Editing Winifred Wagner

{{Short description|Wife of Siegfried Wagner}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Winifred Wagner
| image       = Winifred Wagner (1897–1980) 1931.jpg
| image_size  =
| caption     = Wagner in 1931
| birth_name  = Winifred Marjorie Williams
| birth_date     = {{birth date|1897|6|23|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Hastings]], [[Sussex]], England
| death_date     = {{death date and age|1980|3|5|1897|6|23|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Überlingen]], [[West Germany]]
| nationality = German
| other_names =
| known_for   =
| education   =
| employer    =
| occupation  =
| title       =
| spouse      = {{marriage|Siegfried Wagner|1915|1930|reason=died}}
| partner     =
| children    = {{hlist|[[Wieland Wagner|Wieland]]|[[Friedlind Wagner|Friedelind]]|[[Wolfgang Wagner|Wolfgang]]|[[Verena Wagner|Verena]]}}
| parents     =
| relatives   =
| signature   =
| website     =
| footnotes   =
}}

'''Winifred Marjorie Wagner''' (née '''Williams'''; 23 June 1897 &ndash; 5 March 1980) was the English-born wife of [[Siegfried Wagner]], the son of [[Richard Wagner]], and ran the [[Bayreuth Festival]] after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of [[World War II]] in 1945. She was a friend and supporter of [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Richard Wagner#Nazi appropriation|himself a Wagner enthusiast]], and she and Hitler maintained a regular correspondence.

==Biography==
===Early life and marriage to Siegfried Wagner===
Wagner was born Winifred Marjorie Williams in [[Hastings]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wistrich |first=Robert S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7qlvzyEieyQC&dq=Winifred+Wagner&pg=PA270 |title=Who's Who in Nazi Germany |date=2013-07-04 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-41388-9 |pages=270–271 |language=en}}</ref> to John Williams, a Welsh journalist and critic, and his English-Danish wife, Emily Florence Williams, née Karop. Orphaned before the age of two, she initially was raised in a number of homes. Eight years later, she was adopted by a distant German relative of her mother, Henrietta Karop, and her husband [[Karl Klindworth]], a musician and a friend of [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/6720343.how-adolf-hitler-fell-in-love-with-sussex-orphan/ |title=How Adolf Hitler fell in love with Sussex orphan |newspaper=[[The Argus (Brighton)|The Argus]] |date=4 February 2004 |access-date=10 December 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Siegfried Wagner & Family - Dec 1922 Shadowland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Siegfried Wagner and his family in 1922]]
The [[Bayreuth Festival]] was seen as a family business, with the leadership to be passed from Richard Wagner to his son [[Siegfried Wagner|Siegfried]], but Siegfried, who was secretly [[bisexual]], showed little interest in marriage. It was arranged that Winifred Klindworth, as she was called at the time, aged 17, would meet Siegfried Wagner, aged 45, at the Bayreuth Festival in 1914. A year later, they were married.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Kinderman |first1=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhBBRn3i9zsC&dq=Winifred+Wagner&pg=PA300 |title=A Companion to Wagner's Parsifal |last2=Syer |first2=Katherine Rae |date=2005 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-57113-237-6 |pages=300 |language=en}}</ref> It was hoped that the marriage would end Siegfried's [[homosexual]] encounters and the associated costly scandals and provide an heir to carry on the family business. Following their marriage on 22 September 1915, they had four children in rapid succession.<ref name=":1" /> After the death of [[Siegfried Wagner]] in 1930, Winifred Wagner took over the Bayreuth Festival, running it until the end of World War II.

===Friendship with Adolf Hitler===
In 1923, Winifred Wagner met [[Adolf Hitler]],<ref name=":0" /> who greatly admired Richard Wagner's music. When Hitler was jailed for his part in the Munich [[Beer Hall Putsch]], Wagner sent him food parcels and stationery on which Hitler's autobiography ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' may have been written. Although Wagner remained personally faithful to Hitler, she denied that she ever supported the [[Nazi Party]]. Her relationship with Hitler grew so close that by 1933 there were rumours of impending marriage<ref name=":0" /> (there were similar rumours about her love for English novelist [[Hugh Walpole]]).<ref>[[Brigitte Hamann|Hamann, Brigitte]] (2005) [2002]. "Winifred Wagner". London: ''[[Granta]]''. {{ISBN|1862076715}}. pp. 49 and 99</ref> 

''Haus [[Wahnfried]]'', the Wagner home in [[Bayreuth]], became Hitler's favourite retreat.<ref name=":0" /> He stayed there on numerous occasions without his bodyguards, despite fears of his SS colleagues.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carradice |first=Phil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60MrEAAAQBAJ&dq=Winifred+Wagner&pg=PT95 |title=Hitler and his Women |date=2021-05-31 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-5267-7955-7 |language=en}}</ref> Hitler gave the Bayreuth festival government assistance and tax-exempt status, and treated Wagner's children solicitously. 

