Why Hitler adored Richard Wagner
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- For years, Hitler was a star guest at the Bayreuth Festival, the consecration site par excellence for Wagner's operas. The dictator saw himself as a Wagnerian and basically became a part of the Wagner family, which managed the composer's legacy. He even interfered in the organization of the festival, helping to decide on the program and staging. The cult of Richard Wagner, who had died 50 years before Hitler came to power, was politically fueled by Hitler's presence. Wagner's music, in turn, fueled Hitler's delusions of grandeur. But how did Hitler come to idolize Wagner? Was it simply because of Wagner's anti-Semitism, which he gave free rein to in his infamous pamphlet "On Judaism in Music"? Was it the Germanic heroic sagas that Wagner set to music and that Hitler was able to exploit for his ideology? Was it the pull of Wagner's music? With scholars and musicians, this episode of Arts Unveiled explores how Hitler's fervent admiration of Wagner turned his music into the soundtrack of National Socialism. And what Hitler's appropriation of Wagner means for the way we deal with his music today.
00:00 Intro: Why Hitler idolized Wagner
3:56 Reason 1: Hitler loved heroic tales
7:15 Reason 2: Hitler’s own dashed dreams of becoming an artist
8:28 Reason 3: Hitler and Wagner were both anti-semites
14:57 Reason 4: Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival energized Hitler
17:39 Reason 5: The Wagners were a surrogate family for Hitler
20:44 Reason 6: Wagner’s operas became the soundtrack of dictatorship
22:17 Reason 7: Wagner encouraged Hitler’s megalomania
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"Wagner was the greatest artist of melancholy in history." Nietzsche
Nitzsche could not understand fully the transcendental approach of Wagner. Like Karl Ritter he remained on the surface. Thats why Schopenhauser was more an idol for RW. Still today most who are attracted dont understand fully but are drawn to the operas since they do tell us about 'real' life and death.
@@uraniastern5755 you have no idea what you are talking about
Please tell me where he said this. I've read through his collected works multiple times and I'm pretty sure you made this up, or got fooled.
Also hi Mr. Fin, you're gonna be mister Finnegan!
There's that part where he's talking about Wagner, then he says more generally something to the effect of "some artist have the perfect chords to say the melancholy of late autumn better than anybody, but want to make masterpieces because they're too arrogant." Or something similar, but he's not referring to Wagner
Is this a sly reference to the Wagner-Nietzsche connection?
@@johnlinley2702 didn't they have a fallout?
The emotions Wagner's music conveys cannot be expressed with words, they are too powerful, like a force of Nature. I can still recall the first time I heard Wagner's music. I must have been 8 or 10 years old when I heard part of Tannhauser's overture on TV. I was transfixed immediately, as if the music possessed a hypnotic quality, taking me into a realm that lies beyond what humans normally experience. At that time I had never heard the name 'Wagner', but the music stayed in my memory, and later I was able to identify the genius behind this and other masterpieces thanks to a radio program. Regarding the dictator, I can only say that he had an awesome musical taste, and that he must have felt deep within himself the same emotions that I and other Wagnerites are familiar with.
Inhumane though he was, this was the one thing that reminds me that he was still just human. I cannot and will not elevate Hitler to supervillain status on the grounds that he was only a man.
The man died in 1883 leave him alone. He didn’t even know AH
Yeah sure he did nothing wrong! Hate speech and antisemitism are not that bad. 🤡
Relevance? It's about how hatefully anti-semitic he was, and how that influenced Hitler. Racist anti-semitism didn't just appear the moment Hitler was born.
Wagner was a Titan of opera and classical music along with Bach, Corelli, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler etc. Every person great or small Jewelry or Gentile have their dark sides. Wagner the antisemite still made great music for all Humanity.
Jewelry ??? or JEWRY ???
@@puhnpicker Jewelry of course, lol.
@@danawinsor1380 😂😂😂😂
Wagner was indeed a musical Titan.
Please don't forget Berlioz. Much more humane in his ideas than Wagner.
