Many German nationalist groups in Vienna had been welcoming of Jewish members, were pro-assimilation, and enjoyed the supportive membership of leading Jewish figures, including Gustav Mahler and Siegmund Freud. However, around the 1880s, there was an increasing growth of a hostile anti-Semitic element in German nationalism. Albia, a German nationalist fraternity, was a founding member of the Viennese Association of German Students (Verein der deutschen Studenten Wiens), an organisation intended to unite German nationalist student associations in Austria. Jacques Kornberg describes the how the seminal event that drove Theodor Herzl to resign his membership from Albia, was a Viennese memorial on 5 March 1883, organised by the Verein to commemorate the recent death of Richard Wagner:
The Wagner memorial was a well-orchestrated German nationalist demonstration with fully four thousand in attendance. The assembly hall was decorated with a gigantic German flag and the coat of arms of the Reich. . . . With the onset of ceremonies the orchestra played Wagner's music, then the audience was summoned to sing "Deutschland Über Alles." Speaker after speaker extolled German nationality and the Reich, some in near-treasonous terms. . . . The Note Freie Presse reported that several speakers gave vent to "coarse antisemitic utterances." Finally, it was Hermann Bahr‘s turn to speak. . . . Bahr praised Wagner's Germanic ideology. He then called Austro-Germans a penitent Kundry awaiting salvation from the German Reich . . . . Reacting to these treasonous utterances, the police stepped forward and forbade any more speeches. At that Schonerer rushed to the platform and called for resistance, shouting: "Long Live Our Bismarck!" The police then cleared the hall.
Herzl was so appalled by it that he resigned his membership from Albia immediately. It was one of many turning points which moved Herzl away from a belief in assimilation towards Zionism. Even there Herzl was to argue that nationhood would restore the lost nobility of his people, who, like Wagner and all liberals of his era, accepted had "degenerated" as a result of centuries of oppression.
The precise motivation for Herzl's resignation from Albia are a cause of some speculation. However, one thing is certain: the incident never dimmed Herzl's lifelong love for Wagner. Herzl himself said he drew spiritual fortitude from Tannhäuser — a performance of which he never missed — while he wrote his seminal work, die Judenstaat. From that, it is clear that what really appalled Herzl was the misappropriation of Wagner's art for an increasingly chauvinistic and anti-Semitic Reichsdeutsch ideology. By no means was Herzl going to sit back and allow the Reichsdeutsch ideologues to win this battle over his composer without a titanic struggle. The battle-lines had been drawn to win over the spirit of Richard Wagner to the service of contrarian political ends.
Indeed, even before his death, in the last years of Wagner's life, as he increasingly gained celebrity status, the battle-lines were already being drawn up. An increasingly alarmed Angelo Neumann was to write to Richard Wagner to clarify the situation. Here is what Neumann tells us:
During these late years, Wagner's writings were to become increasingly pacifist, and vehemently opposed to war as the brutal eruption of the Blind Will:
Indeed, even before his death, in the last years of Wagner's life, as he increasingly gained celebrity status, the battle-lines were already being drawn up. An increasingly alarmed Angelo Neumann was to write to Richard Wagner to clarify the situation. Here is what Neumann tells us:
A strong anti-Semitic party in Berlin had loudly proclaimed Wagner as their chief apostle; which moved George Davidsohn (a well-known political writer and friend of Wagner) to write, calling my attention to the risk we ran in our Berlin enterprises if the rumour spread that Wagner was a member of this society. I wrote to Mme. Cosima asking if this were true, and received the following reply from Richard Wagner. Dear Friend and Benefactor :-
Nothing is further from my thoughts than this same “Anti-Semitic” movement; see the Bayreuth papers for my article which will prove this so conclusively that people of sense will find it impossible to connect me with the cause.
Richard Wagner
Bayreuth, February, 1881.
From Personal Recollections of Wagner by Angelo Neumann.
