Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet and His Disciple »

Joachim Köhler is a scholar of philosophy and German literature, and is the author of Zarathustra's Secret and Nietzsche and Wagner.

Wagner's Hitler is an important and controversial contribution to the literature on Hitler's Germany.

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In Wagner's Hitler: The Prophet And His Disciple, Joachim Kohler, scholar of philosophy and German literature, persuasively argues that Wagner's influences played a vital role in shaping the cultural context in which Nazism developed. Kohler begins by tracing the legacy of the German romantic tradition and the irrational, egocentric, nationalistic, and intolerantly utopian features which Wagner and Adolph Hitler shared. Kohler goes on to trace Wagner's influence on Hitler from his days as a young and failed Austrian artist, to his triumphant days as dictator enacting megalomanic Wagnerian visions of a Germany that would rule the world. Also shown is how Wagner's family in Bayreuth supported Hitler from the beginning of his political career, and aided his introduction into highly influential social and political circles. Wagner's Hitler is insightful, provocative, engaging, challenging, and at times controversial, but always fascinating reading and recommended for students of Germany history in general, and the Nazis influences on German culture in particular.

1. Ein Heldenleben.

2. The Last of the Tribunes.

3. Dresden Burns.

4. