Mina R. Marsow May 5, 2010 SCP85, Senior Thesis Colloquium Advisor: Professor Steven Remy Professor Jillian Cavanaugh Brooklyn College, CUNY Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche: Appropriation and Reception in the Third Reich Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche: Appropriation and Reception in the Third Reich Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche are two prominent German cultural icons. Wagner‟s compositional and Nietzsche‟s philosophical influence extends over time and space impacting musicians, thinkers and others all around the globe up until today. However, Wagner and Nietzsche have become important and controversial figures for much more than only their artistic and cultural contributions. During the Third Reich, the writings and images of these two figures were appropriated by the Nazi regime. The association of Wagner and Nietzsche with National Socialism taints their images and currently scholars continue to argue the extent of Wagner‟s and Nietzsche‟s role in the Third Reich. In this paper I explore the reasons for Wagner‟s and Nietzsche‟s association with the Third Reich. Wagner and Nietzsche were both dead before the advent of National Socialism; however, their influence is apparent in Nazi ideologies, policies and propaganda. What was it about Wagner‟s and Nietzsche‟s images that made these two figures conducive to Nazi appropriation? In this paper I examine Wagner‟s and Nietzsche‟s images to consider why they specifically were employed as visionaries by the National Socialist party. I also examine the methods through which the National Socialist party, in their policies and propaganda techniques, appropriated Wagner and Nietzsche as part of Nazism and how that appropriation was received by the German public. The reason I chose both Wagner and Nietzsche as the subject of my paper runs deeper than only their shared status as administered icons of the Third Reich‟s regime. Wagner and Nietzsche both lived in the same time period and for a time maintained close contact as colleagues and contemporaries. Ultimately, however, the two split. During the Nazi regime, these two cultural icons were reunited under the Nazi banner as sharing similar views that linked them to National Socialism. Although for the most part in my analysis I separate Wagner and Nietzsche as two entirely distinct cultural icons with different impacts on National Socialism, as they are in fact two entirely contrasting entities, it is important to note that these two figures share a historical connection both in their lifetimes as contemporaries and with the synthesis of their images that was created through their common appropriation into National Socialism. I find the synthesis of Wagner and Nietzsche wholly fascinating and entirely absurd. Wagner‟s and Nietzsche‟s connection as colleagues and friends, with Wagner acting as Nietzsche mentor, only serves to further emphasize the differences between the two both personally and ideologically. Wagner was self-absorbed and egotistical and exploited his relationship with Nietzsche to his personal benefit; Nietzsche, respectful and loyal to his mentor worked tirelessly on Wagner behalf. When Nietzsche realized that his envisioned mentor-student relationship was only one sided, he reevaluated his connection with Wagner and ultimately split with him. Part of this separation was ideological. Nietzsche was disgusted by Wagner‟s treatment and judgment of others including his anti-Semitic views.1 How absurd, that Nietzsche, who split with his once revered mentor over ideological differences, should be lumped together with Wagner as sharing similar opinions with him by the National Socialist and specifically on the shared topic of the Jewish question. Further on, at the end of the second section of my paper, I will briefly discuss a concrete example where Wagner and Nietzsche are both used simultaneously to represent the same notions in Nazi propaganda.2 Another prominent example 1 Joachim Köhler, Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 97 and chapter 8. 2 See page 35 discussing Leni Riefenstahl‟s film Triumph of the Will. of the shared Wagner-Nietzsche connection to National Socialism that I do not discuss in this paper but that is a valuable reference is Thomas Mann‟s book, Doctor Faustus.3 However, returning to the principal focus of my paper, which is the way in which the Third Reich appropriated Wagner and Nietzsche, I arranged my paper as follows. In the first section of my paper I explain Wagner and Nietzsche personas, and how their personalities and/or ideas corresponded (or how they were altered to correspond) with National Socialism. In the second section I analyze how Wagner and Nietzsche were incorporated into Third Reich policies and propaganda measures. In the third section I look at how the Nazi appropriation of these two cultural and artistic figures swayed public opinion in favor of the Third Reich. By