When I was in my early thirties I knew nothing of opera. By chance, I attended a performance of "Lohengrin" in Vienna. It changed my life, turned me into a great Wagner and opera fan. Just like Hitler! But I'm a Jew and a scientist. Forty years later, I still love Wagner, even though his hateful ideas are known to me. His music, and the libretti, are beautiful, profound and full of love for humanity. His racial. theories are trivial, confused, stupid and wrong. They are of no interest whatsoever. The music will live on forever. Wagner was one of the greatest artists who ever lived.
The finale of Act I of Lohengrin is a miracle of composition. Wagner interweaves five voices, a full chorus, and the orchestra. I can see why it changed your life.
I'm just curious. What area of science are you in?
@@greg1mcintosh844 Particle Physics
@@stefan2292 mathematical physicist here, although my main area is gravitational physics I have worked in particle physics a bit, mainly application of topology to the magnetic charge characterization of the Higgs field
@@stefan2292 oh.....just curious, if so, what then is the nature of the universe?
Hitler did not need Wagner to carry out his psychotic ends.
Hitler was obviously not a very intelligent consumer of Wagner’s music dramas. In all of Wagner’s operas there is an opposition between power and love (power is seen as the opposite of love) and all of the good characters renounce power to pursue love. Hitler obviously missed or overlooked this fundamental detail
Good comment
He was actually very intelligent that I can assure you.
@@henryhunter1876 different kind of intelligence
@@ToxicTurtleIsMad intelligent enough to do what no other human being has done.
@@henryhunter1876 you have no idea what you are talking about
When I started to listen to Wagners’ Works , I couldn’t stop listening to this inqualifiable Music , night and days . I followed the German Libretti to get inspired by a part of “ German soul “ . This Musik completely changed my mind and Word perception for a mere thirty years . Thanks god this tremendous period is back now .
You obviously must've gone mad then...
@@sirrobinofloxley7156 yes I have gone mad
What tremendous period? Nazism? Do explain, Vladimir.
He had excellent taste in music. Simple as that.
I agree, Wagner was what got me into Classical music and I will forever be grateful I stumbled across his (Wagners) music. He is one of my favorite composers right next to Dvorak, Beethoven and Bach.
Stephen fry's documentary is a good view about Wagner, healthy and passionate about Wagner's own personality and intentions, which is not entirely just about Hitler and Antisemitism. In fact Wagner shows the human side of Hitler, showing his interest, passion and empathy.
Aha. Empathy. Hmmm.
@@joestrummer1962 Even evil people can feel empathy. Hitler's cope was in calling people "ungerman". Eventually he declared that his entire generation of Germans were "not German enough" and therefore deserved to lose the war.
Rienzi has nothing to do with the Roman Empire, the action passes in Rome, but in XIV century.
H...r's love of Wagner's music was more typical for his (H...r's) younger years. With time he began to like Franz Lehar's operettas, until eventually he liked them more than Wagner's operas. And Lehar is a very different composer.
Why mask Hitlers name? It's not like don't know who he was and what he stood for.
Great Doc!
When I was 17 I stopped going to church and it’s all because of Wagner, his music did something to me that religion never could, I thought Wagner must be God. At 17 I knew nothing about Wagner the man but later when I started to study Wagner his music and personal life I was always able to separate the man and the music. Wagner is certainly not alone with hateful thoughts and he’s not the first and won’t be the last but I do know that he makes me feel something that is magical and pure and I will always love him for that.
Thank you for sharing your story. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences with our community.
I love Wagner because his music is very uplifting and inspirational.
That's not something that's favoured for Europeans to enjoy, even though it is distinctly European and German the widest spoken language in Europe. Imagine Beijing operas were frowned upon, like in the Cultural revolution, that's what's happening in Europe.
@@sirrobinofloxley7156You're sure about that, are you? Plenty of Germans and other Europeans still go and listen to Wagner operas.
@@sirrobinofloxley7156 What a pity. That attitude should beprotested. It's great muisc, great art, and it should be performed.
