Overview

• His wife confirmed to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that he died Saturday in Munich at age 95, two days before his 96th birthday.
• Born on September 8, 1929, in Berlin, he studied law and music in Munich and began his professional path when Georg Solti brought him to Oper Frankfurt in 1952.
• At 27 he became Germany’s youngest Generalmusikdirektor in Lübeck, later leading the Hamburg State Opera from 1977 to 1984, where he championed younger directors before leaving after protracted disputes with works and supervisory councils.
• He took the helm of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1984, later served as principal conductor of London’s Philharmonia in 1996, guest conducted at the Orchestre de Paris in 1998, and led Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2011.
• His family history was marked by resistance to Nazism, with his father Hans executed at Sachsenhausen and a maternal link to theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while his survivors include five children, among them actor Justus von Dohnányi.