Response To Wagner

1 Pages 356 Words

A while back, when first dealing with the subject of music in Nazi Germany, someone raised the point that Wagner would have made a great Nazi. I questioned this statement, since I always believed artists contain an aura of humanity about them, which places them above the petty differences and ideologies of the rest of the world. As an artist, I hoped that Wagner might realize his humanity, and object to the treatment of Jewish peoples during World War II (based on the juxtaposition of Wagner in World War II Nazi Germany). Thankfully, this reading corrected my flawed assumption.
During this period in history, no Jewish state existed for people of Hebrew descent. Dishearteningly, Wagner did a good job of hammering this point home within the framework of this article. Examining the second paragraph proves this point: “The Jew speaks the language of the nation in whose midst he dwells from generation to generation, but he speaks it always as an alien.” According to Wagner, the Jew has no place within the nation and never will.
Wagner goes too far when attacking the music of Felix Mendelssohn. Research online revealed the Mendelssohn family converted to Christianity. Upon completion of Hebrides, Wagner complemented the work. Even though Mendelssohn had family history rooted in Judaism, Wagner admitted “Hebrides is a masterpiece of a landscape-painter of the first order.” One can almost sense an indirect insult or devaluing of the composer, based upon his extremely weak Jewish heritage.
Overall, this article changed my opinion on the original stance in class. Wagner, an obvious anti-Semite, would have fit perfectly on the Nazi Germany/Hitler bandwagon that emerged in Germany over half a century later. In fact, the Nazis championed Wagner’s music; perhaps because much of his criticism dealt so harshly with people of Jewish lineage. After reading this article, I probably won’t look at much of Wagner’s non...