Download Student Resources for `Maestro` Against the backdrop of Darwin

Student Resources for 'Maestro'
Against the backdrop of Darwin - that small, tropical hothouse of a port, half
outback, half oriental, lying at the tip of northern Australia - a young and newly
arrived southerner, Paul Crabbe, encounters the 'maestro', a Viennese refugee
with a shadowy past. The occasion is a piano lesson, the first of many.
Over the next two years, Paul learns more than he wishes to know about his
teacher, and more than he wishes to know about himself.
Background Information
Darwin
Darwin is the main setting of Maestro. Paul and his family move there after his
father accepts a position as a medical officer.
It is the capital city of the Northern Territory and Australia’s northernmost city.
Settlement was attempted in the early 1800s by the English, but it was the South
Australian government who set up a colony there in 1869.
Darwin was originally named Palmerston after the British Prime Minister. However,
as most people called the town ‘Darwin’ after the name of the port which was so
named following the visit of the naturalist, Charles Darwin in 1839, it was
officially changed in 1911 when the South Australian government handed control
of the Northern Territory over to the Federal government.
Throughout the novel Peter Goldsworthy evokes images of Darwin’s culture and
climate. Paul’s father describes it as ‘A city of booze, blow, and blasphemy’ (p.
9b), Paul recounts his first impressions of the flora, ‘I had never seen such
greenness: an unnatural greenness.’ (p. 10a) where ‘Everything grew larger than
life’. (p. 11a).
Darwin has what is known as a monsoonal climate meaning that there are distinct
wet and dry seasons. In winter there is very little rain and the average
temperature is approximately 28°C. The wet season lasts from about November
to March and is characterised by high humidity and frequent downpours.
Most civilians were evacuated from Darwin in during World War II. Darwin was
bombed by the Japanese 64 times between February 1942 and November 1943
and at least 243 people were killed.
Darwin’s boom began in the 1950s with the discovery of large mineral deposits
and the construction of mines including the Rum Jungle uranium mine. The town
was officially classed as a city in 1959. The population of Darwin more than
doubled during the 1960s and it still has one of the highest growth rates in
Australia.
On Christmas morning 1974, the worst natural disaster to ever hit Australia
descended on Darwin. Cyclone Tracy destroyed 90 per cent of the city and killed
50 people and 16 were listed as missing. Paul was in Vienna at the time and his
parents had moved back to Adelaide. However, Keller survives the cyclone by
sheltering under the Bösendorfer (p. 128b) and goes to stay with the Crabbes in
Adelaide (p. 127b). Water, sewerage and power were all cut. Almost all of the
population was evacuated in the week following the cyclone and reconstruction
began soon after.
By 1977 thousands of new houses had been constructed as well as extensive
rebuilding. New regulations were introduced so that buildings would now be able
to withstand another cyclone of the same intensity. The character Keller moves
back to Darwin after the reconstruction and in 1977 Paul visits him as he dies in a
Darwin hospital (p. 143a).
Austria
The country of Austria is located in central Europe, bordered by the Czech
Republic in the north, Slovakia in the north-east, Slovenia, Italy, and Switzerland
in the south, Hungary in the east, and Liechtenstein and Germany in the west.
The official language is German.
Austria has had a varied history and was closely involved with Germany until the
latter half of the twentieth century. The first Austrian republic was established
after the Treaty of Versailles, which banned a union between Austria and
Germany in a effort to weaken Germany’s power base.
In 1938 a Nazi government was established in Austria by Hitler and once again
Austria became part of Germany, though it was said to be an anschluss or union
with Germany. Keller, in trying to tell Paul a little of the horror of the Nazi
invasion, mentions the anschluss. (p. 116b).
Austrian Jews, communists and intellectuals were persecuted by the Nazis during
WW II. Many people, not just Jews, fled the country after 1938 to escape the Nazi
regime. Keller however decides to stay, ‘He had two choices: to become invisible,
or to become so visible that nothing could touch him’ says the cellist Henisch to
Paul. (p. 136a).
By 1941, the Allies (Britain, France, USSR and the USA) agreed to liberate Austria
from Nazi control. The Soviet Union managed this task in 1945. However, Austria
did not achieve total self-rule until 1955 after the Allies decided it was strong
enough to survive as a country independently.
Austria has many buildings of architectural significance, located predominantly in
the capital Vienna, and Salzburg. Paul travels to Vienna in 1975 after competing
and teaching in Salzburg to find out about Keller, ‘...Vienna brought out the
tourist sulking deep within, set me gaping, muttering inanities to myself, reaching
for a non-existent camera...’ (p. 133a). Keller had spoken of Vienna with disdain
“The Ringstrasse,” he snorted again. “Of course. An excellent city for military
pomp and processions.’’(p. 45b).
Two very famous opera houses are found in Vienna, the Staatsoper (State Opera),
which was destroyed during World War II and then completely rebuilt, and the
Volksoper or the People’s Opera. Paul’s mother particularly likes the Ringstrasse
(p. 45b).
Austria has a very strong cultural history, and is the birthplace of some of the
world’s leading composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Haydn,
and Franz Schubert. The character Eduard Keller was also Austrian.
Hitler & Nazism
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889. His father died when he was 14 and his
mother a few years later, leaving Hitler to survive on an orphan’s pension and
earnings from selling his watercolours of Viennese landmarks to tourists.
Hitler applied twice for entrance into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but was
rejected both times. He moved from Vienna to Germany where he was arrested
for a brief period for draft dodging. However, he later joined the Bavarian Army
and received the First and Second Class Iron Cross for bravery in WW I. After
Germany’s defeat, he joined the German Workers’ Party, which later became
known as the Nazi Party.
The party’s ideology drew strongly on Darwinism—the concept of survival of the
fittest. The Aryan (or super) race was thought to dominate. Jews, Communists,
homosexuals and the handicapped were seen as the inferior members of German
society and should not be allowed to mix with the super race.
Hitler became a dominate figure in the party and surrounded himself with faithful
followers, including Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist; Rudolf Hess, private
secretary to Hitler; Ernst Röhm, commander of the SA (Storm Detachments);
Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS (Protection Squads); Adolf Eichmann, in
charge of the deportation of Austrian Jews to concentration camps; and Dr Josef
Mengele, surgeon who experimented on prisoners at Auschwitz.
The swastika was adopted by the Nazi Party as a common symbol. Originally a
Sanskrit symbol, it has been used by many cultures in Europe and the Americas
since prehistoric times.
The salute ‘Heil Hitler’ was used as a mark of respect and obedience to Hitler by
both the Nazi Party and the army, but soon it came to be demanded of any
German as a sign of loyalty to both Hitler and Germany.
The composer, Richard Wagner especially interested Hitler as his operas
celebrated German legends and myths. Hitler later used these themes to great
effect on the German people in his propaganda campaigns leading up to World
War II. Henisch says to Paul of Keller’s wife, Mathilde, “‘A Wagner specialist. And
the heirs of Wagner came and dragged her away.’” (p. 136a).
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) written by Hitler, was his doctrine on how Germany
should be governed. In it he vilifies the Jews and talks of Germany gaining back
its position in world affairs after the embarrassment of WWI.
Support for the Nazis grew during the 1920s and increased after the Great
Depression began in 1929. Both the middle and upper classes saw socialism and
communism as strong threats to their livelihood.
By the 1930s the Nazis were the majority party in the Parliament. They slowly
absorbed all other political parties and passed a law which officially banned
political opposition. Germany became a one-party state.
On the Night of the Long Knives 30 June 1934, Hitler purged the party of his
perceived enemies, including Ernst Röhm whom Hitler believed had turned
against him.
The Hitler Youth was very important to Germany as children could be
indoctrinated at an early age. It became compulsory to join either the boys’ or
girls’ group in late 1936 and for the boys this was expected to lead to service in
the armed forces.
Germany had begun expansion into eastern Europe and invaded Czechoslovakia
in 1938.
The West eventually decided to confront Hitler’s aggressive expansion and with
the invasion of Poland in September 1939, World War II began.
