MOZART—PAN GERMAN!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 53, 15 May 1942, Page 6

MOZART—PAN GERMAN!

The 150 th anniversary of the death of W. A. Mozart lias been made the occasion of disgusting expressions for Gcrmanisation. This artist grew up in the cosmopolitan, markedly Latin atmosphere of Austria in the eighteenth century and his musical genius Avas nearer the Italian or Slavonic national, spirit than the German. By philosophical conviction lie was a liberal and a Freemason- — witness the ritual in the "Magic Flute*'- —and in Prague he found a more appreciative audience than anywhere in the German area, and it is well) known that his "Den Giovanni" was first performed in Prague The warm reception which he was given in Prague can be explained by the fact that his Prague friends found nothing typically German in his works. This Austrian, or Latin-Slavonic rather than 'German, genius, this Freemason and admirer of enlightened Liberalism, has been, taken over by Statc-Sccrc.tnry K. H.- Frank as the perquisite of Hitler's order in Czechoslovakia. The illiterate Mr K. [I. Frank, whoso musical taste docs net rise above the-, level of the most banal dance tunes, has laid the foundation stone of a Mozart memorial, and made a speech in which he spoke of Prague simply as a German town. Prague's understanding for Mozart is said to be a proof of the fact that Prague is "a witness in stone e-f the proud German past."