Richard Wagner 18131883

1
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

• Wagners political involvement with music is best
  traced back to the year 1848.
• 1848-9 were years of great revolution in Europe.
  There were upheavals in Paris, Vienna, Prague,
  Munich, Dresden, and Berlin, to name a few cities
  seriously affected by the tumult.

2

• Marx and Engels published their Communist
  Manifesto in 1848.
• Wagner was highly political with his activities
  in that year.
• Wagner was a member of a political organization
  (Vaterlandsverein, located in Dresden) that
  supported republican political goals.
• He gave speeches that sought to organize support
  for revolution.

3

• In 1848, Wagner was beginning to work on prose
  sketches for The Ring.
• Around 1848-9, Wagner also wrote prose that
  raised revolutionary ideas. Some of his prose
  from this time are The Revolution, Art and
  Revolution, and The Art - work of the Future.
• Many of the points made in The Revolution can
  find parallels in the allegory and symbolism in
  The Ring.

4

• Wagner had probably read the works of Proudhon
  (the anarchist), Feuerbach, Max Stirner, Mikhael
  Bakunin (a Russian anarchist), and Karl Marx.
• In the years 1848-9, Wagner was also active
  politically. He took part in the Dresden
  uprising in May of 1849.
• During this uprising, Bakunin was staying with
  August Rockel, Wagners assistant conductor.

5

• During the Dresden uprising in 1849, Wagner
  participated in political meetings in his garden.
  Discussions involved how to arm the populace.
  It has been reported that he took part in
  producing hand-grenades, distributed propaganda
  leaflets, and even stood watch during mass
  interactions with Prussian troops.
• Wagner sent a crucial letter to Rockel that was
  intercepted by the police.

6

• Wagner then had to escape from Dresden, barely
  missing arrest. A warrant for the arrest of
  Wagner stayed in full effect until 1860, and was
  only fully lifted in 1862.
• Wagner lived in Switzerland during most of his
  years in exile.
• Thus, it was not until 1862 that Wagners
  political activities of 1848-9 were finally
  resolved.

7
The Second Reich

• The Napoleonic Wars in the early part of the
  1800s were the events that formally ended the
  Holy Roman Empire and forced the many ethnically
  German principalities to form a general but loose
  union.
• In 1860, the Congress of Vienna helped solidify
  this by creating the Deutsher Bund, which
  included 38 states led by Austria.

8

• Otto von Bismarck began his serious involvement
  in German politics in the 1860s. He wanted a
  stronger and more united German empire.
• Two ethnically German states, Schleswig and
  Holstein, were under the control of Denmark,
  which planned to annex them formally.
• Prussian and Austria invade. Prussia takes
  Schleswig while Austria takes Holstein.

9

• In 1866, Prussia wins a seven week war with
  Austria, annexing the country.
• Napoleon III is encouraging the war between
  Prussian and Austria so as to weaken both
  countries and allow for French expansion to the
  east.
• With the encouragement of Bismarck, Prince
  Leopold (a relative of the Prussian leader
  Wilhelm I) tries to become King of Spain. France
  does not want this and demands that Germany not
  try this again.

10

• Wilhelm I politely declines to promise not to
  help Prince Leopold again. The French ambassador
  to Germany sends a telegram (known as the Elm
  Telegram) to Napoleon III. The telegram is
  intercepted by Bismarck, who edits it before it
  gets to France. The editing basically suggests to
  Napoleon III that Wilhelm says he can go jump in
  a lake.
• The telegram trick works, and France declares war
  on Prussia with France seen as the aggressor.

11
The Second Reich Begins

• France loses the war and Paris is captured in
  1871.
• Wilhelm I becomes the Emperor of Germany in 1871,
  and the Second Reich begins.
• Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of Germany.
• Germany grows over the next 20 years to become a
  major industrial and military power.

12
The Second Reich Ends

• In 1888, Wilhelm I dies, Frederick III succeeds
  him and dies three months later.
• After that Wilhelm II becomes Emperor and forces
  Bismark to resign.
• World War I begins in 1914.

13
Wagner and Beethoven

• Wagners political life was defined by the events
  of the time period of the Second Reich.
• In his own writings and speeches, he explicitly
  tried to define Beethoven in political terms.
• It was Wagner who most notably politicized
  Beethoven after Beethovens death.

14

• Others sought to politicize Beethoven besides
  Wagner during the Second Reich. But Wagner was
  the most visible signpost during this period.
• In a sense, Wagner used his interpretation of
  Beethoven to give support to his own political
  views, and to his attempts to politicize these
  views in his music.
• Wagner was a revolutionary. He saw Beethoven in
  revolutionary terms.

15
The Nibelungs Ring

• The best representative example of Wagners
  revolutionary politics as expressed in music can
  be found in The Ring.
• This is a collection of four operas that can take
  as many as 20 hours to fully perform.
• In class I outline the political interpretation
  of The Ring.