Hitler and music in the third Reich - Essay Example

? Most of the Enthusiastic Wagnerians know that Richard Wagner (1813-1883),the German Composer,Known as the Emperor of Opera,composed the longest opera (15-18 hours); Ring des Nibe lungs and that Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) brought about world war ?? as Fuhrer of Third Reich from 1933 for 12 years. However, the point that Hitler was wildly enthusiastic about Wagner’s operas including Ring des Nibelungs and that he tried to realize opera is not well known. Wagner’s music influenced Hitler’s political view. Most of Wagner’s operas are based on German mythology and medieval literature. Wagner’s Ring cycle opera especially enchanted Hitler’s mind. Wagner’s mystical music sent Hitler to fantastic world. Hitler was deeply impressed since his first experience of Wagner’s opera “Rienzi”. Hitler was obsessed with Wagner’s opera world and he tried to realize Wagner’s music in real society. Hitler’s attempt to realize Wagner’s opera world led to World War 2 which was the worst catastrophe in human history. Wagner’s music is intensely violent, heroic and mythical having exactly the qualities projected by the Nazi Party. Just like Wagner’s endless music, his music drama too has abundant stories because the subject matter of stories comes from myths and legends. Wagner’s new music world called “Gesammtunstwerk” (Musikdrama) – a synthesis of the arts, combines to extend the listener a unified spiritual and dramatic experience. All his musical works were made on the assumption that they will be performed on the stage hence called “Musikdrama. He wrote all the scripts directly and added music to the scripts. Wagner generated a German epic saga combining music and drama in one unified art work. He took inspiration from German mythology and medieval literature. In his major works, Wagner was motivated by the medieval myths and literature as Lohengrin, Tristan, Ring des Nibelungs (Das Rhinegold, Die Walkure, Gotterdammerung, Parsifal,). Wagner brought plots and characters in medieval myths and literature to his music. The structure of the Ring cycle is complicated and has several topics. However, most of his operas’ topics are love stories. As Wagner accepted the subject of German myths, he also accepted religious elements. He extended this to the unique ritual that inspires nationalism. Wagner’s music drama shows the process of ritual when it is on the stage. This means that his music drama reveals strong religious character. Therefore, people cannot forget the scenes of his music drama easily, because of its strong ritual characteristic. Hitler was one of those people who could not forget Wagner’s strong and powerful opera. Wagner indicts the Jews and metaphorically links them to the characters in the operas. Wagner’s music dramas, made during the time when unification of Germany was taking place, reveal patriotic enthusiasm greatly. In Wagner’s Ring drama, there are a lot of metaphorical words that indicate Jewish characters. In Wagner’s ring opera, Nibelungs, the curse, demons, goblins, and the lust for gold refers to Jewish characters. Wagner casts the voices of Alberich and Mime in an abnormally high register and gives them tritons and other awkward internals to sing which made their voices creak, croak, and buzz. Wagner also used Jewish names for his evil characters. Wagner casts the voices of Alberich and Mime in an abnormally high register and gives them tritones and other awkward internals to sing which made their voices creak, croak, and buzz. Wagner also used Jewish names for his evil characters. In Wagner’s opera “Das Rheingold”, “gold-hungry” characters are very consonant with Wagner’s writings about how the Jews seek to control the world through their use of money (gold). In Lohengrin, there are inspirational words, such as those of King Henry to his knights that wakened in them the primal urge of race and nationalism.  “Let the Reich’s enemy now appear.  We’re well prepared to see him near.  From his Eastern desert plain  He’ll never dare to stir again!  The German sword for German land!  Thus will the Reich in vigor stand!”  (Lohengrin) Tannhauser reproduced the great past history of German races. The background of this music drama is Wartburg Castle where German college students first staged an indignation meeting and it is also a historical place where religion reformer Luther translated the Bible. In Lohengrin, patriotic appeal appears directly in the music drama. As soon as the curtain rises, the king is seen sitting in the front of the stage and the lining of Bravant nobles and knights creates magnificent ritual scenes. The military uniforms and caps that Bravant nobles wore remind you of Hitler army’s military uniform. This nationalism in Wagner’s opera develops in Wagner’s racism and anti-Semitism distinctly in his latter years which influenced Hitler and Germany fatally.  