demusic1-5, Exercise 3: Strauss under the Nazis

Model answer (one possible balanced paragraph; check every detail):

Strauss's role is debated because the evidence points in more than one direction. On one side, he accepted the presidency of the Reichsmusikkammer in 1933, composed an Olympic hymn for the 1936 Games and stayed in Germany throughout the regime, which critics count as cooperation (check). On the other side, he lost the post in 1935 after a letter to his Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig, in which he complained about the regime, was intercepted, and he had a Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren whom he tried to protect (check). He also insisted on keeping Zweig's name on a work (check).

Historians weigh these differently: some stress opportunism and political naivety, others the pressure he was under. A fair account says what he did, what he said, and what it cost others, and does not pretend that the record is simple.