Hitler continued to invade and occupy Europe but was eventually defeated by the
alliance of the Western powers which included Britain and its empire, France, the
Soviet Union and the USA.
On 30 April 1945, Hitler committed suicide, and Berlin fell to Soviet troops. On 8
May Germany surrendered.
After WWII there were many trials conducted against high-ranking Nazis for their
crimes against humanity. Sentences ranged from death to terms of imprisonment.
The Persecution of the Jews
With Hitler and the Nazis’ rise to power, discrimination against the Jewish
population intensified. By 1934, when Hitler was both Chancellor and President of
Germany, the persecution of Jews had began in earnest.
Crystal Night, so named because thousands of Jewish shop windows were
smashed, was an indication of the Nazis’ hatred of Jews. Jews were no longer
allowed to hold positions in government services and were boycotted in private
businesses. They lost the right to German citizenship and from 1941 were forced
to wear the Yellow Star of David. Aryans were bombarded with anti-Jewish
propaganda and encouraged to force the Jews out of Germany. Many Jewish
artists left Germany at this time.
Keller speaks to Paul of his memories of the time ‘My friends began disappearing.
But slowly. Many had left of course. Jewish friends.’ (p. 117a). ‘There were
rumours, of course,...Death squads in Poland. But I couldn’t believe them.’ (p.
118b).
In charge of the deportation of Austrian Jews to the camps was a prominent Nazi,
Adolf Eichmann. ‘A most charming man...And most efficient. The head of the
Centre for Emigration of Austrian Jews’ (p. 118a) Keller tells Paul. Paul later
learns from Henisch that Keller had played for Eichmann and Hitler. (p. 135b).
Eichmann disappeared from Germany after the war but was discovered in South
America and brought to trial for his war crimes in 1960. He was found guilty,
sentenced to death and was hanged in 1962.
The first concentration camps were set up in Germany in early 1933 to deal with
political prisoners. Dachau near Munich, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald are three
of the most well known. They were used as holding centres for prisoners who
were then sent out as contract labour.
Most concentration camps, however, were located in Poland and were built after
Germany invaded in 1939. It no longer became feasible for German troops to
carry out mass executions by shooting as these were far too noticeable and
wasted valuable ammunition. A new solution had to be found. The original idea
had been to drive all the Jews out of Europe and banish them to somewhere
remote, such as the island of Madagascar. However, as Germany invaded more
countries, the number of Jews increased so much so that banishment became
impractical.
The Endlösung or Final Solution was agreed on by the Nazi hierarchy. Gassing
became the preferred option. Historians cannot be sure exactly how many people
were murdered by the Nazis in concentration camps and through enforced labour,
but the figure is believed to be between 5 and 6 million Jews and approximately
3.3 million Russian prisoners of war.
Auschwitz, the most notorious camp, was located in Poland and began largely as
a camp for political prisoners. Paul finds out from the cellist Henisch that Keller
was transported there in 1942, (p. 137a)
It was at Auschwitz that medical experiments were carried out by Dr Josef
Mengele. Later, the camp was expanded and Jews were brought in in large
numbers by train. The prisoners who were well enough to work were taken aside,
while most were ordered to strip and then sent to the gas chambers, which were
disguised as shower blocks. After they were dead, jewellery and even gold fillings
were removed and the bodies burnt. Up to three trains a day stopped at
Auschwitz and left empty.
The prisoners who survived to become contract labour were tattooed with an
identification number (which Keller and Henisch had tattooed on their forearms
(pp. 111a, 137b)) and taken to work on roads or other government projects. Few
survived the harsh conditions and if a prisoner became ill they were killed or left
to die. Many prisoners died on the forced death marches from one camp or place
of work to another. Henisch had believed that this was where Keller died ‘Long
marches: Auschwitz to Buchenwald. Buchenwald to Bergen-Belsen. Keller died on
the last journey.’ (p. 137b).
With the surrender of Germany to the Allies in May 1945, the atrocities of the
camps were discovered by the liberating troops. The majority of camps were then
destroyed, but Dachau still stands today as a monument to its victims.
© Peter Goldsworthy/HarperCollinsPublishers 1996