During these late years, Wagner's writings were to become increasingly pacifist, and vehemently opposed to war as the brutal eruption of the Blind Will:
the ever advancing art of war turns ever further away from the mainspring of moral force towards the development of mechanical force. Here, the most brutal power of the elemental forces of nature are arranged into an artificial play, in which, despite all of its mathematics and arithmetic, the Blind Will mixes itself in, breaking loose in its own way once more with elemental power.
From Religion and Art (1880)
die fortschreitende Kriegskunst wendet sich immer mehr, von den Triebfedern moralischer Kräfte ab, auf die Ausbildung mechanischer Kräfte hin: hier werden die rohesten Kräfte der niederen Natur-Gewalten in ein künstliches Spiel gesetzt, in welches, trotz aller Mathematik und Arith- metik, der blinde Wille, in seiner Weise einmal mit elementarischer Macht losbrechend, sich einmischen könnte.
Religion und Kunst (1880). Gesammelte Werke Band X, Seite 323
It is clear that this increasingly militaristic and anti-Semitic political movement was to later mature into National Socialism. Decades later in 1923 Adolf Hitler was to visit the grave of Richard Wagner in a symbolic attempt to claim Wagner and German culture for his political side. Herzl had every reason to regard this sort of action as a gross misappropriation of Wagner for a self-serving political end, and a distortion of everything that Wagner ever stood for.
This is why Wagner was popular amongst German Jews in his day, and why he remained popular amongst Jewish music lovers in the decades following the deaths of both Wagner and Herzl. These Jews would not stand for the increasingly radical anti-Semitic right wing nationalists usurping Wagner for their own petty political ends.
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| The great Jewish Wagnerian bass Friedrich Schorr as the Wanderer (photo taken at Bayreuth in the 1920s). His unsurpassed and deeply moving Wotan can be heard partnered by inspirational Jewish conductor, Leo Blech, on this recording. |
Ernst Bloch, the Young Hegelian and Marxist philosopher, himself the son of an assimilated Jewish father, summarised the situation perfectly in 1939:
In the end, Herzl's fight to oppose this usurpation of Wagner by the right wing nationalist extremists—who exterminated their opponents in Germany with brutal political violence—was to end in bitter defeat. Both left wing opponents of the National Socialists and Jews alike were butchered in concentration camps. This is the background to the victory of the Nazi propagandist's view of Wagner as the forerunner of their movement.
However, this fight for the liberation of Wagner from politically motivated misuse was something that Arturo Toscanini continued on outside of Europe. He refused to conduct in the politicised climate of Bayreuth in the 1930s, while continuing to programme Wagner's music for concerts with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (Sheffi, 2001). Toscanini's arguably greatest recording of Wagner with the NBC Symphony was recorded in 1941, right in the midst of the Second World War — Brünnhildes immolation scene with Helen Traubel. You can see Toscanini fighting the Nazi misappropriation of Wagner right down to the wire.
Today, this spiritual struggle by rival political groups to claim Wagner for themselves is largely considered a lost cause, and the whole of Wagner's oeuvre is being handed to the Nazis on a silver platter without so much as a fight. Even Bryan Magee reports that a visitor to his house said "I didn't know Bryan was such a Nazi" on seeing his collection of Wagner recordings (Wagner and Philosophy). The vast majority of people are willing to allow the ghosts of Nazi armies to goose step victoriously over Wagner's grave with barely the faintest hint of opposition. Not only that, but they are being allowed to march triumphantly over the grave of Theodor Herzl.
The music of the Nazis is not the Prelude to Die Meistersinger, but rather the Horst-Wessel-Lied; they deserve credit for nothing else, and no more can or should be given to them.
Quoted from Über Wuzerln des Nazismus in David B. Dennis's essay from Wagner's Meistersinger
In the end, Herzl's fight to oppose this usurpation of Wagner by the right wing nationalist extremists—who exterminated their opponents in Germany with brutal political violence—was to end in bitter defeat. Both left wing opponents of the National Socialists and Jews alike were butchered in concentration camps. This is the background to the victory of the Nazi propagandist's view of Wagner as the forerunner of their movement.