According to biographer [[Brigitte Hamann]], Wagner was reported to be "disgusted" by Hitler's persecution of the Jews. In one notable incident, in the late 1930s, a letter from her to Hitler prevented [[Hedwig Pringsheim|Hedwig]] and [[Alfred Pringsheim]] (whose daughter [[Katia Mann|Katia]] was married to [[Thomas Mann]]) from being arrested by the [[Gestapo]].<ref>Tony Paterson, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/05/26/wagner26.xml "'British' Wagner saved Jews from her friend Hitler"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050907072506/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F05%2F26%2Fwagner26.xml |date=7 September 2005 }} ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'', 25 June 2002</ref> Alfred Pringsheim was a fan of Richard Wagner, who he corresponded with and supported financially. He was also a patron of the Bayreuth Festival.

According to [[Gottfried Wagner]], Winifred Wagner's grandson, she never admitted any error to her ways. After the war, her posthumous devotion to Hitler, whom she referred to as "USA" – for ''Unser Seliger Adolf'' (our blessed Adolf) – remained undimmed. She corresponded with Hitler for nearly two decades. Scholars have not been allowed to see the letters, which have been kept locked away by [[Verena Wagner Lafferentz|Amélie Lafferentz]], one of Winifred Wagner's grandchildren, who has insisted that they not be released until the whole family agrees to do so.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/hitler-links-a-wagner-and-not-proud-of-it-806113.html|title=Hitler links: A Wagner, and not proud of it|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=8 April 2008|access-date=22 October 2016}}</ref>

===Post-Bayreuth years===
[[File:Wahnfried 2 db.jpg|thumb|Wagner's home, Haus [[Wahnfried]], the location of [[Hans-Jürgen Syberberg]]'s 1976 documentary film ''Winifred Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried 1914–1975'']]

Like Hitler, Wagner believed profoundly in the rite of a [[Secular religion|secular cult]] of [[German nationalism]], of [[Nordic race|Nordic]] self-realization, and ''[[völkisch]]'' aspiration. After the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]], a [[denazification]] court banned her from the Bayreuth Festival, which she passed to her sons Wieland and Wolfgang.<ref name=":0" /> In the 1950s, she again became a political hostess. Her grandson Gottfried Wagner later recalled that
<blockquote>"My aunt Friedelind was outraged when my grandmother again slowly blossomed as the first lady of right-wing groups and received political friends such as [[Emmy Göring]], [[Ilse Hess]], the former NPD [[Adolf von Thadden]], [[Gerdy Troost]], the wife of the Nazi architect and friend of Hitler [[Paul Ludwig Troost]], the British fascist leader [[Oswald Mosley]], the German NS-movie director [[Karl Ritter (director)|Karl Ritter]] and the racist author and former Senator of the Reich [[Hans Severus Ziegler]]."<ref>Gottfried Wagner, ''Wer nicht mit dem Wolf heult – Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen eines Wagner-Urenkels'' (Cologne, 1997), p. 69 (quotation translated from the German)</ref></blockquote>

In 1975, Wagner gave a filmed interview to [[Hans-Jürgen Syberberg]] in which she appeared unrepentant concerning her past. "To have met him [Hitler]," she declared, "is an experience I would not have missed."<ref>{{Citation |title=Winifred Wagner - THE CONFESIONS - Interview Syberberg 1975 -COMPLETE HD | date=16 May 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_zqMxv0jTg |language=en |access-date=2023-02-16}}</ref> She was interviewed that year by [[David Irving]], who reported that she had said she would still welcome Hitler at her door and that she had discussed with Hitler the saving of some individuals.<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Irving's Action Report On-line |url=http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/Wagner/Hamann1.html |access-date=2023-02-16 |website=www.fpp.co.uk}}</ref> She died in [[Überlingen]], one of the best preserved medieval sites, on the shore of [[Lake Constance]] on 5 March 1980 at the age of 82 and was interred at Bayreuth.

== In popular culture ==
The friendship of Wagner and Hitler is treated fancifully in [[A.N. Wilson]]'s novel ''Winnie and Wolf'' (2007).<ref>{{cite news|last=Eagleton|first=Terry|author-link=Terry Eagleton|title=Beauty and the beast|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/aug/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview15|access-date=8 October 2019|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=4 August 2007}}</ref> ''The Music Keeper'', an American play from 1982 by [[Elliot Tiber]] and [[André Ernotte]], takes place two days before Wagner's death and is about her relationship with Hitler.

==See also==
*[[Wagner family]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Hamann |first=Brigitte |author-link=Brigitte Hamann |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvQQehVuQw4C&q=Winifred+Wagner |title=Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth |publisher=Harcourt |location=Orlando, Florida |isbn=978-0-15-101308-1 |ref=none}}

==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=pe/017955}}

{{Richard Wagner|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Winifred}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Hastings]]
[[Category:People from Bayreuth]]
[[Category:Wagner family|Winifred]]
[[Category:German opera managers]]
[[Category:Adolf Hitler]]
[[Category:Nazi Party members]]
[[Category:German Nazi propagandists]]
[[Category:German neo-Nazi propagandists]]
[[Category:German people of English descent]]
[[Category:Women in Nazi Germany]]