Karlrobert Kreiten
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Karlrobert Kreiten (June 26, 1916 - September 7, 1943) was a German pianist.
He was seen by Wilhelm Furtwängler and others as one of the most talented young pianists in Germany. Born in Bonn, of Alsatian parentage, his mother was the classical singer Emmy Kreiten-Barido and his father Theo Kreiten, a concert pianist.
He made his debut at the age of eleven with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major in a live broadcast. He was educated in Vienna by Claudio Arrau.
He was betrayed by Nazi Ellen Ott-Monecke, who notified the Gestapo about Kreiten making negative remarks about Adolf Hitler and the war effort. He was indicted at the Volksgerichtshof, with Roland Freisler presiding, and condemned to death. Friends and family frantically tried to save his life, but to no avail. The family was never notified officially about the judgement, and only accidentally learned that Karlrobert had been executed, with 185 other inmates, at Plötzensee prison.
His execution triggered a wave of hateful articles in the German press about this "treacherous" artist. Prominent journalist Werner Höfer had to retire in 1987 when his particularly infamous articles about Kreiten became known to a wider public.
External links
- In Erinnerung an Karlrobert Kreiten (http://www.fkoester.de/kreiten/home/seite1.html) (in German)de:Karlrobert Kreiten