Baron Hans Paul von Wolzogen (13 November 1848 in
PotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and is part of the Metropolitan area of Berlin/Brandenburg. It is situated on the River Havel, some 25 kilometres southwest of the centre of Berlin....
– 2 June 1938 in
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
), was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
man of letters,
editorThe term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
and publisher. He is best known for his connection with Wagner and the '
Bayreuth CircleDer Bayreuther Kreis was a name originally applied by some writers to devotees of Richard Wagner's music who attended and supported the annual Bayreuth Festival in the later 19th and early twentieth centuries...
'.
Wolzogen's father, Alfred von Wolzogen, was a court theatrical director in
SchwerinSchwerin is a city in northern Germany and the capital of the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . The population, as of end of 2007, was 95,855.-History:...
; his mother (a daughter of the famous architect
Karl Friedrich SchinkelKarl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect and painter. Schinkel was one of the most prominent German architects and the best example of neoclassicism....
) died when her son was two years old. As a schoolboy, Wolzogen was already interested in
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and the
theatreTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
.
It was while on his honeymoon in 1872 that he first visited
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
, where shortly before, on 22 May (Wagner's birthday), the foundation-stone had been laid for the
Bayreuth FestspielhausThe Bayreuth Festspielhaus is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated principally to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner...
.
It was Wagner who invited Wolzogen to
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
in 1877 in order that he would edit the Wagnerian publication Bayreuther Blätter; Wolzogen stayed in that post until his death.
From 1878 he lived in the Schillerstrasse, not far from Wagner's house
WahnfriedWahnfried may refer to:*Wahnfried, Richard Wagner's villa in Bayreuth*Richard Wahnfried , the long-time alias for German composer and musician Klaus Schulze...
.
After Wagner's death Wolzogen became a central figure of the so-called 'Wahnfried circle', which tried to load the dead master's work with pseudo-religious meaning.
Wolzogen produced one
biographyA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
of Wagner and several essays.
Discussion
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Baron Hans Paul von Wolzogen (13 November 1848 in
PotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and is part of the Metropolitan area of Berlin/Brandenburg. It is situated on the River Havel, some 25 kilometres southwest of the centre of Berlin....
– 2 June 1938 in
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
), was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
man of letters,
editorThe term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
and publisher. He is best known for his connection with Wagner and the '
Bayreuth CircleDer Bayreuther Kreis was a name originally applied by some writers to devotees of Richard Wagner's music who attended and supported the annual Bayreuth Festival in the later 19th and early twentieth centuries...
'.
Childhood
Wolzogen's father, Alfred von Wolzogen, was a court theatrical director in
SchwerinSchwerin is a city in northern Germany and the capital of the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . The population, as of end of 2007, was 95,855.-History:...
; his mother (a daughter of the famous architect
Karl Friedrich SchinkelKarl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect and painter. Schinkel was one of the most prominent German architects and the best example of neoclassicism....
) died when her son was two years old. As a schoolboy, Wolzogen was already interested in
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and the
theatreTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
.
It was while on his honeymoon in 1872 that he first visited
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
, where shortly before, on 22 May (Wagner's birthday), the foundation-stone had been laid for the
Bayreuth FestspielhausThe Bayreuth Festspielhaus is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated principally to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner...
.
In Bayreuth
It was Wagner who invited Wolzogen to
BayreuthBayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge...
in 1877 in order that he would edit the Wagnerian publication Bayreuther Blätter; Wolzogen stayed in that post until his death.
From 1878 he lived in the Schillerstrasse, not far from Wagner's house
WahnfriedWahnfried may refer to:*Wahnfried, Richard Wagner's villa in Bayreuth*Richard Wahnfried , the long-time alias for German composer and musician Klaus Schulze...
.
After Wagner's death Wolzogen became a central figure of the so-called 'Wahnfried circle', which tried to load the dead master's work with pseudo-religious meaning.
Literary work
Wolzogen produced one
biographyA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
of Wagner and several essays. He was also the editor of three volumes of Wagner's letters and poems.
Perhaps his most significant achievement, however, was his series of 'thematic guides' to Wagner's later dramas. In these publications he identified many of the so-called 'leading motives' and gave them names that in many cases are still in use today.
External links