Featured Book: The Wagner Clan by Jonathan Carr

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Carr writes in Chapter 10, "All the Reich's a Stage": "Hitler may well have seen himself as Lohengrin, the mystery knight in shining armour, or as Rienzi, the tribune of implacable will with the (doomed) mission to make Rome powerful again. We know from Mein Kampf that Lohengrin was the first opera he ever saw — in his home town of Linz when he was only twelve — and that he was 'captivated at once'. A few years later, according to the memoirs of a youthful pal named August Kubizek, Hitler saw Rienzi and promptly went into a kind of trance from which he emerged convinced he would lead Germans to greatness. Like the accounts of many claiming intimate knowledge of Hitler's doings and motivation, much in Kubizek's book is suspect; but there is enough independent evidence to suggest that at least the core of the Rienzi tale is probably true. Even leaving aside such doubtful sources, Hitler's passion for and knowledge of Wagner's music dramas is well documented. The love affair that began in Linz soon intensified when the budding artist with big dreams and empty pockets reached Vienna …" (pp. 176-177).