Eva Maria Chamberlain (née von Bülow; 17 February 1867 – 26 May 1942) was the daughter of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and

Cosima Wagner Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German co ...

, and the wife of

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 ra ...

. When she was born, her mother was still married to

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for es ...

. Through her mother, she was also a granddaughter of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. With her siblings Isolde and

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

, Eva was brought up by a house teacher. In 1906, Eva took over the care of her sick mother at Villa Wahnfried in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

. She also took care of her mail, and was the only family member to have access to the family archive. Eva stated that "her mother had expressed the wish that the diaries be in her daughter's hands." In 1908 she married Houston Stewart Chamberlain. They acquired a stately villa – now the Jean Paul Museum – next to the Villa Wahnfried, and moved into it in 1916. In the 1920s and 1930s, she and her half-sister Daniela were the head of the Altwagnerians who opposed any modernization of Richard Wagner's works. In 1933 she received the

honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of the city of Bayreuth. She was also a bearer of the

Golden Party Badge __NOTOC__ The Golden Party Badge (german: Goldenes Parteiabzeichen) was an award authorised by Adolf Hitler in a decree in October 1933. It was a special award given to all Nazi Party members who had, as of 9 November 1933, registered numbers fr ...

of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

. When she died of cancer in 1942, she was given an honorary funeral by the NSDAP, in which

Adolf Wagner Adolf Wagner (1 October 1890 – 12 April 1944) was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as the Party's ''Gauleiter'' in Munich and as the powerful Interior Minister of Bavaria throughout most of the Third Reich. Early years Born in ...

(unrelated) gave the eulogy.

Gallery

Richard Wagner with Eva 1867 at Tribschen.jpg, Richard Wagner with Eva 1867 File:Cosima Wagner and her daughter Eva in Bayreuth, 1906.jpg, Cosima Wagner with her daughter Eva, 1906

Gallery

References

Further reading