representing these two important figures as constituents of their regime, the National Socialists gained respectability and validity that influenced the German public to favorably receive the National Socialist cause. I: Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche as German personalities Germany celebrates Richard Wagner as its most eminent opera composer to date. In a country that equates its music with national identity, composers are extremely significant. Robert Schumann described music‟s importance to Germany as, “Italy has its Naples, France its Revolution, England its Navy, etc., so the Germans have their Beethoven symphonies.”4 With 3 The book, a fictional novel, tells the story of a genius German composer, Adrian Leverkühn, who sells his soul to the devil. The book is written against the backdrop of the 1939-1945 war, linking the devil to German politics. The composer, Leverkühn, can be viewed as a reference to Wagner and how his compositions took on demonic proportions under the Nazi regime. (See Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 4, 36-38.) Leverkühn can also be viewed as a reference to Nietzsche as “the thinker whose ideas set the fateful movement (National Socialism) going.” Mann actually revealed in discussions regarding the book that Nietzsche is an underling theme, however later on Mann reversed his opinion on Nietzsche as being a causal effect of fascism. Mann‟s re-evaluation of Nietzsche points to the contrasting positions of Nietzsche and Wagner, where Nietzsche was in fact a far cry from being a Nazi prophet but rather a Nazi puppet. For further discussion see Steven Aschheim, The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990, (California: University of California Press, 1992), 299-300. 4 Robert Schumann, On Music and Musicians (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 61, quoted in Elaine Kelly, “Imagining Richard Wagner: “The Janus Head of a Divided Nation.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History 9, no. 4 (Fall, 2008), 800. composers ranging from Bach, Handel and Beethoven, Germany prides itself as the musical center of Western Europe and with Wagner Germany finally gained credibility in the operatic field, producing a talent that could rival even Italy‟s Verdi and Puccini. During Wagner‟s life span (1813-1883), Wagner stretched the musical language of the Romantic era to its very limits and set in motion the modern musical language of the future. His innovative approach to composition, redefinition of harmony, and emphasis on total artwork5 established him as a revolutionary hero of the arts. His compositional style influenced both contemporary and future composers up until today. But Wagner tapped into the inner German psyche on a much deeper level than the national pride in musical excellence and innovation. Wagner used the ancient Nordic myths of the German people as the context for many of his operas. Wagner‟s famous opera, Ring of the Nibelung, mythologizes ancient Nordic myths, and its main character, Siegfried, emblemized the Aryan god. The German people identified with these myths as their heritage. It was these stories of their past that rooted them to the present. For the German people, Wagner‟s music became synonymous with roots and tradition, national pride in their past and lessons for the future. Frederic Spotts, in his book on the Bayreuth festival, explains the passionate connection that the German people felt with Wagnerian opera. “Although these sagas aroused in the non-German a purely aesthetic reaction, in the German they struck a tremendously resonant chord deep inside the communal psyche. Their myths and romanticism, their gods and heroes, their social outcasts and self- 5 Wagner proposed the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total artwork") that an opera should contain all forms of visual and aural arts at once. This notion is overtly evident in his operas that are a synthesis of poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts. immolating heroines coincided with the vague but powerful yearning, the sense of struggle and the longing for redemption that was embedded in the national character.”6 Wagnerian opera, as a medium of both culture and heritage, epitomized the quintessence of the German people, and thus Wagner became a German icon. Because of his high-profile image, Wagner‟s outspoken political opinions also garnered a great deal of attention. His tract, “Das Judentum in der Musik” (Judaism in Music), describes how the Jewish people defile and debase German art. In this article, Wagner contends that Jews in their small mindedness cannot comprehend German music. Wagner writes that, “The Jew speaks the modern European languages merely as learned, and not as mother tongues. This must necessarily prevent him from any capability of therein expressing himself idiomatically, independently and comfortably to his nature. Our entire European art and civilization have remained