The Wagner Clan

by Jonathan Carr

The Wagner Clan by Jonathan Carr is the first thorough and balanced history of Germany's most famous family.
For well over a century the Wagner clan has run the Bayreuth Festival and played host to many of the greatest and ghastliest figures in the arts and politics. Its members have also regularly battled one another - indeed, with its jealousy, greed, passion and intrigue the Wagner family saga is as riveting as any opera.
Drawing on extensive interviews with members of the family and on both archive and recent material, Jonathan Carr - author of a highly praised biography of Mahler - presents a balanced but gripping portrait of the Wagners and their circle. He takes a fresh look at hotly controversial matters such as Richard Wagner's antisemitism and the family's role during the so-called "Third Reich". Not least he underlines the decisive roles played in Bayreuth over decades by two British-born members of the clan, both of them fervent admirers of Adolf Hitler.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Germany, Nonfiction, World War II, Military Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a high school student, I have fond memories of going to my local library, a beautiful and massive stone edifice that was criminally underfunded and open only a few hours a day a few days a week, and borrowing a stack of opera CD’s. Not really being the outdoor type, I would spend days listening to all kinds of wonderful artists that included Richard Wagner. Listening to Wagner even at that young age, I knew there was something very different to everything else I had heard. The bombast, the production, the stories….all of these things indicated a remarkable man behind the music. After reading Jonathan Carr’s “The Wagner Clan”, I now realize how right I was.
Carr starts with the man himself. Brilliant, cantankerous, adulterous, violent, vindictive, and virulently anti-semitic, there are seemingly not enough contradictory adjectives to describe Wagner.
He was loved by many and reviled in roughly the same numbers. To get a feel for this, one needs look only art the words of King Ludwig on hearing of Wagner’s death:

“Oh! I’m sorry, but then again not really.”

Or the words of American critic Virgil Thomson who wrote about Wagner:

“Perfidious in friendship, ungrateful in love, irresponsible in politics, utterly without principle in his professional life. His wit was incisive and cruel; his polemical writing was aimed usually below the belt.”

Best known for his music and the construction of the Bayreuth Opera house (which the aforementioned Ludwig financially assisted), it is the latter which in particular remains a constant thread between Wagner and the present day. Long after Wagner’s death in 1883, his family would continue his legacy with the kind of drama and intrigue usually reserved for daytime tv.
Where does one even begin with this family?
With Wagner’s younger wife Cosima who he stole from a close friend and admirer? After Wagner’s death, Cosima continued to run Bayreuth as well as seemingly upping the ante on Wagner’s already prolific anti-semitism.
With Cosima’s children? Sigfried in particular was a fascinating figure who continued to run Bayreuth after Cosima’s death but it was his English wife Winifred who may have been the most interesting figure of all. Under her stewardship, Bayreuth would come to be inseparable with Hitler and the Nazis. Winifred herself was so starstruck with Hitler that he would often stay at their home and play with their children. Even 30 years later, she would be unapologetic in her admiration for Hitler who she believed accomplished much good in Germany and for her family.
This is not to say that the links and mutual admiration between Hitler and the Wagner family are all this clearcut. Winifred’s daughter Friedelind would flee Germany during the war and become an outspoken critic of the Nazi’s, much to the consternation of her mother and Hitler who both sought to keep her quiet. A postwar descendant Gottfried would go on to make it his mission in life to shed light on the family secrets, earning the ire of most of the family.
Most Wagners however kept their heads down when it came to the Nazis. Willing to accept their patronage toward themselves and Bayreuth, as well as the protection that Hitler could provide them in dangerous times, most chose a middle path between Friedelind and Winifred.
The author at times is critical of their silence both during and after the war (if there is a criticism of Carr it is that he sometimes uses decidedly non objective words such as “rubbish” or “nonsense” to describe various statements by Wagners over the years) but asks, I believe fairly, to consider what you would have done in the same circumstances. I think we would all like to raise our hand and say that we would have the courage of our convictions to stand up against evil, but do we really know? Faced with personal and financial ruin, as well as the very real possibility of the loss of their lives, the Wagners made a choice and it’s one they alone had to reconcile with themselves. There is also some interesting fighting among the Wagner’s about the succession battle for directorship of Bayreuth and the vision different generations go Wagner’s had for it but where this book is on its strongest footing is when it explores the Wagner links to the Nazi era and how it would reverberate all the way down to the present day descendants.
This is a fascinating book about some truly fascinating people that asks some very difficult moral questions whose answers, much like the Wagners themselves, seem at times impenetrable.

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting saga of the bitchy infighting among the various descendants of Richard Wagner. None wrote opera, but in each generation (up to today) they’ve fought over artistic command of the Bayreuth Festival—Hitler was a patron and a lover of a Wagner grand-daughter—which stages at least on Wagner and at least one other opera each summer.

