National Socialism (in relation to Wagner)

National Socialism, or Nazism, was the ideology of Nazi Germany, emphasizing extreme nationalism, racial superiority, and authoritarian control. Richard Wagner, a 19th-century composer, influenced this ideology through his works promoting Germanic myths, heroism, and cultural identity. Nazis appropriated Wagner’s music and themes to symbolically reinforce their ideals of racial purity and national pride. Despite Wagner’s death before the Nazi rise, his aesthetic and patriotic narratives were co-opted to serve political propaganda, intertwining his artistic legacy with Nazi propaganda, which distorts the cultural and artistic context of his work.