Michel Friedman calls for 'new Bayreuth' as festival confronts Nazi past with memorial for silenced voices

A memorial on the Green Hill

On the morning of 26 July, the Bayreuth Festival held its first official memorial for artists persecuted and murdered under National Socialism. The event, titled "Verstummte Stimmen" (Silenced Voices), took place on the festival's legendary stage after some organisational turbulence. Before the ceremony, Michel Friedman, festival director Katharina Wagner, and members of the Jewish community visited the open-air exhibition in the festival park. There, grey stelae near the Wagner bust listed the names of Jewish artists who once worked on the Green Hill. A cantor recited a prayer for the dead, and their names were read aloud. Inside the Festspielhaus, musicians in black performed Richard Wagner's "Siegfried-Idyll" and a wind quintet by Pavel Haas, the Czech-German composer murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. The word "Antisemitismus" was projected behind them.

A dark legacy

The festival's founder Richard Wagner (1813–1883) wrote antisemitic tracts and repeatedly voiced antisemitic views. Under the Third Reich, Bayreuth became closely intertwined with the Nazi regime; Hitler was a frequent guest, and Katharina Wagner's grandmother Winifred Wagner, who led the festival at the time, was a fervent admirer. After the war, the family sought to bury this chapter.

"A new Bayreuth begins"

Friedman's speech directly addressed this history. He declared that Katharina Wagner was "changing the culture of remembrance in Bayreuth" and called her "my friend." Addressing the festival's founder, he said: "Today I have the floor, and the antisemite Richard Wagner must listen."

“An diesem Wochenende beginnt es, das neue Bayreuth, die neue Ordnung des Aufarbeitens, des Ausgrabens, des Sprechens über den Komponisten, über die Familiengeschichte - und den Missbrauch von Musik in aller Klarheit öffentlich zu machen.”

He recalled that when Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner reopened the festival in 1951, they asked guests to "kindly refrain from conversations and debates of a political nature." That motto, "Hier gilt's der Kunst," became a shield. Friedman said: "How lovingly people speak of the Green Hill, hoping not to see the brown earth beneath it." He described his own first visit as an "ambivalent, disturbing feeling."

Democracy in danger

Beyond the historical reckoning, Friedman warned of present threats. He spoke of a "bored, decadent democracy" and urged the audience to become active witnesses of their own time before it is too late.

“Mein Land, Deutschland, ist eine Gemeinschaft. Diese Gemeinschaft besteht in Vielfalt, und Vielfalt ist mittlerweile wieder ein Begriff, der sehr angegriffen ist. Diese Gemeinschaft und Vielfalt sind aber die einzige Zukunft.”

The controversy before the speech

Friedman's appearance was preceded by public turmoil. He had been invited to speak, then disinvited, then re-invited after he made the episode public. The reversal drew sharp criticism from politicians and an apology from festival director Katharina Wagner, which she repeated at the jubilee opening. Before his speech, she thanked him for participating in an event meant to confront "the unspirit that emanated from the Green Hill."

Reactions

Federal Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer called the speech "important and great," saying Friedman had "put his finger in a wound that is simply there." He welcomed a "new stage" of remembrance but cautioned against proclaiming a "new era," calling that exaggerated and unfair to those who had already worked on the issue. The festival's jubilee programme continued later that day with the premiere of Wagner's "Rienzi," an opera mythically charged by Hitler's admiration.