[Isidore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a very unpromising opening (the saga of the Wagner family "more than match[es] the most lurid episodes of Dallas or Dynasty"), this turned out to be an enjoyable and interesting book. But be warned that it's neither a musicological nor a "deep" historical study.

Carr's portraits of Wagner and Cosima are sketchy to the point of caricature, but perhaps that was unavoidable given the amount of history he has to cover, and his ample treatment of Siegfried Wagner and the later generations makes up for earlier shortcomings. Carr is more evenhanded on Wagnerian politics and anti-Semitism than some; his suggestion that the family was drawn into nationalist orbit largely because the Left showed no interest in financing the Bayreuth festival is a point worth making. He also offers a revisionist take on Ludwig of Bavaria, whom Carr sees as a shrewd businessman making a tidy profit from his artistic ventures, rather than the usual crazy spendthrift (given Carr's background with the Financial Times and The Economist, we are apparently meant to nod approvingly at Ludwig's capitalistic acumen).

Despite having written a book evidently intended merely to entertain the reader with lots of juicy gossip (the details of Wieland's romance with Anja Silja are particularly welcome), Carr manages not to insult anyone's intelligence. I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Wagner (Barry Millington's The Sorcerer of Bayreuth is better written, better illustrated, and more up to date), but it's good, honest fun for someone already hooked.

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and talented family, to say the least, the Wagner offspring were descended from "The Master" Richard Wagner and the equally brilliant Franz Liszt. The author does not spend much time on the life of the unpleasant and boorish Richard and barely mentions Liszt......he sets the stage for the lives of those descendants, some of whom carried on the work of their father/grandfather at his beloved Beyreuth and most of whom were intimates of Adolph Hitler.

This is not an easy read as the author tends to go into minute detail about the possible underlying reasons for the behavior of the family, especially during the years leading up to and during WWII. The book is brilliant in parts and pedantic in others but it does provide a window into the lives of the Wagner clan and the cult that still exists surrounding the music of Richard Wagner.

[Lady Drinkwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last year I missed a possibility to go to the Bayreuth opera. After reading this book I am rather glad I missed it. Wagner's music is absolutely beautiful but now that I have read about "the clan" the festival has a rather strange aura to it and I don't particularly feel like going. Wagner himself was anti semitic, thats absolutely sure, and many members of his family were, and their relationships with Hitler was so close that its difficult not to let it colour ones view of the Wagner phenomenon, particularly as certain members of the family have not really admitted or come to turns with this. Carr has a very lively writing style and focuses more on the family and the ins and outs of the festival than the music. I couldn't help but be fascinated. Its a very dense book and took me a long time to read, the final chapters when it came up to the present day dragged slightly, but on the whole it was a very enlightening and interesting read.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinatingly sordid story, gripping read.

I love music, but for years I couldn’t hear the music of Richard Wagner without seeing in my mind visions of Hitler brooding on the fate of the Jews. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve begun to delve into and enjoy the music, and now I wanted to learn more about “the master,” as Wagnerites invariably call him, as well as the dynasty he and his mistress, later wife Cosima (Liszt’s illegitimate daughter) engendered, the youngest offshoots of which still rule the festival house on the green hill in Bayreuth, nearly 140 years after its inauguration.

Jonathan Carr’s book turned out to be an ideal introduction. He writes in a sprightly style, only occasionally straining to make an effect with his prose, and rarely resorting to cliché. His judgments seem balanced, a neat trick since so much about Wagner and his heritage is ambivalent or contradictory. He seems especially struck by the paradox that Wagner began as a revolutionary, not only musically but more so politically, yet his music became the emblem of Germanness in Wilhelmine Germany, deeply affecting an adolescent Hitler, although many of his cohorts had to be dragged unwillingly to performances.
Beyond Richard, there is a multitude of family members: the imperious Cosima, their only son Siegfried, in a way Cosima’s favorite “daughter,” Siegfried’s wife Winifred, whose undying love was reserved for Hitler, a frequent guest of the family, who knew him as Uncle Wolf. These visits began before his failed Munich beer hall putsch and continued into the war years. I was fascinated by two other women: Siegfried’s sister, the mercurial Isolde, and one of his two daughters, Friedelind. With regard to her, Carr doesn’t fully accept the version of her as the good, anti-Fascist Wagner, but he also questions why the family continued to view her as the black sheep. Here is one of many places where it is evident that Carr did his homework.