@@sirrobinofloxley7156 The widest spoken language in Europe is English. German is widely spoken as a first language.
If we only listened to and admired artist who were perfect in all ways, there would be no art to enjoy today.
Everyone has their bad qualities, and some are worse than others. No one is perfect, some are truly horrible
Wagners music is what is listened to and NOT his evil antisemitic rantings. Wagners music is an important part of musical and human history.
True but the real important discussion is whether the work itself is antisemitic. And I think the experience of Wagner is enhanced if you know the contradictions of the man who wrote it. Its not the sacred work of a 2nd Jesus but the expression of a deeply flawed and psychologically violent personality that still manages to touches us. What does it say about human nature?
Wagner's works are not anti semitic.
@@paulhoffmann3405 Surprisingly, in fact, Wagner's operas have less violence in them than those written by most other opera composers. And he was not known for violent behavior; and was very kind to animals.
Hm did you hear "Rienzi" or "Leubald"? Thats why i wrote psychologically violent. He hurt with words and music and called for violent actions.
Period
Well done piece. We can never know what Wagner himself would have thought of AH. The music though, the music is transcendent.
Wagner would have despised him
I think we have abundant reason to think Wagner would have been appalled by AH and would have been just as horrified as any other decent person by the horrors of the Third Reich.
@@danawinsor1380 exactly
@@danawinsor1380
I agree.
No we never can. But it is a matter of record that all surviving members of his immediate family and two out of Wagner's three grandchildren embraced AH
Thank you so much for the video! This was quite informative. One question: during the part of the video where Wagner‘s wife in her diary, quotes Wagner , saying, “ all Jews should burn in a performance of Nathan”, what would a “performance of Nathan” be?
Thank you for your kind words. The quote you were asking about is referring to a tragedy that happened while the performance of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's "Nathan the Wise", which highlights the principles of humanism and tolerance during the Enlightenment. In her diary, Cosima Wagner is referring to a correspondence with her husband where she had told him about a fire in a Vienna theater which killed hundreds of people, half of them Jews, during a performance of Lessing's play. Wagner replied: "All Jews should burn to death in a performance of 'Nathan'."
@@DWHistoryandCulture Is this correspondence extant, or are we relying on Cosima's diary?
@@DWHistoryandCulture That's really ugly.
The two go hand in hand. It doesn't ruin it at all for me.
In fact................ It might even enchance it for you....................................
👍🏻👍🏻👌🏻
Lol
“I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says.” Oscar Wilde
Funny, but much of his music is quite quiet and reserved.
Only Oscar Wilde would I allow to say something like that! Fortunately, as an avowed Wagner devotee (and Oscar Wilde fan) I hope I will always keep my sense of humor! Mark Twain is supposed to have said, "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
Gioacchino Rossini said, “ Wagner’s music has some fine moments, but awful half-hours.”
Stephen Fry and lnspector Morse love Wagners music
Many do
As did Lt.Col Kilgore in 'Apocalypse Now' and the Warner Brother's cartoon studios!
I have learned to distinguish between the art and the artist. I can consume or enjoy a magnificent piece of art without embracing the artist as a person.
Exactly, examples abound. Picasso is the first one to come to my mind.
Wagner’s operas are about the love of a great woman who saves the man or his memory.
It is justifiable and fair to vilify Adolf Hitler, for the man was, in his heart, vile. To do the same to Richard Wagner is not fair. He labored all his life to perfect operatic music. His music is uplifting and of very high spirituality. Wagner's shortcomings should be acknowledged and forgiven. Jewish contemporaries of Wagner were among his friends. One of the leading operatic conductors in Wagner's time was Jewish and was honored to conduct the premier of Parsifal. This video has way too much hatred in it.
HA Ha Ha!
To be fair, at the time of wagner, many high profile germans with aristocratic background were antisemitic. It wasn't a fringe thing.
“Music soothes the savage beast.”
Not always.
" Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast". William Congreve.
