No other representative of German cultural history has been as lastingly tainted by National Socialism as Richard Wagner. So why is Hitler’s favourite composer so popular the world over? In his new book, Wagner expert Hans Vaget traces the path of Wagner’s music as a triptych: from Hitler’s intoxicated, nationalist German interpretation of Wagner via the re-founding of the Bayreuth Festival under the aegis of conductor Hans Knappertsbusch to the enlightened cosmopolitan approach of Thomas Mann, which can be considered the foundation of the composer’s lasting popularity.