In this extensively researched family portrait, Carr also draws on his deep knowledge of twentieth-century German political history (he earlier wrote a highly-praised biography of Helmut Schmidt). His excursions on this sometimes intrude on the narrative flow, but for the most part they provide context vital to an assessment of the tangled interplay of the Wagners and wider German culture (and politics). This analysis is a thread that runs throughout the narrative, then in the final chapter, Carr forms a judgment that strikes me as simultaneously sympathetic and unsparing.

Quibble: the Kindle edition omits the photos from the print version, although it teasingly retains the list of them. Despite this, highly recommended for anyone interested in music, modern European culture, or well-told family sagas.

[Land Heintzberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of a complicated family legacy.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at Richard Wagner's family from his lifetime to the early 21st century. "Dysfunctional" is perhaps the best way to describe the family as members jockeyed to preserve the "Master's" legacy and reputation--which still survives today despite the long record of antisemitism and the embrace (plus financial support) of Hitler--as well as their control of the annual Bayreuth Festival, still held in Wagner's original Festspielhaus under the direction of Wagner's great-granddaughter. An updated edition that chronicles the last years and death of Wolfgang Wagner (Wagner's grandson) as the Festival's director and the struggle between his children as to who would succeed him would be highly desirable. This title will be of interest to anyone interested in Richard Wagner and the fraught legacy of Nazism in Germany, especially as experienced by those (like the Wagner family) who enjoyed a privileged position under Hitler.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author analyzes the complicated links and relationships and history of the Wagner family from the times of Richard Wagner up to the present (2008). It is a really good overview of who was the director of the Bayreuther Festspiele subsequently, under what political circumstances and also of spouses and children and of the complete family tree. The autor also gives good questions and answers as to to what extent did the music of Richard Wagner influence the Nazis and, vice versa, to what extent did the Nazis influence the Wagner family.

[Nacho Ferrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im-pres-cin-di-ble

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story of Richard Wagner, and of his (often crazy) family, and how they preserved and maintained his legacy - while also helping to run it into the dirt. It is the story of the Bayreuth festival, of anti-Semitism and Nazism, and of one illustrious and infamous family’s saga, which at times seems to be almost as involved as that of the master’s characters (though, not quite, since at least no one in the story managed to fall in love and impregnate their own sibling!). It is a hell of a story - starting with Wagner’s genius and vile anti-semitism, through the managing of his image after his death first by his wife, Cosima (herself the illegitimate daughter of Liszt), then by his composer son Siegfreid, and his crazy Nazi wife Winnifred (who, though born in England, out German-ed the Germans by becoming Hitler’s best friend), and then by his grandsons who ended up with their own power struggle that still goes on today. There is no question this is interesting gossipy stuff, with enough real history (with Wagner and World War II) to keep it from being trashy. And Carr writes well - fluidly and with charm. My only quibble is that while Carr does a decent job explaining the historical backstory, he drops the ball on explaining the musical backstory. He takes for granted that we understand why Wagner is so important, and what the magic of the Beyreuth festival is al about. I would actually have appreciated more context for why I should care about who runs Beyreuth, and less about how Hitler came to power. I know why World War II is important - I need some more help with Richard Wagner. Still, it isn’t as if I didn’t enjoy the book - its just that I was left, a bit, at the end (which is all about the interfamily power struggles as to who will run the festival) with the thought “who cares?”, and I think a little more explanation by Carr would have explained why I should. Still, the beginning about the Master’s life and his crazy family, and the whole Nazi section is interesting enough to carry you through - even if the last bit might only really speak to Wagnerians.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carr's history of the Wagner family is a genuinely interesting and enjoyable read, but it does suffer from the sheer scope of its topic. As each successive generation married and had children, the Wagner legacy--as carried on by his family--both grows and dissipates.

The early chapters detailing Wagner and Cosima's years together have the benefit of focusing on the couple and key figures in their life. Carr deftly illustrates how Cosima turned the admiration surrounding Wagner into a living cult that has survived Wagner's death for over 100 years. As each successive generation matures, Carr's tale naturally expands, but it is impossible to discuss each new addition to the family with equal (or close to equal) depth. Understandably, Carr focuses on some of the most dramatic personalities--the English children-in-law (Chamberlain and Winifred), Friedelind, and Wieland. Of those individuals that Carr covers in any depth, few are likeable.

In addition to learning more about certain branches of the family, such as Isolde and her children, I would have liked Carr to have spent more time on (1) the important period immediately following Wagner's death and Cosima's assumption of power at Bayreuth, (2) why Cosima froze out her daughters in favor of their brother, (3) how Bayreuth was re-established after WWII, and (4) the work that was, and is, performed at the Festival.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interestingly written study of Richard Wagner, "The Master", his wife Cosima Liszt, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The author explores the personalities of this clan, the anti-semitism that existed in Richard and Cosima, and the Bayreuth Festival. He explores the relationship between their daughter-in-law, Winifred, and Hitler as well as the Nazis's involvement with Bayreuth. The book explores the leadership of Bayreuth through the post-war years and the various grand children and great-grandchildren of Richard and Cosima. Surrounding the story of this family is a concise history of Germany's political structure from the mid-19th century through to the turn of the 21st century and how the Wagner clan could be framed by these events.

