Bayreuth plans centre for Nazi documents

Bayreuth plans centre for Nazi documents

News

norman lebrecht

October 22, 2022

The town of Bayreuth – not the festival, which continues to deny independent access to its Nazi records – has announced plans for a centre for documentation of the Nazi era. The Federal government has pledged to fund it with 11.6 million Euros.

The only problem is location. The twon wants to use the former home of the antisemitic ideologue Houston Stewart Chamberlain, but the house is presently occupied by a museum for the romantic poet Jean Paul, who died there.

pictured: The Festspielhaus on Hitler’s birthday: April 20, 1939

The Wagner family, for their part, have so many questions still to answer.

Comments

  • TNVol says:

    I’m very glad I’m not having to answer for my Viking ancestors. Although, with today’s always identity focused fascists running things, it could be coming.

    • Amos says:

      Identity focused fascists= those who uphold democratic ideals unlike the true fascists who stormed the US capitol on January 6th. Imagine having to answer for using all the resources at your disposal to support a mass murderer.

      • Anthony Sayer says:

        @Amos: Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…

      • Sue Sonata Form says:

        Every other night on TV is yet another documentary about the Nazi era; Hitler’s lover, his aids, his buildings, his painting, his friends, his dog, his interior design, his gold lust, his insanity….ENOUGH. The German people today are not responsible for this so stop with bringing it all back to life with these kinds of ‘exhibitions’.

        I watched “To Be or Not to Be”, the 1942 film of Ernst Lubitsch with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. I loved this line, “his little book is about camping!” and those concentration camps….”we did the concentrating and they did the camping”.

        Before you stamp your feet like irate infants please do remember that it was a Jewish director who brought all this to the screen.

  • Elizabeth Owen says:

    Well, all I can say is why? Those of us who lost family members to the Waffen SS etc. don’t need a museum which will pickle in aspic the horrors of the Nazi regime and Bayreuth is weird enough

  • has-been says:

    What questions does the family have to answer ? This subject has been raked over, scrutiniced in a tiresome way for decades. The families, principals, sisters and brothers and grandchildren have been subjected to endless questions. Please give it a rest !

    • Tiredofitall says:

      And yet they continue to smile with polite obfuscation.

    • william osborne says:

      They could release the approximately 200 letters exchanged between Hitler and Winifred Wagner.

    • HELEN KAMIONER says:

      I remember, and my memory honors every member of my family murdered by the Nazi murder machine. And I will remember with my own dying breath, as I hope I would be remembered by my surviving family.

  • HELEN KAMIONER says:

    Great. Every town in Germany that doesn’t a Nazi document center should have one.

  • Petros LInardos says:

    “The Wagner family, for their part, have so many questions still to answer.”

    What should the living Wagners do?

    I believe the Wagners now alive don’t remember the 1930s and 1940s. Gottfried, born in 1947, has very openly criticized the Festival and, as result, was estranged from his father Wolfgang.

    There is no shortage of secondary literature on Bayreuth and the Nazis.

  • Greg Bottini says:

    That photo is easily the creepiest one I have ever seen regarding Hitler and his love of Wagner and the various Wagner family members.
    And I’m not forgetting that (in-)famous photo of Hitler with Wolfgang and Wieland.
    I feel slimed. I’m going off now to take a shower.
    Yeccch.

  • Barry Guerrero says:

    The Wagner family does not have questions to answer, because the current generation of them weren’t there. Period. You know who does need to be held accountable for the atrocities of the nazis? . . . Hitler, and his merry band of murdering control freaks. Put the blame on those who actually perpetrated the crimes. Wagner wasn’t there either, regrettable as his writings may have been.

  • Matias says:

    This again. How about a museum of Communist atrocities?

    No, thought not.

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