Wagner’s operas and his political essays reflect that he was a strong anti-Semite. Wagner’s personality was usually described as rude, arrogant, selfish, greedy, bigoted and lascivious. He argued with many of his contemporaries, including Rossini, and disparaged about other’s works. He was also known for his self-centeredness and for pursuing outrageous love affairs. (DWB 101)  “He is filled with magnificent enthusiasm for Wagner’s efforts to regenerate our country. We feast on compassion, heroic self-denial, Christianity, vegetarianism, Aryanism. Southern colonies….” (Macintyre 113)  Wagner’s philosophy, opposed inoculation and vivisection, and supported homeopathy, vegetarianism and the sanctity of the soil. Many of these ideas later reappeared among the principles of Nazism. When Cosima, Wagner’s wife was asked to answer why the Wagner family had accepted Hitler so readily, she said,  “there was a powerful German nationalist consciousness in our family. My husband was absolutely nationalistic; he suffered dreadfully under the defeat of 1918, and was always looking for contact with people ready to work for the restoration of Germany.” (Hamann 488)  Wagner published many anti-Jewish essays wherein he expressed his feelings about Jews. Also, he wrote diatribes on various subjects, most of which he knew nothing about. He published his first essay “Das Judentum in der Musik” (The Jews in Music) under a pseudonym in 1850. He claimed Jews were turning to be cultural parasites. In explaining why he wrote the essay, Wagner foreshadowed Hitler’ view that the Jews controlled newspapers and other media. In his essay “Know Thyself”, he says “…if the Jew comes tinkling with his bell of paper, throws its savings at his feet, and makes him in one night a millionaire….”  Wagner mentioned that the Jews were the cause of hostility towards him in Germany, England, and France. In one of his essays, “Judaism in Music”, he reveals his thought that Jews, because of their essential rootlessness, they can never produce authentic German music or music that belongs to any nation. Wagner published his essay “Religion and Art” in 1880. In this essay, he protested against the emancipation of the Jews in 1871. He repeated his belief that miscegenation of noble and ignoble races was destroying the best human traits. He believed that only retaining the purity of the Teutonic race could bring about “a real birth of racial feeling”. While Wagner demonstrates his anti-Semitism in his essays, there were some causative factors for it. Wagner felt worried and anxious about his possible Jewish origins through his stepfather, Ludwig Geyer, whom he thought for long, might have been his biological father. His rivalry with the famous Jewish musicians of his time – Mendelsohn, Meyerbeer, and Halevy even made him more concerned. His wife Cosima too had the possibility of being Jew, even though she was a stronger anti-Semite than Wanger. These factors intensified Wagner’s feelings of hatred towards Jews.  Hitler started to learn about Wagner’s music in his early youth when, August Kubizek was Hitler’s friend. Hitler called him “Gustl”. Gustl was a trained pianist and had vague plans of going to Vienna for more training. He shared Hitler’s love for the operas of Wagner. When they had money, they went to the opera in Linz, but most of their time was spent walking together, while Hitler lectured Gustl on opera or German history. Hitler’s pocket money was spent mainly on the opera, and on purchasing books about German history and mythology, which he would read continuously for hours. A ticket for standing room at the opera was not more than ten cents at that time. At twelve, Hitler was already entranced with the heroic figures of German mythology. Hitler attended his first Wagnerian opera; Lohengrin, at the Linz Opera House. He was “captivated at once” by the Germanic feelings aroused in his mind by the inspirational words in opera. In 1905, when Hitler was sixteen, he quit school and spent the next three years being idle, which he later described as the happiest time of his life. In 1906, Hitler watched Wagner’s early Rienzi at Linz, which stirred Hitler’s alter ego. When he was nineteen, Hitler was protesting against Mozart in Vienna. As Fuhrer, Hitler knew all of Wagner’s scores and performances and got an