a foreign tongue to the Jew."7 Because of his status as a cultural icon, Wagner‟s anti- Semitic writings had a profound influence on Germany. The Germans, as aforementioned are fiercely nationalistic about their musical culture, so vilifying the Jews as destructive to German culture by an icon as respected as Wagner was bound to have a tremendous influence on the national opinion of Jewry. Some scholars argue that by comparing Wagner‟s prose works to his operas, the operas themselves can be viewed as allegories of Wagner‟s political opinions.8 Thus, Wagner‟s musical treatment of Germanic folklore can be interpreted as a presentation of the Aryan hero pitted against the manipulating, avaricious Jew. The purpose of this type of presentation being an 6 Frederic Spotts, Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival (London: Yale University Press, 1994), 6. 7 Joshua Jacobson, “Music of the Holocaust,” Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against humanity (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2 (2005), 717. 8 “Wagnerian Music” ed. John Hartwell Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA 3 (2008): 209-212 and Michael Meyer, “The Nazi Musicologist as Myth Maker in the Third Reich” Journal of Contemporary History 10, no. 4 (October 1975), 649-65. operatic manifestation demonstrating the urgent need of the Aryan race to redeem itself from the poisoning of the Jewish people by reaching back to its ancient, historical roots. The Ring of the Nibelung most specifically demonstrates anti-Semitic ideals. Meyer writes of the characters in the Ring that, “It was evident to contemporaries, as to the Nazis, that the money-hungry and lustful Alberich, treacherous Mime and the impotent critic Hanslick Beckmesser, were all caricatures of Jews, intended to recall traditional German anti-Semitism.”9 On the other hand, the Ring‟s main character, Siegfried, is mythological of the German god, representing the Aryan hero. Siegfried‟s character embodies the qualities of pre-Judaic strength, oneness of nature, and the restoration of true art from its Jewish defilement. In this way, Wagner used Nordic mythology in his opera Ring of the Nibelung to create the vision of the powerful German man, Siegfried, triumphing over the spineless Jew, Wotan. From this point of view, Wagner actually created a powerful esoteric dimension to his anti-Semitism. It wasn‟t only contained within his writings but it poured out of the musical notes and themes of his compositions in order to inspire German hearts and spirits towards associating German heritage with anti-Semitism. In fact, Wagner‟s compositional ability as well as his interpretation of Nordic myth inspired Hitler personally. Hitler relates his first encounter with Wagnerian opera as follows: "At the age of twelve, I saw ... the first opera of my life, Lohengrin. In one instant I was addicted. My youthful enthusiasm for the Bayreuth Master knew no bounds.”10 Hitler‟s passionate involvement in specifically Wagner‟s music reveals a deep connection between Hitler and Wagnerian opera. In fact, Hitler insisted on holding on to many of Wagner‟s original manuscripts throughout war and as a result a large portion was destroyed. 11 As we will discuss later in the paper, Hitler envisioned himself as the practical realization of Wagner‟s operatic 9 Meyer, 662. 10 August Kubizek, Adolf Hitler: mein Jugendfreund (1953) quoted in Spotts, 141. 11 Spotts, 198. fantasy. Hitler saw himself as the Aryan god, Siegfried, coming as the messiah of Wagner‟s prophecy in the Ring of the Nibelung. Later in this paper we will discuss how this was evident in Nazi propaganda and how this influenced Hitler‟s actions as a political leader. For now, let us turn to Nietzsche and his prominence at the turn of the twentieth century. The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, was a radical and revolutionary thinker of the nineteenth century. Nietzsche was a nihilist; he believed that life has no intrinsic purpose or meaning. Especially after the 1890s, Nietzsche‟s works started to become exceedingly popular because many Germans felt that they could apply Nietzsche‟s writings to their personal or political convictions. In the words of Count Harry Kessler:12 “There grew within us a secret Messianism…and suddenly, like a meteor, Nietzsche appeared…The way in which Nietzsche influenced, or more precisely possessed, us cannot be compared with the effect of any other contemporary thinker or poet. He did not merely speak to reason and fantasy. His impact was more encompassing, deeper, and more mysterious.” Nietzsche‟s persona, in other words, magnetized the German people. Nietzsche represented the exemplary revolutionary philosopher; he denied all authority and traditional beliefs. At the turn of the twentieth century, when Germany was undergoing constant political, social and economic upheaval, the German people identified with Nietzsche‟s revolutionary thinking. Part