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 The symbolic move, decided in October but not publicly
announced, follows the Philharmonic's publication earlier this
year of details of its conduct during the Nazi era, which it
revealed for the first time.
The orchestra is best known for its New Year's Concert, an
annual gala of Strauss waltzes which is broadcast to millions
around the world. The private foundation that runs it is careful
in managing its image as an icon of musical Vienna.
It has been slowly bowing to pressure to open up about its
conduct during the Nazi years, which it recently called a "dark
period" in its history — including the fact that the New Year's
Concert was invented as a Nazi propaganda instrument.
The orchestra's members voted unanimously to revoke the rings of
honor and Nicolai medals it awarded to six high-ranking Nazi
leaders, said Vienna historian Oliver Rathkolb, who has worked
with the orchestra to document its past.
"That is correct," said Rathkolb, professor of contemporary
history at the University of Vienna, confirming what a source
with knowledge of the situation had told Reuters.
The orchestra referred a request for comment to Rathkolb, who
made a presentation to the orchestra on the subject before its
members voted on it at their Oct. 23 annual meeting.
"There were a lot of questions and a very good debate. They are
still very interested in these issues," Rathkolb said. "From the
point of view of finding a clear-cut approach to the Nazi past,
it was an important symbolic act."
About half the Philharmonic's musicians were Nazi party members
by 1942, four years after Hitler's annexation of Austria, and 13
musicians with Jewish origins or relations were driven out of
the orchestra. Five died in concentration camps.
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 The Nazis whose awards the orchestra revoked
included Baldur von Schirach, the 1940-45 Vienna governor who
described his overseeing of the deportation of tens of thousands of
Jews as a "contribution to European culture" and was later sentenced
to 20 years in jail for crimes against humanity.
The others were Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a Hitler cabinet minister
later sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in the
Nuremberg trials; Salzburg and Carinthia Nazi governor Friedrich
Rainer; SS leader Albert Reitter; Vienna Mayor Hanns Blaschke and
German Reich Railway boss Rudolf Toepfer.
Rathkolb said there was evidence that the orchestra
had planned to present a gold Nicolai medal to Adolf Hitler, but it
was not clear yet whether he received it. If so, it too would be
revoked, he said.
Austrian Green member of parliament Harald Walser, who has long
campaigned for more openness by the orchestra, said the move was
"thoroughly to be welcomed" but the Philharmonic was still a "secret
organization".
Historian Fritz Truempi, who campaigned for years for access to the
orchestra's archive to research his 2011 book "Polisierte Orchester"
("Politicized Orchestra"), said the step was "at least on a symbolic
level, a remarkable decision".
"Ten years ago, it was not even possible to get access to important
documents in the orchestra's archive," he said. So a lot has
happened in a relatively short time."
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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