바그너의 반유태주의

Wagner s Antisemitism

As an important exponent of antisemitism, R. Wagner often becomes the chief well-spring of the racial theories which helped to make Hitler the scourge of Europe. Wagner s antisemitism has been investigated fairly thoroughly, but his relationship with the Jews seems to stimulate a never-ending debate which continually produces new interpretations. I shall treat the content of Wagner s anti-semitism from the standpoint of intellectual history. Wagner is essentially known as a opera composer, therefore the primary sources of my study are his opera compositions for artists often express their thinking in composition form. I shall then examine the leitmotif of Wagner s antisemitic ideas. The key to appreciate Wagner s ideas lie in the concep of nationality and culture that was extensively developed by romantic nationalists. Wagner was content with a union of art and politics which could lead to the rebirth of German culture. He never spoke of the rebreeding of the German race. I will insist that in donning the mask of German nationalism, Wagner attempted to foist on the Jews the threatening aspects of modernity, and in his role as standard-bearer of a Utopian Christianity, he sought a system of values to which he could cling in a world that was heading toward nihilism. However, I think that the representatives of Wagner s ideologies-German nationalism, anti-modernism, and anti-semitism-were reluctant to claim him as one of their own.