However, this fight for the liberation of Wagner from politically motivated misuse was something that Arturo Toscanini continued on outside of Europe. He refused to conduct in the politicised climate of Bayreuth in the 1930s, while continuing to programme Wagner's music for concerts with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (Sheffi, 2001). Toscanini's arguably greatest recording of Wagner with the NBC Symphony was recorded in 1941, right in the midst of the Second World War — Brünnhildes immolation scene with Helen Traubel. You can see Toscanini fighting the Nazi misappropriation of Wagner right down to the wire.
Today, this spiritual struggle by rival political groups to claim Wagner for themselves is largely considered a lost cause, and the whole of Wagner's oeuvre is being handed to the Nazis on a silver platter without so much as a fight. Even Bryan Magee reports that a visitor to his house said "I didn't know Bryan was such a Nazi" on seeing his collection of Wagner recordings (Wagner and Philosophy). The vast majority of people are willing to allow the ghosts of Nazi armies to goose step victoriously over Wagner's grave with barely the faintest hint of opposition. Not only that, but they are being allowed to march triumphantly over the grave of Theodor Herzl.
Indeed these ghoulish hoards of marching Nazi armies are even cheered on by the people of Israel, misguided by a thirst for vengeance. Even when Daniel Barenboim tried to stand up to this by insisting that Wagner must be played in Israel to "deny the Nazis one last victory" he was largely shouted down by an angry mob.
It is a situation over which both Herzl, Bloch, Toscanini, and indeed Wagner himself, would have been utterly horrified. It is high time, that in the name of Herzl, and in the name of all that is right and just, that a fight back must begin against this monstrous and false usurpation. Above all, it is high time we started to pay more respect to Herzl as history's true and righteous Wagnerian, rather than to pay false hommage to the worthless Wagner interpretation of some art school reject. In the spiritual struggle over Wagner's grave, in no way can history allow Herzl's Wagner to be defeated by Hitler's Wagner.
Bibliography
1. Sheffi interview with Die Zeit, 2001: see earlier post entitled The Ring of Myths by Na'ama Sheffi
2. Sheffi, Na'ama: The Ring of Myths - The Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis.
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Sussex Academic Press (October 1, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1902210522
ISBN-13: 978-1902210520
3. Kornberg, Jacques: Theodor Herzl — from assimilation to Zionism
Hardcover: 240 pagesPublisher: Indiana University Press; 1st edition (November 22, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0253332036
ISBN-13: 978-0253332035
Also see earlier posts on Theodor Herzl and Wagner
4. Neumann, Angelo: Personal Recollections of Wagner. English version 1909:
5. Toscanini, Arturo NBC Symphony Orchestra: Götterdämmerung excerpts
Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior
Label: RCA
ASIN: B000003EXY
6. Friedrich Schorr sings Wagner (Volume 12) Original Recordings 1927 - 1929
Conductor Leo Blech
SCM HänsslerArt.-No.:094.512.000
Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior
Label: RCA
ASIN: B000003EXY
6. Friedrich Schorr sings Wagner (Volume 12) Original Recordings 1927 - 1929
Conductor Leo Blech
SCM HänsslerArt.-No.:094.512.000
Compact Disc 2006
7. Wagner, Richard: Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen Band X. E.W. Fritzsch, Leipzig, 1883
Good one. But I for one refuse to admit defeat. Wherever I can I fight against these Nazi occupiers of Wanger's legacy as well as the latter-day Quislings that give them aid and comfort.
ReplyDeleteTalking of which, I also enjoyed your piece about "musical quacks" and their hateful anti-Wagner pamphlets. There is, however, somewhat of a sinister side to these people. I have analyzed their so-called "method of scholarhip" and this is what it comes down to: These people invoke a nation's most recent and arguably gratest collective trauma, select a scapegoat, and spread histerical hatred towards it by pandering to the masses' fears, prejudices, misconceptions and, I do dare say, ignorance using hearsay, unsubstantiated claims, half-truths and at times outright lies. Sound like anyone you might have heard of?