emotional relaxation and inspiration from them. . Hitler had seen Die Meistersinger over a hundred times. He heard Tristan and Isolde thirty to forty times during his years in Vienna. Hitler’s music which influenced him in his youth continued when he grew up and met Wagner’s family. When Hitler met Siegfried, the son of Wagner, he recalled his youth in Linz and expressed impression of how Lohengrin at the Linz Lands theater had made him a boy. At that time, he had even wanted to become an opera singer. In 1939, after he had become the German Chancellor, he visited Wagner’s daughter-in-law, Winifred Wagner in Bayreuth. Hitler said, “it was in that hour that it all began”. Hitler himself talked about how influential Wagner and his music were on his later life and political ideals. Hitler remained devoted to Wagner’s music throughout his life. When Hitler was young, Wagner was a model for many boys, especially the boys who applied for being an artist or a musician. He lost his father early and lived a miserable and poor life. He had to stand by himself all the difficulties that he faced. However, at the end, he enthralled the world with his opera. Hitler realized that he had exactly the same philosophy as Wagner’s. Wagner’s music led Hitler to a fantastic world. Hitler’s passion for Wagner was extraordinary. Wagner’ political view and his essays impacted Hitler’s thoughts. Hitler’s favorite readings were Wagner’s political writings and he copied Wagner’s bombastic manner consciously or unconsciously. He never had anything to say about the musical considerations of these works. Wagner and Hitler had so much in common, that it is difficult to keep them separate. They were both extreme racists and both were artists. Both feared they had Jewish paternity, which led to fierce denial and destructive hatred. However, Wagner’s political writings and essays did not affect Hitler more than Wagner’s music. Hitler was obsessed with Wagner’ music, especially the Ring cycle opera. Hitler always recalled vividly the world of German classical times with its heroic myths; it’s fighting pagan gods and heroes, its demons and dragons, its blood feuds and primitive tribal codes when he listened to Wagner’s music. Hitler and the Nazis took over this as their own world view.   To keep Wagner’s music throughout his life, Hitler continued to visit Bayreuth where Wagner’s operas were performed and Wagner’s family lived. Hitler was the messiah that Wagner’s legacy longed for. Wagner’s son, Siegfried, and his wife Winifred, who ran Bayreuth during the Nazi era, were anti-Semites and they idolized Hitler. In Bayreuth, a special annex was built at Winfried for Hitler to welcome his visits. Hitler kept his contacts with the family of Wagner in Bayreuth during whole the span of his life. Bayreuth is a place in Germany where a music festival is held annually. Long before Wagner finished the great four-opera cycle; The Ring of Nibelung, Wagner planned of building a grand opera house, on a scale way beyond anything on offer at that time, in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth. He wanted to form a place where pure German culture could flourish unimpeded without the contamination of Jews. There he dreamed to assemble Germany’s musical elite, to be properly appreciated. For Hitler, Bayreuth was sacred and he shielded it from unpleasant realities. Hitler’s Bayreuth became a respite and a Wagnerian holy place for him and other Nazi leaders. Hitler gave special attention to Bayreuth and Wagner, indicating that his relationship with Wagner’s family was extraordinary. An interview taped in England shortly before Winifred’s death, she described Hitler’s frequent visits to her and how respectful, and even affectionate, he was with her and Wagner’s grandchildren. Her comment suggested that in Hitler’s mind the Wagners were his real family. It is not surprising that he had exceptional relationship with Wagner’s family, when you look at how Hitler cared about Wagner’s music and his family. Hitler tried to keep Wagner’s music in best condition. To make the European world safe for Wagnerism, first, he eliminated German anti-Wagner elements, and then he eliminated rival artistic culture such as the Jewish and Slavic, that seemed the most antithetical to Wagnerian ideals. In addition, Hitler took an interest in the Wagner’s family problems. Winifred recalled, “after an extraordinarily lively conversation… in his spontaneous way’, Siegfried had put his hands on the shoulders of Hitler, twenty years younger than himself, exclaiming: ‘Do you know, I like you!”