The Wagner Legacy - An Autobiography
For generations, the Wagner family has been revered in Germany: rich, powerful, politically influential - in many ways the closest thing the country has to royalty. But the story of the Wagners is also one of antisemitism and nationalism, the extent of which has been kept within the confines of the family. Until now.
As Richard Wagner's great-grandson, Gottfried Wagner's childhood in Bayreuth was, at face value, one of rarefied opportunity. Yet beneath the surface of family life was the ever-present spectre of their beloved Uncle Wolf' - Adolf Hitler, whose Nazism was influenced by the composer's ideology. Questioning these ties, Gottfried was lied to and prevented from further enquiry by a family content not only to ignore the past, but to embrace it in private.
Ostracised, disinherited but staunchly vocal, Gottfried has become an outspoken critic of Richard Wagner's legacy and a champion of greater understanding between Germans and Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants worldwide. This is his story.