Was Wagner anti-Semitic?
To this day, Wagner’s family claims that Wagner harbored no antisemitic feelings, making the classic claim that “Some of his best friends were Jewish.” There were two notable Jewish musicians in the circle of the extremely charismatic Wagner, but it’s interesting to note that they both comitted suicide. Wagner’s writings include an infamous essay “Das Judentum in Der Musik” (1850) (sometimes translated as “Judaism in Music,” sometimes as “Jewishness in Music”), Wagner made the case that, in the new German nationalist art form he was devising, it was important that all Jewish elements be expunged. He was also quoted as having said that it was alright to be Jewish, “as long as you work toward self distruction” (note the self distructiveness of his aforementioned Jewish friends). It is difficult to deny that, to current standards, Wagner was an antisemite. It is often pointed out that Hitler was highly inspired by the writings of Wagner. It is also important, though to point out that much
