“The Austrians have completed the feat of turning Beethoven into an Austrian, and Hitler into a German.”

— Billy Wilder

Die Österreicher haben das Kunststück fertiggebracht, aus Beethoven einen Österreicher und aus Hitler einen Deutschen zu machen.
As quoted in DER SPIEGEL (16 May 1994) http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9281967.html?name=Sp%26auml%3Bte+Heimkehr)

Original

Die Österreicher haben das Kunststück fertiggebracht, aus Beethoven einen Österreicher und aus Hitler einen Deutschen zu machen.

zitiert in Hellmuth Karasek: Billy Wilder - Eine Nahaufnahme, Hoffmann und Campe, 1992, S. 308, und ders., Späte Heimkehr - über den Wien-Besuch Billy Wilders, DER SPIEGEL 20/1994 vom 16.05.1994, Seite 215-216 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9281967.html?name=Sp%26auml%3Bte+Heimkehr

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Billy Wilder 23

American filmmaker 1906–2002

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“The Austrians have completed the feat of turning Beethoven into an Austrian, and Hitler into a German.”

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