Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on January 25, 1886, in Berlin. He was the oldest of four children and the only one to become a musician. His father Adolf Furtwängler was a famous classical archaeologist and his mother Adelheid was a painter. The boy grew up in a humanistically influenced family. His musical talents were evident early: he started piano lessons at age 4 and penned his first composition at age 7. Furtwängler's earliest ambition was to become a composer. He started conducting just to earn a living. His father helped arrange a concert for him in 1907 - Bruckner's Ninth Symphony with Munich's Kaim Orchestra - which was his first big success.

In 1920, Furtwängler took over the directorship of the symphony concerts of the Berlin Opera from Richard Strauss. Within two years he gained such renown that he was appointed as the successor of Arthur Nikisch as the director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1928 he succeeded Felix Weingartner as the director of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Through the 1920s and 30s Furtwängler was considered the foremost conductor of his time, and it is interesting to learn that even his children were in awe of him. "Looking back I can say he is the greatest person I've ever met. We all knew that, even as children," recalled his stepdaughter Kathrin.

Furtwängler's fame reached its height during the Nazi years. His work brought him into close personal contact with high Nazi party officials, including Goebbels, Göring and Hitler. The notorious film footage of Furtwängler shaking Hitler's hand after a concert has done his reputation great harm. That Nuremberg concert was supposed to be on Hitler's birthday, so Furtwängler scheduled it the day before, thinking Hitler would not attend. He was so furious when Hitler came to the concert that he pulled a radiator off the wall. Furtwängler came on the stage and told his musicians to begin right away. But after the concert, Hitler gave him his hand and he had to shake it. People who don't know the story were easy to get the wrong ideas from the photo.

Furtwängler was never a Nazi party member, but he enjoyed official favors, honors, and earned more money than any other German musician of his day. Endless books and articles have been written about Furtwängler's involvement in the musical life of the Third Reich. Many artists escaped from German or Italy, and they started new careers in the United States. Like Bruno Walter and Toscanini. Philadelphia, New York and Vienna offered Furtwängler the directorship of their opera houses, but he refused because he did not want to leave Germany. He thought he could do something good by staying in Germany. Furtwängler stayed there to give the people the gift of his music. His roots were there and he would have suffered in exile. What was important for him was German culture. No other conductor knew more about German literature and painting. It was not just the music, Furtwängler wanted the whole culture around him. When the war was over in 1945. Furtwängler was not allowed to conduct and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra because of the political reasons. Not until December 1946, was he cleared of all allegations of collaborating with the Nazism. Two musicians acted as particularly vocal advocates for him: Yehudi Menuhin and Ernest Ansermet. In 1947 he resumed the directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. At the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1951 he conducted a notable performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

Furtwängler's final years were unhappy. In 1952, a course of the antibiotic streptomycin damaged the nerves in his ears, leaving him deaf. Attempts to compensate for his hearing loss with onstage loudspeakers were ineffective. In 1954 he conducted his last concert and died after another bout of pneumonia.

Anton Bruckner was Furtwängler's favorite composer. In Furtwängler's mind, Bruckner was not a musician, but a descendant of some ancient German prophet. What a pity that all Furtwängler's recordings were mono! But people still can understand the greatness of the maestro from those recordings and other historical documents. It might not be too much to say that Furtwängler is becoming better understood now than in his own lifetime. There is a splendid irony in that.