VIDEO: Anti-Semitic Letter From Wagner to Be Auctioned in Jerusalem

Anti-Semitic Letter From Wagner to Be Auctioned in Jerusalem

In the letter, the composer asserts that ‘Jewish assimilation into French society prevents the French from distinguishing the corroding influence of the Jewish spirit on modern culture’

Amir Mandel Apr 24, 2018

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A letter with anti-Semitic content, handwritten by composer Richard Wagner, will be presented this week at a public auction in Jerusalem of rare historical items.

From left: the letter to be auctioned, and the composer Richard Wagner.Courtesy of Kedem auction house and DPA/AP/haaretz.com

The letter was sent on April 25, 1869 from Lucerne to France, apparently to the French writer, philosopher and musicologist Édouard Schuré, who not long before had published an essay in a French journal about Wagner’s works, titled “Richard Wagner et le Drame Musical” (“Richard Wagner and the Musical Drama”). The first part of the letter refers to an essay about Wagner that appeared in that journal, therefore Schuré is the presumed addressee.

From Richard Wagner's anti-Semitic letter. 

The letter goes on to discuss Wagner’s thoughts about the Jews and their influence on French and German culture. The discussion appears to pertain to the most well-known essay regarding the composer’s attitude toward Jews and art. Entitled “Das Judenthum in der Musik” (“Judaism in Music”), it was published in Zurich in 1850 under the pen name K. Freigedank (K. Freethought).

In 1869, Wagner republished the polemical essay under his real name, drawing much more public attention to it.

https://www.haaretz.com/life/.premium-anti-semitic-letter-from-wagner-to-be-auctioned-in-jerusalem-1.6026647

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