Can you hear the finale of the overture to tannhauser, 16:47 ?
Does anyone have this version of this record from this overture used in this video?
Thx,
Many of the facts mentioned in this documentary have been shown to be false or at least debatable. You can find a well documented reference in the following book Hitler's Wagner: A Very Thin Book Every Word the "Disciple" Said About His "Prophet".
I learned about Wagner in the 1970s. Wagner was probably banned in Poland.
- I like Wagner's music. I would like to see you at the Bahjojt festival someday.
I had recently learned about Wagner and Bayreuth through Friedrich Nietzsche very interesting to say the least. Also the Nibelungen is an excellent opera.
wonderful and important document; I think unfortunately for Wagner, certain aspects of his music and life has been perverted by subsequent history.
They were both right.
YES
Wagner created music-drama so he outshines not only the Greeks, but also Mozart and Beethoven. Only Shakespeare can be said to equal his dramatic force. Wagner was, perhaps, the most brilliant artist of all time. Imperishable.
A conductor has a heart attack because of what he eats not because he was conducting Wagner.
I think the strain of waving your arms around for 4-5 hours, whilst standing in a hot and stuffy orchestra pit, might push you over the edge. Especially if you've got a bad heart to begin with.
@@ftumschk Yes. I agree. But you have to have plaques ready to break off to begin with, which can cause a heart attack at any time. But the video was not saying he had a heart attack due to physical exertion.
@@Jan96106 There was no need to say it, because conducting Tristan is onerous even for a healthy conductor. I've no doubt that, if Clemens Krauss had stayed home that day instead of conducting Tristan, he'd have been fine.
To put it simply, music is a higher revelation than politics or any narrow ideology. I think everybody who truly loves art knows it. I find the stand of that artist condemning Wagner music to be purely ignorant..typical cancel culture....
Joseph Stalin, a mass murderer also had his favorite piece of music as well: Mozart piano Concerto 20 D minor.....so what?!
A great many artists were absolutely awful people. If you cannot divorce the creator from his creation, you will end up liking no art at all.
That’s crazy. Then he gave Wagner’s operas a bad name. His operas were old Europe. Old Germany. Maypole Bavarian Germany.
There's nothing old about the direction he took music.
We know how H/tler and his love for Wagner. Why is this documentary seems to be framing this connection between the madman and the artist much like those School shooters in the US and blaming such violence to Heavy Metal music or Rap music. Rather simplistic view from my perspective. Could used the documentary as springboard about the history and situation that shaped these two people. What they might agree and what might not agree. Why not discuss King Ludwig II and his direct patronage to Wagner and the things that developed with the interaction between the two.
Because DW&EU is liberal sectarianism. Liberalists always make a political context for everything.
well done !
Can you make another video explaing why Strauss was head of Reichmusikkammer?
Very well presented. I enjoyed this short documentary. More Power to DW!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@DWHistoryandCulture Ausgezeichnet!
Can magnificence be understood by those who cannot understand magnificence? Surely magnificence is for those who are magnificent and only they can breed magnificence itself! What we have been shown here is the grand orchestra of life can be ran with sublime accuracy, both on and off the stage, and that only the truly magnificent can produce that which is their birth right.
"Can magnificence be understood by those who cannot understand magnificence?" Um, no. And that's the most cogent thing you wrote.
Muy interesante; digno de una investigación profunda.
So proud to be living in Bayreuth🤚🙌
Wagner died in 1883 & he was not the only one who had stupid ideas. I think the difference lies in the extent: what would have Wagner done if confronted with the moral dilemma of actually knowing people were being sent to their deaths? We can't tell.
Of course we can tell, he'd laugh at the idea, knowing that of course it never happened!
Martin Luther was anti semite too
@@sirrobinofloxley7156 Some act you've got going there.
Wagner siempre a tenido un trance sin igual en mi, sus operas son grandilocuentes cómo pienso que es la vida, trágica y mortal, pero bella y con posibilidades, realista y pesimista son sus obras, que sin embargo me elevan cada que suenan en mi cabeza piezas como Rienzi O Faust
Wagner was ome of the greatest composers ever.