. (Hamann 60)  Moreover, Hitler had defended the Festival against the party’s negative attitude to Wagner. Some critics said “Richard Wagner’s music was called “baroque” and “emotional”, and he was accused of having a “Middle Eastern racial soul”…” Hitler thought the most effective way to fight them was regularly visiting Bayreuth and he actually achieved that goal during his life.  Wagner’s operas had an almost religious effect upon Hitler. Wagner’s music and anti-Semitic writings found a disciple in Hitler. Accordingly, Hitler’s politics and Wagner’s music were related and impacted each other greatly. Hitler wrote, “With the exception of Richard Wagner I have no forerunner”. In1939, Hitler told Winifred Wagner that his Nazi philosophy originated with his first attendance at Wagner’s opera “Rienzi” in 1906. In Hitler’s life there are many traces that Wagner left. The word “struggle”(kampf) is a code word that appears in the writings of Wagner, his heirs, and Hitler(Mein Kampf). The word “kampf” means struggle, but Hitler referred specifically to the struggle against the Jews and other “aliens”(races). It also meant “wolf”, which referred to the god Wotan in the Ring operas, and to Hitler by Wagner’s heirs, and even Hitler, as referred by Hitler to himself.  Wagner’s influence on Hitler appears in the German society “Third Reich”. Nazi Germany used Wagner’s music and Wagner was a national hero in Germany. Hitler and many of his associates shared a fascination with the history and mythology of the German nation. The discussion focused on example of “mythical influences”, and how they helped shape the personal and political activities of these men. Wagner was not just a musician. He was a national hero and powerful political force to be reckoned. Kohler was German philosopher and he argued that Hitler’s entire Nazi political program was essentially an attempt to turn the mythologically coded world of Wagnerian opera into a social and political reality. All of Hitler’s major projects – the takeover and shaping of the Nazi party, the establishment of the Nazi state, the waging of World War 2, and the perpetration of the Holocaust – were ultimately the plans that Hitler accomplished to achieve the Wagnerian world. In everything he did, Hitler acted as the “agent” of the Bayreuth circle. Kohler said accomplishing the task originally set by that great prophet of the Third Reich and of the Holocaust: Wagner. Hitler’s devotion to Wagner’s music is visible in Third Reich. Hitler often ordered to play Wagner’s music in public. When the Rhineland had been brought under German military control, Hitler made a triumphant tour of the region in his private train to the cheers of populace. To celebrate, he ordered that a recording of one of his favorite operas, Wagner’s Parsifal, be played. On the eve of World War II, Hitler’s forces reoccupied the Rhineland. When he was returning from a triumphal through this area, he requested that Wagner’s same recording be played on the phonograph. Listening to the overture to Parsifal, he remarked:  “I have built up my religion out of Parsifal. Divine worship in solemn form… Without pretenses of humility. One can serve God only in the garb of the hero.” (Hamann 46) Nazis borrowed from the works of cultural icons, such as Composer Richard Wagner. Their ideals that advocated the destiny of the individual and racial separation inspired passionate German nationalism. The Germanic myths and the dramatic presentation of myths by Wagner were a central tool of the Nazi party. The psychological effects of music dramas and stories on the principal figures of the Third Reich were obvious. Hitler might have preferred operetta, but he chose the Ring cycle opera, because he was concerned about his public persona. Hitler declared, “Wagner captured the German soul”. In the 1930’s, the Nazis used music of Wagner to promote the political and sociological ideas of Hitler’s philosophy. By choosing examples of anti-Semitism from popular culture, the Nazis were able to make their ideology much more pleasant to the populace.  On account of these very qualities, Wagner’s music impacted Hitler’s political view that became the hallmark of the Third Reich. Wagner’s dramatic music no doubt underlined the impact of the legends already known to Hitler from the times of his youth. The music would transport and escort him into a mystical world which he needed in order to endure his unstable nature. As Fuhrer, Hitler tried to bring Wagner’s opera’s utopian world to the Third Reich. This shows how influence of one person on another person can result in the most miserable disaster in human history. Read More