The Wagner Clan: The Saga of Germany s Most Illustrious and Infamous Family

ISBN: 0871139758

Author: Carr, Jonathan

Condition: New

A family saga as riveting as any opera, and a matchless mirror of Germanys rise, fall, and resurrection. Richard Wagner was many thingscomposer, philosopher, philanderer, failed revolutionary, and virulent anti-Semiteand his descendants have carried on his complex legacy. Now, in The Wagner Clan , biographer Jonathan Carr retraces the path of the renowned composer and his descendants. Along the way, Carr offers glimpses of Franz Liszt (whose illegitimate daughter Cosima married Wagner); Friedrich Nietzsche; Arthur Schopenhauer; Alberto Toscanini; Joseph Goebbels; Hermann Gring; and the Wolf himself, Adolf Hitler, a passionate fan of the Masters music and an adopted uncle to Wagners grandchildren. Wagners British-born daughter-in-law, Winifred, was a close friend of Hitlers and seemed momentarily positioned to marry him after the death of her husband. All through the war the Bayreuth Festival, begun by the Master himself, was supported by Hitler, who had to fill out the meager audience with fighting men and SS officers. After the war, the festival was dark for a decade until Wagners offspringwith characteristic ambition and cunningrevived it.