann’s interest in the Doenhoff castle and him working with Marion von Doenhoff doesn’t show “sympathy” for nazis either – Marion von Doenhoff had been involved with the resistance and had lost of friends and relatives connected to it.