He changed the opera so drastically into modernity than no one else.
He would have been considered as the greatest german composer, if who wouldn't have been an antisemetic
What?
Bach, Beethoven?
One can separate the art from the artist. Wagner's music can be appreciated for what it is, great artistry. And simply listening to his music don't make one anti-semitic.
Apparently it makes you mad though, or dead...
Not to mention world music and what has been going on there for thousands of years, it is basically unchartered territory. A German friend once visited me in Asia and went to see Das Rheingold at the local opera house, confirming later that the locals sang well in German. I found the approach quite curious, wondering why the person didn't go to discover local music instead. Now I understand the huge spot Wagner still occupies in German musical education, which is why my friend looked to him as the reference, even travelling far away from home.
Blaming the greatest artistic genius in the history of mankind for the deliriums of a mad man, in a world that was anti semitic for millenia is like blaming Jesus and other prophets for the hedious crimes of religion perpetrated in their names.
Totally agree!
Wagner a greater genious than Bach, Beethoven or Mozart? I don't think so.
Actively being anti-semitic by publishing hateful pamphlets goes a bit further than the 'casual' anti-semitism of the time, though
@@javierarreaza5601 Yes, he was a greater genius than Bach snd Mozart. Wagner was not only a great composer but a great writer (his librettos are masterpieces alone) and a great thinker. No cultural figure had a bigger impact than Wagner
@@javierarreaza5601 I think it depends upon one's field, in Wagner's case, that of opera, or as he called them, music dramas, in which he took an art form and transformed it into a super art. I would say that Beethoven reigned supreme as a symphonist, (although some are pretty mediocre), but he only wrote one opera, and frankly, that just wasn't his forte. Bach never wrote an opera, and composed several awesome musical works, but also a very great deal of frankly boring music that is largely forgotten. Ditto for Mozart. He wrote much delightful music, including several splendid operas. But the point is, Wagner's works are more complex musically, and more intellectual dramatically than anyone's. Also more innovative, especially with the use of the leitmotiv. They were also bigger, grander, indicative of a nobility of dramatic conception that must raise them to an unprecedented level. Finally is the fact that in so many of his operas, the choral and orchestral melodies are simply beautiful and mesmerizing.
Why you dont put this material innthe spanish dw? Why?
Thanks for your feedback! We're working on it!
I wonder if John Williams was inspired by Richard Wagner when he wrote the Imperial March for Star Wars.
Most likely Wagner or Gustav Holst planet Mars movement
@@heraldojacques8386 Holst was influenced by W as were a lot of other composers.
How low has DW fallen.
Huge fan of Wagner. I’ve studied his music and history. The man was a musical and artistic genius. Love his music.
But we only need Mozart's symphonies.
You're obviously mad by now then
@@laurenth7187 not gonna lie, I don’t think I could go through his entire Ring Cycle.
The fact that Wagner was a jerk, does not alter the fact that he was the greatest composer of opera in German.
@@valerietaylor9615 Except for Mozart
Wagner war ein großer Künstler. Hitler war begeistert von seiner Musik wie auch viele andere Menschen, auch Menschen die der genaue Gegensatz von Hitler sind, Wagnerfan waren und sind!
