Schoenberg declines a request from the editors-in-chief of the Berlin Börsen Courier to sign an article in support of Otto Klemperer, the Jewish director of Berlin's controversial Kroll Oper. He explains, in part: After some days of absence it was - please do not be offended - fortunately too late to respond to your wish uttered in your letter of February 2... I will n e v e r participate in such public actions: why should I myself increase the number of matters in which I am not heard? I admit that the way how Berlin, in the arts, now turns everything into politics, belongs with the most disgusting things I know. Thus I want to be allowed to confine myself to being disgusted and keep away from any other excitement. In this special case, however, there is something else that prevents me from taking action: I am in negotiations with Klemperer about the production of a new opera of mine, and I cannot give him a vote of confidence other than leaving him my work for performance.

Schoenberg adds with deepest respect and devotion in manuscript preceding his signature.

The "new opera" mentioned in the letter is Schönberg's Von heute auf morgen. Klemperer did not produce it, though; the work was premiered in Frankfurt in 1930.

This significant letter reveals insights into Schoenberg's personality and his complicated political stance prior to WWII, a time when he had many disagreements with several of his colleagues on political grounds, sometimes even leading to their not speaking to him for a few years.