Classical music
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954), the legendary director of the Berlin Philharmonic, ranks among the greatest conductors of the 20th century. He chose Clarens, on the lakeside west of Montreux, to live out his final years, from 1945 until his death. A bust, unveiled in 2016, honours him at the Port du Basset.
Wilhelm Furtwängler: a giant of the podium in refuge at Clarens
The flight to Switzerland
Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the most prestigious posts in world music. Having remained in Germany during the war without joining the Nazi party, he ended up becoming suspect to the regime itself.
At the end of February 1945, one of his concerts in Winterthur was disrupted by stink bombs. Sensing the net tightening, he crossed into Switzerland and took refuge in a sanatorium in Clarens, where he waited out the end of the war. It was there, in Montreux, that he had a church wedding at the end of 1945.
Cleared, then overtaken by Karajan
Once peace came, Furtwängler had to go through denazification, though he had never been a party member. Two trials were held, in Vienna in January 1946 and in Berlin in December. He emerged cleared of all collaboration and regained the right to conduct.
But the ordeal had marked him, and a rival now occupied the ground: Herbert von Karajan, younger and rising irresistibly. From 1952 on, Furtwängler gradually lost his hearing. Yet he kept conducting at the highest level, while keeping Clarens as his home base.
The bust at the Port of Clarens
Furtwängler died on 30 November 1954. He had spent close to ten years attached to Clarens, above Montreux.
On 28 August 2016, the town paid tribute to him with a bronze bust, installed at the Port of Clarens, where the conductor liked to walk. It is the work of sculptor Bernard Bavaud, the very one who modelled the busts of Miles Davis, Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky on the Montreux quays.
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© Visit Montreux The legendary German conductor spent his final years in Clarens. His bust watches over the Port du Basset.
