Some rare good news
Berlin’s unique new music academy
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170109173200im_/http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/20161217_BKP508.jpg)
IN JUNE 1998 Bernd Kaufmann, then general manager for event planning in Weimar, the “European Capital of Culture” in 1999, invited Daniel Barenboim to perform. Initially Mr Barenboim said no: he was already fully occupied as pianist, director of the Berlin State Opera, and conductor of the Staatskappelle Berlin and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But when Mr Neumann persisted, underlining the importance of Weimar as the town of Goethe and Schiller and the cradle of German democracy, as well as the place of Buchenwald, a former Nazi concentration camp. Mr Barenboim was convinced.