Carr does not discuss the actual compositional style of Wagner, rather he focuses on the dramatic quality of the operas, and how they reflected Germanic nationalism, the Germanic myths, and anti-semitism. Ultimately he seems to want to answer the question that always confronts those studying Wagner. Did his music and his anti-semetic, Germanic nationalism lead to Hitler and the Third Reich, or did Hitler find in Wagner music and drama that supported his own plans and anti-semitism?

[André van Dijk]

Hoezeer de Wagnerdynastie de wereld blijft bezighouden, blijkt uit de regelmatige berichtgeving over de al dan niet omstreden opvolging van de leiding over de Bayreuther Festspiele. De jaarlijkse hoogmis van Richard Wagners megalomane operauitvoeringen kan niet zonder een familielid aan het roer. En niet zonder het geruzie daarover. Maar het zijn vooral de wederwaardigheden van de componist zelf die blijven zorgen voor telkens weer nieuwe boeken, zonder verrassende inzichten maar vaak met een iets verlegde focus. Ook Jonathan Carr loopt weer door de geschiedenis heen: de zoektocht van Wagner naar middelen om zijn kunst te scheppen, de geheime liefdesperikelen met Cosima, zijn obscure relatie met de 'gekke' koning Ludwig II, het vuige antisemitisme dat, verspreid in opruiende geschriften, soms gewoon aan de kant geschoven werd als het de muzikale uitvoeringen betrof. Na zijn dood begint de soap – als een Duitse Dynasty – pas goed van de grond te komen met de verwikkelingen van de nazaten. Cosima, Siegfried en vooral schoondochter Winifred laten overtuigend zien hoe Wagners erfenis voor altijd verweven zal zijn met Duitslands meest donkere perioden.

[Doogyjim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly riveting and intelligent survey of those pesky Wagners who have run the Bayreuth festival since it was founded by The Master himself. Carr is balanced and unbiased, thoughtful and sober in his approach but he doesn't spare on anecdotal detail or on making his own judgements on the the family members over the years.

Much like A N Wilson's recent novel, he sees that Richard Wagner's association with Adolf Hitler was as much the result of those British ex-pats in Germany, Chamberlain and Winifred Wagner. But there is also detailed contextualisiation, outlining the history of Germany in the 20th C and how the Wagners' destinites both reflect and to some extent influence German culture. Terrific.

[Sandra D · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole, this book would be a lot more interesting to a Wagner fan, or at least an opera lover. I can't claim to be either; I go for Baroque.

Of much more interest to me was what was going on in the background of the Wagner family's story, and often in the foreground as well: a history of Germany beginning with the Franco-Prussian War and the founding of a united Germany in 1871, through WWI, the Weimar Republic, the rise of Hitler's Third Reich and WWII, denazification, the Iron Curtain and, finally, reunification.

Hitler was an intimate family friend from the 1920s onward and there's a good bit of material about him in that role, as well as various family members' antisemitism and involvement with the Nazis.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whatever one thinks of Richard Wagner--and this book will give you plenty of information to form an opinion of the man--one fascinating aspect of his legacy is that his descendants have retained control to the present day, in varying degrees, of the Bayreuth festival and opera house inaugurated by the composer himself. Considering Wagner died in 1883, this is no mean feat. Through intermarriage with spouses of different nationalities, family squabbles, Nazis and family friend (!) Adolph Hitler, a turncoat granddaughter...it's all here in a lurid pageant.

[Rock · Rating 3 out of 5]

With its well-drawn characters, dramatic retelling of family squabbles, and star-studded cast, I really wanted to be interested in this book. Unfortunately, it turned out that I just wanted to read a book about Richard Wagner and not his children or grandchildren. It was certainly interesting to consider, though, how complicit in the Nazi regime someone is if their mother is having an affair with Hitler (maybe).

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author tells a parrallel story of the Wagner family and the history of modern Germany. Cosima was very anti-semitic, Winifried was in love with Hitler, Wieland worked for a company staffed by concentration camp prisoners, etc. The book tries to find a middle ground in recounting their story. Not be best of families, but by no means the worse either.

[Jimt43 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another in the long line of books I couldn't finish.
Obviously, deeply and thoroughly researched, I found it to have too much detail about too many things.
I stopped at about the halfway point.

[John B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful but uninspired biography of Wagner.