I totally agree with S.Hunter279. And further: calling Wagner's music "Bombastic" is a proof of lack of musicallity. Look at "BBC Great composer: Wagner" where for instance the "jewish" genius Georg Steiner is (as about Triumph des Willens grom Leni Riefenstahl) making sense; as dit Stephen Fry and Daniel Barenboim who had the guts to do Wagner in Tel Aviv. Wagners real father was a jew (Josef Geyer) and in the days of Wagner antisemitism was endemic in Europe (that is the reason Theodor Herzl invented ). Mendelssohn for instance (who father was a banker and bought an orchestra for him) took the name Bartoldy to have a chance of becoming a high function in music, as Mahler who became katholic to become the director of the Vienna Opera. When I heard the ouverture to Lohengrin for the firsttime a mas flabeergested, overwhelm to what he did with violins, bases and contrabases...in a fine building up of an fantastic subtile climax.....Your documenairy is a piece of jalous gossip, it is nearly pathetic. And like Wagners (ex)friend Nietsche ("Gott ist Tot) I would say: "Alle Lust will Ewigkeit, nur Ewigkeit" and then a performance of 5 hours (like I saw in the beste concerthouse of the world with the best orchestra of the world in Amsterdam: "Het Concertgebouworkest") is like a good essential existentialistic dream. Thank you Wagner, but also thank you Johann Sebastiaan Bach, thank you Felix Mendelssohn, thank you Debussy (who composed "Golliwogs Cakewalk" as a variation of the Tristan motive). I would dream of having a tiny little bit (1%?) of the originality, creativeness and productiveness of Richard Wagner!
Hitlers favorite composer was actually Bruckner.
I've never ever heard that. What's your source?
Happy Birthday, #RichardWagner210! 🎉🥳🎈🎂
OKAY EVERYBODY! When the horrific Uncle A comes around, just soothe him! He can be soothed by Wagner! This is confirmed by documentaries! Do it and do it now!
I adore Wagner. Why emphasize his anti Semitism long after he is dead ?
Because a lunatic became his greatest fan thereafter....
@@arinaina4262 Two lunatics!
@@KingAeetes
Oooops
@@KingAeetes - I don't think King Ludwig II as a Lunatic but more eing too eccentric or idiosyncratic, a harmless at that, compared to Hit/er.
Cause wagner inspired people
Much of the world today is about the opposite and making everything grey. I mean compare triumph of the will to a modern commercial ad and you can see this negative energy in the ads where as that propaganda was about inspiring and building up
He didn't. Liszt's Preludes was his favorite piece.
"Wagner's music is better than it sounds." -- Mark Twain
Pretty sure twain hated Wagner. He thought it wasn't very contrapuntal and boring
@@tcaw8813 ironic because Wagner hated counterpoint, at least up to his second half of life
@@f.p.2010 Why? I really want to understand Wagner, I've been trying to watch his operas, but they haven't struck me yet. It took me a couple readings to think Dante was insanely amazing, do you think it's like this with Wagner? I was really confused by his lack of counterpoint too when I first started trying it.
@@tcaw8813 he replaces traditional counterpoint with the use of leitmotifs, which in a way is a different kind of counterpoint. Later on he uses more traditional counterpoint too
@@tcaw8813 and Wagner called counterpoint something like The academic music without soul or something along those lines
I'm a Wagner from the Caribbean. And it's like we don't even exist there. But in Germany a whole next level.
Blessed be the wagner's legacy
Hidden critique in this
Wagner was a supremely gifted composer. Listen to him for the music even while being aware of his failings as a person. Just like Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson? Do you mean the character in P.G. Wodehouse's Psmith books? I didn't realise anybody read them any more but I'm pleasantly surprised.
I thought about MJ, too. All the people giving Wagner a pass, would they, do they, give Jackson a pass, too?
Oh please leave MJ alone, he didn't do anything gross that the media said when he was still alive, he adored kids and and he let them into his house because he wasn't as cocky as other celebrities, and he really adored and cared for nature, I know his childhood wasn't easy, but even a kid that was interrogated as one of Michael's "victims" didn't know what to sa, his father told him what to say, later that kid said that nothing was true, is easy to manipulate a child, especially when a father wants the money of some very famous man.
The only thing I would compare Wagner and MJ would be that both were perfectionists with their work, they knew their wn music very well and both cared for the staging. MJ is probably the most influential pop singer and dancer of all time.
Now I know this world has gone crazy... To compare a pop artist to one of the musical greats defies logic, emotion and awareness.. Sheesh!
@@Saxondog Two very different kettle of fish. Michael Jackson was a fine pop entertainer, whose vocal gifts transcended rather ordinary pop and R and B music. Richard Wagner is one of a small handful of the greatest composers to ever live. To my knowledge however Wagner never molested any children whereas we really don't know with Michael Jackson.
