Confronting The Past

In a new book, Gottfried Wagner takes on his family,
including his great-grandfather Richard Wagner,
the-19th-century composer branded for his anti-Semitism.

JUDITH BOLTON-FASMAN

death in 1980. "Being a Wagner," he
says suddenly and softly, "means being
labeled as a Nazi Wagner."
The struggle to transcend that label
is a leitmotif in Wagner's dark and
contentious new memoir, Twilight of
the Wagners (Picador; $25). The fami-
ly's Nazism, Gottfried says, is inexplic-
ably intertwined with Richard
Wagner's music.
The elder Wagner once predicted
that listening to his music would drive
men wild. Indeed, confirms Gottfried,
his ancestor's compositions do touch
violent chords of feeling and thought
in its listeners.

Kampfis a conscious paean to Wagner

in both style and content. If one takes
Gottfried at his word, Hitler suddenly
transforms into the ideal Wagnerite.
ottfried Wagner begins his
"Hitler and Wagner," writes Gottfried,
telephone interview with
"are therefore part of my life, a con-
the Jewish News with a
nection that created in me a strong
question of his own: "Is it
identity crisis."
strange for a Jew to be talking to
Over the years that personal identi-
Richard Wagner's great-grandson?"
ty
crisis
has been the basis of
The 52-year-old proceeds to hold
Gottfried's very public quarrel with his
court about his family — in particular
father, Wolfgang, and other family
about his grandmother (and Richard
members. At the root of the crisis is
Wagner's daughter-in-law) Winifred
not just Richard Wagner's music, but
— and her close relationship to Hitler.
also the anti-Semitic tracts that he
It becomes evident throughout the
penned for several decades.
conversation that Gottfried is a man
"The Jews," wrote Richard
who wants to con-
Wagner
in his 1850 essay
fess his family's sins,
`Jews and Music,' "are a
to explain why he is
swarming colony of worms on
different from
the dead body of art.
them, to note why
It is hardly shocking to see
he has no illusions
anti-Semitism
motivating art.
about his family
It
was,
after
all,
the muse of
history.
choice for the likes of T.S.
Gottfried grew
Eliot, Ezra Pound and Franz
up in Bayreuth,
Liszt. But Gottfried suggests
Germany, where
that Richard Wagner's anti-
life revolved around
Semitism was so intense that
the annual
his hatred actually anticipated
Bayreuth opera fes-
National Socialism.
tival. There, the
And then there is Bayreuth,
family and
the Wagner's family estate and
Germans from
home to the annual Bayreuth
miles around came
festival. In the 1920s, the
to praise the vision
annual homage to Richard
of Richard Wagner.
Gottfried Wagner: Ostracized by his family, he finds solace in his
Wagner's music was a meeting
Isolated and igno-
wife's Italian relatives and in the company of Jews who savor the
place for German society.
rant of Hitler's plan to • irony of a Wagner immersed in commemoration of the Holoc aust.
Siegfried Wagner, Richard and
extinguish world
Cosima Wagner's only son and hus-
That music also is inextricably tied
Jewry, Gottfried, as he grew older,
band to Winifred, ran the festival.
to the ideology of its creator. Richard
became aware of the German dictator's
Gottfried relates that when Hitler
Wagner, asserts Gottfried, was not so
place in history. When he questioned
presented himself there in 1923, the
much used by the Nazis as he was an
his family, they first denied the
latter "knocked on the door, presented
early prototype Of them.
Holocaust had taken place. While
his card and declared that 'Wagner is
To
emphasize
the
point,
Gottfried
admitting Hitler was a huge fan of
my religion.'" Siegfried (a less rabid
a
major
"Mein
Kampfis
asserts
that
Wagnerian opera, they denied knowing
anti-Semite than his wife) and
exposure of Richard Wagner's philoso-
Hitler personally and any familiarity
Winifred's children, including the
phy. Once you dig a little, you know
with his politics.
author's father, called the German
precisely that as a teenager Hitler saw
But Gottfried found old family
fuhrer "Uncle Wolf."
Wagner's operas performed, and based
photos, featuring Hitler, in the attic.
Gottfried, who was born in 1947,
on those performances, he decided to
He points out that his grandmother
lived
on the grounds of Bayreuth dur-
save
Germany
from
the
Jews.
When
Winifred was an unrepentant support-
ing
his
childhood. The festival, which
he
was
unemployed
as
a
young
man
in
er of National Socialism until her
had been suspended during the World
Vienna, Hitler was obsessed with
Judith Bolton-Fasman is books editor
War II, resumed in full artistic bloom
Wagner's racial theories."
for the Baltimore Jewish Times.
in the late 1940s.
According to Gottfried, Mein

Special to the Jewish News

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7/30
1999

72 Detroit Jewish News

Above, from top to bottom:

Cosima, Siegfried
and Richard Wagner
in Bayreuth, 1873.

Winifred Wagner
greets Adolph Hitler.

Gottfried Wagner
and his wifi, Teresina,
photographed in front
of the synagogue at
Masada, 1990.