- Winifred Wagner
Winifred Wagner (
June 23 ,1897 -March 5 ,1980 ) was an Englishwoman and wife ofSiegfried Wagner ,Richard Wagner 's son. She was the effective head of the Wagner family from 1930 to 1945, and a close friend of German dictatorAdolf Hitler .Youth and marriage to Siegfried Wagner
Winifred Williams was born Winifred Marjorie Williams in
Hastings ,England , the daughter of John Williams, a writer, and his wife, the former Emily Florence Karop. Winifred lost both her parents before the age of two and was initially raised in a series of homes. Eight years later she was adopted by a distant German relative of her mother's, Henrietta Karop, and her husbandKarl Klindworth , a musician and a friend ofRichard Wagner .The
Bayreuth Festival was envisioned as afamily business , with the leadership to be passed from Richard Wagner to his sonSiegfried Wagner , but Siegfried, who was secretly homosexual, showed little interest in marriage. It was arranged that Winifred Klindworth, as she now was called, aged 17, would meetSiegfried Wagner , aged 45, at the Bayreuth Festival in 1914. A year later they were married. It was hoped that the marriage would end Siegfried's homosexual encounters and the associated costly scandals, and provide an heir to carry on the family business.Following their marriage on
September 22 ,1915 , they had four children in rapid succession:
# Wieland (1917-1966)
# Friedelinde (1918-1991)
# Wolfgang (born 1919)
# Verena (born 1920)After the death of Siegfried Wagner in 1930, Winifred Wagner took over the
Bayreuth Festival , running it until the end ofWorld War II .Friendship with Adolf Hitler
In 1923, Winifred met
Adolf Hitler , who greatly admired Wagner's music. When Hitler was jailed for his part in theMunich Beer Hall Putsch , Winifred sent him food parcels and stationery on which Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf " may have been written. In the late 1930s, she served as Hitler's personal translator during treaty negotiations with England.Although Winifred remained personally faithful to Hitler, she denied that she had ever supported the Nazi party. Her relationship with Hitler grew so close that by 1933 there were rumors of impending marriage. "Haus
Wahnfried ", the Wagner home in Bayreuth, became Hitler's favorite retreat. Hitler gave the festival government assistance and tax exempt status, and treated Winifred's children solicitously.According to biographer
Brigitte Hamann , Winifred Wagner was reported to be "disgusted" by Hitler's persecution of the Jews. In one notable incident, in the late 1930s, a letter from her to Hitler prevented Hedwig andAlfred Pringsheim (their daughter Katia was married toThomas Mann ) from being arrested by theGestapo . [Tony Paterson [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/05/26/wagner26.xml "'British' Wagner saved Jews from her friend Hitler"] "Sunday Telegraph "25 June 2002 ]The friendship of Winifred and Hitler is treated fancifully in
A. N. Wilson 's novel, "Winnie and Wolf" (2007).According to Gottfried Wagner, Winifred's grandson, she never admitted the error of her ways. After the war, her posthumous devotion to the man she cryptically referred to as "USA" – for Unser Seliger Adolf (our blessed Adolf) – remained undimmed. She never repented of the virulent anti-Semitism she shared with him. She corresponded with Hitler for nearly two decades. Scholars have not been allowed to see the letters which are kept locked away by another of Winifred's grandchildren, Amélie Lafferentz's.
Post-Bayreuth Years
Like Hitler, Winifred Wagner believed profoundly in the rite of a secular cult of German nationalism, of Nordic self-realization, and "völkisch" aspiration. After the collapse of the
Third Reich , a war court banned her from the Bayreuth Festival, which she passed to her sons Wieland and Wolfgang.In 1975, she gave a filmed interview to
Hans-Jurgen Syberberg , where she appeared utterly unrepentant concerning her past. Most striking was her love for Hitler. "To have met him," Frau Wagner declared, "is an experience I would not have missed." She was also interviewed that year by the controversialHolocaust denier and historianDavid Irving who reports that she said that she would then still welcome Hitler at the door and that she did discuss with Hitler saving some individuals. [ [http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/Wagner/Hamann1.html Commentary by David Irving on Tony Paterson Sunday Telegraph article] ]She died in
Überlingen , one of the best preserved medieval sites, on the shore ofLake Constance , onMarch 5 ,1980 at the age of 82, and was interred atBayreuth .Notes
References
*cite book
last = Hamann
first = Brigitte
year = 2005
title = Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth
publisher = Harcourt, Inc
location = Orlando, Florida
id = ISBN 978-0-15-101308-1ee also
*
Wagner family tree
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.