Das Judenthum in Der Musik - Recent Reception

Recent Reception

'Das Judentum' was an embarrassment to the early Wagnerites and was rarely reprinted in the early 20th century, except as part of his collected works. Fischer has found no significant critical comment on the essay. Before the Nazi period there was just one reprint of the essay itself, in Weimar in 1914. It is therefore very unlikely that it was read by Hitler or any of the Nazi hierarchy during the development of the Nazi movement (or later) and there is no evidence of this. During the Nazi period there were just two publications: in Berlin in 1934 and in Leipzig in 1939. Neither of these seem to have been large editions.

'Das Judentum' is not quoted or mentioned by early writers on Nazism in the 1950s such as Hannah Arendt. Interest in the work seems to have revived in the 1960s with new awareness of the Holocaust following the Eichmann trial. In this context some have suggested that Wagner's advice for Jews to 'go under' 'like Ahasuerus' was intended as a call for their extermination, as planned by the Nazi regime, but there is no justification for this. In fact the 'Ahasuerus' Wagner may have had in mind was a character from a play ( 'Halle und Jerusalem' ) by Achim von Arnim, a 'good' Jew who voluntarily sacrifices himself saving other characters from a fire. Wagner may have meant no more than 'Jews must sacrifice their separate identity for the common good'; the interpretation that he intended murder was never attributed to him before the Nazi policy of physical extermination. Because the Nazis deliberately took 'ownership' of Wagner for their own propaganda purposes, it does not follow logically that one should interpret the composer's writings only in the context of Nazi policies. Wagner died six years before Hitler was born in 1889.

The essay was omitted from the 'complete' edition of Wagner's prose works issued in 1983 on the centenary of his death, because of its perceived link with Nazi antisemitism. A scholarly critical edition, with background material and contemporary comments, was prepared by Jens Malte Fischer in 2000.

Some writers (for example, Bryan Magee) have sought to make a qualified defence of Wagner's originality of thought in 'Das Judentum', despite acknowledging its malevolence. However, a full consideration of 'Das Judentum' 's contents weakens this argument.

It is perhaps therefore inappropriate to bring forward 'Das Judentum' in itself as a major milestone in German antisemitism; although Wagner’s attitudes to the Jews in general was highly equivocal. His later writings, published when he was a well-known and influential figure, frequently contain aggressive anti-Jewish comments, although at the same time he maintained a circle of Jewish-born colleagues and admirers.

Adolf Hitler presented himself as an admirer of Wagner's music, and is said to have claimed that "there is only one legitimate predecessor to National Socialism: Wagner". Wagner's music was frequently played during Nazi rallies (as was the music of Beethoven, also 'appropriated' by the Nazis). Wagner's posthumous daughter-in-law, Winifred Wagner, was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and ran the Bayreuth Festival of Wagner's music from the death of her husband, Siegfried, in 1930 until the end of World War II, when she was ousted. During the Nazi regime, the Nazi hierarchy was frequently required to attend performances of Wagner operas (although they did not necessarily respond enthusiastically). Thus Germans of the Nazi era, even if they knew nothing about music and nothing of Wagner’s writings, were presented with a clear image of the anti-Jewish Wagner as a great German.

Because of these factors, performances of Wagner's works in the modern state of Israel did not occur during the twentieth century, by consensus. In recent years many Israelis have argued that it is possible to appreciate his musical talents, without implying acceptance of his political or social beliefs. A public performance in Tel Aviv in 2001 of Wagner’s prelude to Tristan und Isolde, conducted as an unprogrammed encore by Daniel Barenboim, left its audience partly delighted, partly enraged.