The
Bayreuth Circle (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: ''Der Bayreuther Kreis'') was a name originally applied by some writers to devotees of
Richard Wagner's music who attended and supported the annual
Bayreuth Festival in the later 19th and early twentieth centuries. As some of these devotees espoused
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
ic
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
politics, and some of them were supporters of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
from the 1920s onwards, this group of people has been associated by some writers with the rise of
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
.
History
The term 'Bayreuth Circle' was originally applied to the enthusiasts of Wagner's music who were also associated with or subscribed to the publication ''
Bayreuther Blätter'', established in the 1880s by Wagner himself and edited by
Hans von Wolzogen
Baron Hans Paul von Wolzogen (13 November 1848 in Potsdam – 2 June 1938 in Bayreuth), was a German man of letters, editor and publisher. He is best known for his connection with Richard Wagner.
Childhood
Wolzogen's father, Alfred von Wolzoge ...
. This journal, apart from containing snippets by Wagner himself on social, political and aesthetic matters, was also strongly
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
ic and
anti-Semitic. Its circulation was small and it was not politically influential.
After the death of Wagner in 1883, his second wife
Cosima, in continuing to propagate what she saw as her husband's views, was supported by a number of active anti-Semites, including
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific ...
and
Ludwig Schemann. Schemann, the founder of the German
Gobineau Society, 'did a great deal to bring
Gobineau's term 'Aryan' into vogue amongst German racists'. Chamberlain (d. 1927), who wrote an influential anti-Semitic book, ''
The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
''The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century'' (''Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts,'' 1899) is a book by British-born German philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In the book, Chamberlain advances various racialist and especially ''v ...
, ''married Eva Wagner, daughter of the composer.
Assertions of political influence
There never was any organisation named the 'Bayreuth Circle' or any group of people who identified themselves by that name, but the term has been used by some historians from about the 1960s onwards as a convenient label for Hitler supporters associated with Bayreuth. Examples of such association are given in the following citations.
:"Only with timely support from the Bayreuth circle, especially
Houston S. Chamberlain,
Winifred Wagner
Winifred Marjorie Wagner ( Williams; 23 June 1897 – 5 March 1980) was the English-born wife of Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, and ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1 ...
, and henchmen like
Dietrich Eckhart in the Thule Society, could the unimpressive Hitler assume the self- then public image of a Wotan/Siegfried figure, complete with telling nickname: "Wolf." "
:"Thus Hitler himself admitted: `It was Cosima Wagner's merit to have created the link between Bayreuth and National Socialism'. It was the Bayreuth circle which raised Wagner's message to the status of gospel, manoeuvring his ideas into a Germanic-Christian doctrine of salvation."
Strong on assertion, such statements are void of supporting evidence: it should be borne in mind that Eckhardt died in 1923, Chamberlain was dead in 1927, and Cosima Wagner in 1930, i.e. before the first political victory of the Nazi party in the September 1930 elections. Whilst these personages were (or would have been) undoubtedly supporters of Hitler, they played little or no part, and had no influence, in his climb to power. These citations also make the typical, and unsubstantiated, assumption of many modern historians that the German people in general (or even active Nazis in particular) knew, or cared, anything at all about Wagner or his operas.
Evidence for any political active role played by a 'Bayreuth Circle' as a group is therefore highly contentious.
Personalities cited as members
Amongst those often listed as 'members' of a Hitlerian Bayreuth Circle are Cosima Wagner (d. 1930), second wife of the composer,
Winifred Wagner
Winifred Marjorie Wagner ( Williams; 23 June 1897 – 5 March 1980) was the English-born wife of Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, and ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1 ...
, wife of the composer's son
Siegfried, and H. S. Chamberlain. None of the Wagners, however, played any personally active role in the Nazi movement, although Hitler was undoubtedly influenced by Chamberlain's ''Foundations of the Nineteenth Century''. Chamberlain himself joined the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
and contributed to its publications. The Nazi journal ''
Völkischer Beobachter
The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...
'' dedicated five columns to praising him on his 70th birthday, describing ''Foundations'' as the "gospel of the Nazi movement". Hitler later attended Chamberlain's funeral in January, 1927 along with several highly ranked members of the Nazi party. Other members of the putative 'Circle', such as Winifred Wagner, were sycophants of Hitler, partly from political sympathy, partly in the hopes of obtaining advantages (including financial support) for the Bayreuth Festival. There is however no evidence that the actions of either Chamberlain or Winifred Wagner - or others associated with Bayreuth - led Hitler to power or had any influence over him once he obtained it.
Bayreuth and Nazi appropriation of German culture
Later in the Nazi era, as part of the regime's propaganda intentions of 'Nazifying' German culture, specific attempts were made to appropriate Wagner's music as 'Nazi' and pseudo-academic articles appeared such as Paul Bulow's ''Adolf Hitler and the Bayreuth Ideological Circle'' (Zeitschrift fur Musik, July 1933). Such articles, as pointed out by cultural historian
Frederic Spotts, were Nazi attempts to rewrite history to demonstrate that Hitler was integral to German culture. Modern writers who assert any political or social significance to the 'Bayreuth circle' risk falling into the traps thus set by Nazi ideologues.
[Frederic Spotts '' Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival'']
See also
*
Wagner controversies
The German composer Richard Wagner was a controversial figure during his lifetime, and has continued to be so after his death. Even today he is associated in the minds of many with Nazism and his operas are often thought to extol the virtues of G ...
Literature
*Evans, Richard J., ''The Coming of the Third Reich'', London 2003.
*Altgeld, Wolfgang, "Wagner, der Bayreuther Kreis und die Entwicklung des völkischen Denkens". In: ''Richard Wagner 1883-1983,'' ed. U. Müller. Stuttgart 1984, S. 35-64. Considers Wagner's relationships with Bayreuth enthusiasts in his own lifetime.
*Schüler, Winfried, ''Der Bayreuther Kreis von seiner Entstehung bis zum Ausgang der Wilhelminischen Ära. Wagnerkult und Kulturreform im Geiste völkischer Weltanschauung.'' Münster 1971. Deals with Bayreuth enthusiasts of the late nineteenth century.
*Spotts, Frederic, ''Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival'', 1996
Notes
External links
Wagner’s great-grandson confronts his heritageDecember 11, 2003
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peo ...
article, mentions the 'Bayreuth Circle' in passing.
The 1939 Ban on Parsifalasserts, without explanation or reference, influence of the 'Bayreuth Circle' in the 1880s and 1890s on interpretation of Wagner under the Nazis.
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Wagner studies
Bayreuth
Early Nazism (–1933)