I am and I will always be a devoted Wagnerian ❤️
Because he had good taste in music.
Antisemitism was a scourge which was part of the European society during the time that Wagner grew up. People are shaped by the society that they grow up in. As a composer Wagner is a genius and that can't be wished away. Ofc we have to condemn his antisemitic views.
Saw the movie and Mr Richard Burten was so inspiring and close to the mein dilema of sense and artistry----i recomend the movie--yet w/Niettcze i hardly recognized him. It sempt that end all to be all was Wagner---and that FOLKS was the artist squeezing blood out of a rock---tho the blood is his own....and i wont say the Wagneriins.......---hatred strife murder etc all of the base heart that we all 've been down,
i think this and the movie makes me know i too have this hatred and not as strong/wrong LUST FOR LIFE,
❤ Richard Wagner Masterful 🎶 Music Ride of the Valkyries, Parcival, Gotterdammerung Seigfried Funeral March
I only know his music is beautiful, his sins, are other thing.
Because he was a great musician, maybe?
Hitler's favourite opera/etta was actually Ferenc Lehár's Die lustige Witwe. Not so good 'Music To Invade Poland To.'
His preferred music varied over time as it does with every regular person.
He always remained Wagner fan its just that it was too hurtful to him to listen to the music of his youth and ascendance in 1944/1945.
Near the end he just wainted entertainment, not the heavy Wagner stuff.
Absolute genius and absolute madman. Talking about Wagner, of course. That is part of his charm, so to say. We love his art but we question his ideas. Sometimes, the world needs a dark but grandiose figure such as Wagner. He shows how complex humanity can be. How greatness can also be mingled with wickedness. We are humans after all. No one is perfect.
I have to share this wonderful quote from Mark Owen Lee's "Wagner and the Wonder of Art :Introduction to Meistersinger."
"Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger has always called forth superlatives from those who have fallen under its spell. Toscanini wanted to lay his baton down for the last time only after he had conducted a performance of it. Paderewski called it 'the greatest work of genius ever achieved by any artist in any field of human endeavour.' H.L. Mencken declared, 'It took more skill to plan and write it than it took to plan and write the whole canon of Shakespeare.'"
I don't agree with them.
Nietzsche ended up hating his old friend Wagner
@@gts3004 thus spoke Zarathustra
@@gts3004 Nietzsche himself was endorsed by the Nazis too
Nietzsche became critical of Wagner after hearing a performance of Parsifal, which Nietzsche interpreted as being excessively Christian. Salvation and forgiveness of sin are major themes in Parsifal, and for Nietzsche these were ideas to be outgrown.
@@johnbostrom3923 his antisemitism was another reason!
@@karlheven8328 Yep. Apparently, Nietzsche occasionally composed music as a hobby (which I was slightly surprised by as I studied Nietzsche quite a bit when I was younger and this was never mentioned) and Wagner would roll around on the floor laughing and mocking his efforts. It's only something I read once, Karl, so I may be wrong. But yeah, Wagner's anti-semitism was one (big) reason why they fell out.
That tiny Glockenspiel got the _.__ correct
_._
The connection between Hitler and Wagner music mean nothing more than coincidence when it comes to his war plans and methods.
Way too many normal people like Wagner music without being insane, violent or war like. 😂
Wagner's music is Not the soundtrack of Dictatorship. If that's the case than any music with lots of brass and bombast can
be used for dictatorship, any film sdtrk like Star Wars, or any large orchestra that can fill the auditorium with big sound.
Shameful documentary. Avoided playing his music clearly except one continuous theme from Walkure that becomes shrill
Repulsive to play the prelude to Tannhaueser in that Hitlerian context
And Lohengrin
Wagner is admired all over.
The music box is annoying.
Now we gonna cancel Tchakovsky because of The War in Ukraine and Putin.