of Nietzsche‟s appeal was his emphasis on creativity. In his book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche writes: “What is good and evil, no one knows yet, unless it be he who creates.”13 As can be observed from this quote, Nietzsche did not define things clearly in his works. He demanded of his readers their own creative responses to open ended philosophical questions. For Nietzsche, it was the creative process rather than defining and explaining that was 12 Harry Graf Kessler, Gesichter und Zeiten: Erinnerungen (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1962), 229, 243, quoted in Steven E. Aschheim, The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990 (California: University of California Press, 1992), 23. 13 Nietzsche, “On Old and New Tablets,” in Portable Nietzsche, 308, quoted in Aschheim, 9. important. Nietzsche‟s emphasis on creativity rather than explanation was often interpreted by his appropriators as irrationality. As described by the Nietzschean thinker, Gottfried Benn, “Irrational means close to creation, and capable of creation.”14 This idea of irrationality really coincided well with the mind frame of many early twentieth century Germans. The German people were tired of knowledge and progress because they felt that modernization was causing more harm than good. Many Germans wanted to go back to a traditional, simple way of life. The idea of being creative rather than being forward minded resonated well with many German people. Moreover, Nietzsche wrote many contradictory ideas in his philosophy. Oftentimes his earlier and later works contained opposing ideas. Additionally, his writings are open ended, lending themselves to individual interpretation. Many political factions incorporated Nietzschean ideas into their party ideology precisely because Nietzsche‟s writings were so open ended and contradictory. Rather than incorporating Nietzsche‟s entire philosophy, each political faction would appropriate only the ideas relevant to their cause. As Steven Aschheim explains, “Nietzsche‟s appropriators wore selective blinders; they did not have to buy the whole Nietzsche or nothing. Readers could and did pick critically from the extraordinarily rich variety of positions and perspectives contained in his work.”15 Many different political groups focused on the aspects of Nietzscheanism that met their ends and projected their particular view. These factions often choose Nietzschean „one liner‟s‟, a slogan or phrase in his works that out of context related to their parties specific needs. Kurt Tucholsky, in 1929, wrote an article in the German periodical, Weltbühne, describing Nietzsche‟s national appeal as follows: “Who cannot claim him (Nietzsche) for their own? Tell me what you need and I will supply you with a Nietzsche 14 Aschheim, 16. 15 Aschheim, 9. citation.”16 Tucholsky‟s assessment demonstrates how an assortment of political facets rearranged and appropriated selective aspects of Nietzsche‟s work to meet their needs. Nietzsche‟s appropriators formed a splintered image of the philosopher. Instead of the holistic focus of Nietzsche as a philosophical system of thought, Nietzsche‟s writing became characterized by the specific terms and slogans that were popularized in his name. Two popular Nietzschean terms that were later appropriated by the Nazis were the concepts of übermensch and will to power. The Nietzschean concept of übermensch was a goal for humanity. The übermensch was a person that became a better person than the current state of man. Will to power was that people should strive towards the highest possible station in life. Nietzsche‟s explanation of these terms is ambiguous. The übermensch postulated that an individual could possibly elevate his status above the current position of humankind. However, the definition of this elevated status is never succinctly delineated. The will to power urges mankind to endeavor. However, what this endeavor entails of, Nietzsche does not explain. Nietzsche‟s terms only convey the importance of motivations and they value passion and ambition, however they does not direct the reader towards any specific passions or ambitions. Thus, Nietzsche‟s appropriators could then redefine will to power to mean the passion of their choice and the ultimate station of the übermensch as the station of their choice. By outlining these concepts without any clear demarcations Nietzsche exposed his ideas to any and all meanings and interpretations. In Germany, various political factions, including the Volk Movement, which I shall briefly discuss, interpreted übermensch and will to power as racially and nationally charged notions. These individuals redefined übermensch as a type of superman that was inherently better and racially superior and they redefined will to power as a heroic will 16 Kurt Tucholsky, Gesammelte Werke (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1960) 7: 1929 “Schwarz auf Weiss,” p. 49 quoted in Aschheim, 274.