World War II

Salzburg-born Expressionist whose frescoes for the Grosses Festspielhaus entrance hall (1926) were destroyed by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and later reconstructed. A close friend of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Died at 42.

The conductor who made Salzburg the unquestioned summit of the musical world. Toscanini conducted at the Salzburg Festival from 1934 to 1937. He reportedly called Salzburg "the most perfect musical event in the world." When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, he refused to return.

Brigitte Kowanz

artist1957 - 2022

Austrian light and neon artist whose Beyond Recall (2011) on the Staatsbrucke confronts visitors crossing Salzburg's main bridge with four neon cubes addressing the Nazi period and the imperative of remembrance.

A devoted disciple of Gustav Mahler and one of the foundational conductors of the Salzburg Festival. Walter gave the world premieres of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony. Alongside Arturo Toscanini and Furtwangler, he formed the triumvirate that defined the young Festival's artistic identity. Forced to flee after the 1938 Anschluss.

Major German playwright who lived on a farm near Henndorf am Wallersee in the Salzburg Flachgau from the early 1930s until 1938. When the Nazis annexed Austria, Zuckmayer fled. His autobiography Als war's ein Stuck von mir (A Part of Myself) is acclaimed.

Salzburg art dealer who founded Galerie Welz, still operating on Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse. A close associate of Oskar Kokoschka. His record is shadowed by documented involvement in the acquisition of artworks from Jewish owners under duress following the 1938 Anschluss.

The real Captain von Trapp. Austro-Hungarian naval commander who lived in Salzburg at Villa Trapp in Aigen. His family's flight from Austria after the 1938 Anschluss is the story behind The Sound of Music. The family eventually settled in Stowe, Vermont.

One of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century and one of the most significant personalities in Salzburg Festival history. Richard Strauss wrote several roles with her voice in mind. She fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and founded the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She also played a documented role in launching the Trapp Family Singers.

One of the last living survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and longest-serving president of the Jewish community in Salzburg. Survived Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Dachau, and Buchenwald. A pedestrian bridge over the Salzach, the Marko Feingold Steg, was renamed in his honour after his death. He died in Salzburg aged 106.

Theatre director of extraordinary vision and co-founder of the Salzburg Festival. Reinhardt purchased Schloss Leopoldskron in 1918, which later inspired the Von Trapp villa in The Sound of Music. He staged the first Jedermann on Domplatz in 1920. Jewish, he fled the Nazis in 1938 and died in New York exile in 1943.

One of the most widely translated German-language authors of the 20th century. Zweig lived at Kapuzinerberg 5, Salzburg, from 1919 to 1934. From this house on the forested hill above the right bank, he wrote his celebrated memoir Die Welt von Gestern (The World of Yesterday).

One of the supreme conductors of the 20th century, and perhaps the most controversial. Furtwangler's decision to remain in Germany during the Nazi period made him a figure of perpetual moral debate. His post-war Salzburg Festival performances in the early 1950s are among the most legendary in recording history.