Editing Das Judenthum in der Musik (section)

==Recent reception==
''Das Judenthum'' would not create the serious controversy Wagner sought to provoke until the 1950s and 1960s, when scholars began researching a possible link between Wagner and his works with the philosophy and policies of [[Nazi Germany]], most notably the [[Final Solution]] resulting in [[the Holocaust]].

Hitler was known to be an enthusiastic admirer of Wagner's music, and the music was frequently played during Nazi party rallies (along with the music of other German composers) as exemplifying German cultural supremacy.<ref>Dennis, 1996 pp. 142–174</ref> While Hitler owned several of Wagner's [[Music manuscript|music manuscripts]] as prized possessions, there is no evidence Hitler and other Nazi leadership members read ''Das Judenthum'' or were even aware of its existence.<ref>Evans, 2005</ref> As the essay was largely regarded as an embarrassment to the early Wagnerites, there was just one reprint of the essay in [[Weimar]] in 1914, before the Nazis came to power. During the Nazi era there were two further publications: in Berlin in 1934 and in Leipzig in 1939. Neither of these appear to have been large editions with significant readership.

How ever nazi musicologist Karl Blessinger drew upon Wagner's anti-semitic ideas and langugage in publications during the nazi era and Hitler came to use the Wagner-coined phrase of "Jewification" ("Verjudung") in Mein Kampf.

The essay has since served as an important document to understand the nature of Wagner's antisemitic worldview and whether this antisemitism is present in [[List of works for the stage by Richard Wagner|his stage works]]. Scholars such as [[Theodor Adorno]] have asserted that it is present,<ref>Adorno, 1952</ref> but this is strongly disputed by others.<ref>Katz, 1986</ref> The topic remains under [[Controversies surrounding Richard Wagner|considerable debate]] in both academia and amongst the opera-going public. With a few controversial exceptions, Wagner has not been publicly performed in what is today the modern state of Israel since 1938.

Some writers such as [[Bryan Magee]] have sought to make a qualified defense of Wagner's originality of thought in ''Das Judenthum'', despite acknowledging its malevolence.<ref>Magee, 1988, pp. 17–29</ref> However, other scholars argue a more comprehensive consideration of the essay's contents weakens his argument.<ref>Rose, 1992, pp. 78–89</ref> Music historians have written to debunk the anti-Jewish thesis and arguments appearing in Wagner's essay.<ref>Conway (2012), p.9.</ref>