Vienna's traditional New Year concert to drop Nazi arrangement of Radetsky March

Weninger, born in Austria in 1879, studied composition and piano in Vienna before relocating to Germany in 1909 to continue his studies.

In February 1932, he joined the Nazi party. Working within Nazi cultural organisations, he became a successful composer, conductor, and arranger after Hitler assumed power in January 1933.

In addition to writing operettas and classical works, Weninger was responsible for popular arrangements of the party’s anthem, the Horst-Wessel-Lied, as well as hymns dedicated to Hitler and SA paramilitary marches.

He died in February 1940 and his legacy was his Radetsky March arrangement, now scrubbed from the Vienna Philharmonic’s repertoire.

The New Year’s Concert itself has Nazi roots. Beginning life in 1939, its programme of frothy Strauss waltzes, performed in the opulent surrounds of Vienna’s Musikverein, was intended to promote the Austrian capital and boost morale.

Despite its origins, the concerts continued after the war. In 1987, the Philharmonic was led by Herbert von Karajan, who joined the Nazi Party in 1935 and whose conducting career thrived in Nazi-era Germany.

The New Year’s Concert is now broadcast in over 90 countries. The Philharmonic only formally acknowledged the event’s Nazi connections in 2013.