The answer lies in the most complicated thing in the multiverse: the brain. Read Dr. Professor Robert Sapolsky's book, "Behave, Human Behavior at Our Best and Worst ", and you will have your answer. Cheers and trebles all around!
very informative, thank you DW for this content of the highest quality!
We're glad you enjoyed it! And there's lots more to come with a new episode of Arts Unveiled every week :)
About time someone looked unflinchingly at Hitler's relationship with Wagner. Well done. If we must give Wagner a pass for his music, other problematic musicians and artists must also be given this benefit.
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It is very unlikely that Hitler understood R. Wagner's music. He was particularly interested in the old Germanic content that glorified heroism. Combined with the heroic flair and the magical effect, this was the most suitable stimulation for the soldiers to War. R. Wagner was a fanatical anti-Semite. He served as a useful idiot with his operas for Hitler's purposes. Incidentally, the festival in Bayreuth was absolutely dependent on financial support from the state. Without subsidies, Bayreuth would have been insolvent immediately. This is also how the affinity of the Wagner family to the Nazis is to be understood.
He was literally thinking about becoming an opera writer due to his admiration for Wagner. But he wasn't a good writer at the end. 🤣
You just wrote a load of nonsense...
@@sirrobinofloxley7156 What do you mean ? Explain your point of view and then prove that it makes sense.
I love classical music,I love wagner music
Wagner's antisemitism and Hitler's adoration of him are troubling to be sure. But there's no denying Wagner's musical genius and I love his music, and thus far I've been able to separate his antisemitism, and his overall unpleasantness as a person from his music. To me fortunately his anti semitism is not expressed in his music, except for the subtle antisemitism and Meistersinger. I suppose if Wagner had written an overtly antisemitic opera that would have been a line to cross that would have been unacceptable, but fortunately I feel I can enjoy his music without having to deal with his antisemitism.
Everybody talks about Wagner's antisemitism as if that were his only fault. He was a narcissist,(although he merited it more than others) who took from others, treated them like sh..., took his benefactor"s wives, stole from Berlioz and Liszt. Betrayed Liszt at the end when Liszt was his main patron. I could go on and on, but he was indisputably a genius.
sorry, stole musical elements from Berlioz and Liszt, not anything material.
Well，sounds like a cultural revelution is going on in Germany ...
The Germans - unlike other peoples - have looked their overwhelming guilt squarely in the face and are resolved never to let it happen again.
? What exactly do you mean?
I know what you mean
I find his music absolutely transcendent. I've loved it since I was a kid.
Anyone ascribing some inherent, corrupting evil to such art as an excuse to censor it is the work of a corrupt coward themselves.
Why cant you see that Netanyahu is as bad as this fellow?..
So Wagner is cancelled then ? Oh dear!
No has not been cancelled.
Where's Larry David's motif - no mention?
He loved Wagner so much that consciously or not, he emulated Siegfried's death...
Why Hitler adored Wagner was an eye opening event that I dared not miss and it reinforced my disdain towards Wagnerian music.
Jetzt kann ich nicht mal mehr Wagner hören 😪
He knew exactly what he was doing. His messages stories and music itself was harmful. For those that dont believe this, Music therapy uses harmonies to physically physiologically and psychologically medically intervene in many instances from coma, palliative care, addiction, pain etc. These used on the contrary have caused seizures and heart attacks. But this practice as such... was developed as it is known "Music Therapy" in WWI trenches in the west. Much earlier in the east orient and Asia. He knew what he was doing. It was no coincidence and now I understand what he meant when he said it would be important in influencing society. he knew exactly what he was doing. By that account, If you are an artist or consumer, it matters. What you do and what you consume matters.
Thanks for watching. It's true that music has a special effect on human beings and is also used for therapeutic purposes. However, we can't quite understand how you came to this point in relation to this video.
this video has too little dislikes...
No, you cannot separate an artist's morality or politics from his art. But subsequent art can move the discussion into a higher morality, and inform subsequent politics with that morality.
The mockery of culture is the problem. It never ends.