Wagner and the impact of his ideologies on history

The 19th century brought major changes in both science and art in Europe, but the most important changes in this century were ideological. As we know, it was during this period that the communist ideology was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who published the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848, describing the aims and program of the “Communist League”.

While, in the case of communism, we know exactly who the authors of the ideology are, the source of Nazi ideology is not as well known. Many associate it with one of the most important composers of the 19th century, Richard Wagner. Many accuse the German composer of providing a starting point for Hitler’s extremist ideas, but let’s see together whether this was actually the case.

To begin with, let’s look at Wagner, the composer who was both deified and criticized by his contemporaries for his major contribution to opera, as well as for his ideas and aspirations. Born in Leipzig in 1813, which was then part of the Kingdom of Saxony, Richard Wagner began writing operas in his early 20s. Impressed by Beethoven’s changes in music, he wanted to carry on the Bonn composer’s work and tackle new themes in his works that would probably not have been appreciated during the Classical period. Wagner deified Beethoven so much that he even wrote “A Pilgrimage to Beethoven”, a book that at least fictionalizes the meeting of the two, because in reality Richard was only 14 when Beethoven died.

Fascinated by Norse mythology, the young composer began to incorporate Nordic elements into his works, as well as promoting German nationalism. What we need to realize is that nationalism and the idea of the ‘National School’ were increasingly present on the old continent in the 19th century, with Russians, Czechs, Hungarians and even Romanians as examples. Wagner created his own distinctive style, also inspired by this general sense of national belonging and inserting elements from Nordic mythology, which had until then been little known in Europe in the absence of the Marvel films.

However, the series of operas that are accused of fueling the Nazi doctrine comes much later, in 1869, with the opera “Rhine Gold”, which begins the famous Wagnerian tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelungs”. Earlier, in 1850, Wagner, who was also an essayist, published “Das Judenthum in der Musik”, an essay which, in translation, means “Judaism in Music”. In it, Wagner argues that Jewish musicians cannot create authentic German art, a claim that sparks a wave of controversy in 19th century German society and later brings him into direct association with the future “Führer”.

These are not the only reasons that associate the German composer with perhaps the most destructive totalitarian regime. While in Vienna, the young Adolf Hitler would discover the German composer’s works in Vienna, use them as the basis of his extremist ideology and later use his music as a propaganda tool in the new regime in Germany. Although Wagner died decades before Hitler’s rise, his ideas about German art and “cultural purity” were used to justify Nazi ideology.

Another element associating Wagner with Nazism is the famous Bayreuth opera festival. Used by the Nazi regime as an important propaganda venue, it became a place of pilgrimage for music lovers in inter-war Germany. Hitler even used the image of Winifred Marjorie Wagner, the wife of Siegfried Wagner (son of Richard Wagner), who organized the festival from 1930 until the end of the war. Today, the Bayreuth Festival continues to be a prestigious event, but is trying to distance itself from the past associated with Nazism.

The question is, under these circumstances, can we directly associate the German composer with Nazi ideology?

Well, it is certainly hard to understand how a revolutionary artist like Wagner, who had an independent way of thinking and wanted music to free itself from the rigors of Classicism, could have accepted a totalitarian regime and even promoted it. We do not know what the world would have been like without Wagner and whether the promoters of Nazism would have found another source of inspiration for their doctrine, but it must be mentioned once again that Wagner was not the only artist who promoted these nationalist ideas at the time.

Nor should we forget that most of the artists of this period wanted nothing more than to individualize their creations by inserting elements of national folklore into their art. And because we are talking about an era of major social and economic change, we can even see elements of instigating revolts to restore the ‘greatness’ of certain nations.

So, we cannot say that Nazism would not have existed without Wagner, but neither can we deny the influence of his ideologies in this totalitarian regime, which certainly had a major impact on human history. The image of the German composer will probably never be impeccable, but we believe that he should not be stigmatized by the musical world for certain ideological excesses or excesses that he promoted while he was still alive, just as we should not judge artists who were restricted by certain rigors or even wrote at the behest of a communist regime, as art is above ideologies and political regimes that have often used the image of composers or visual artists to motivate their actions or doctrine.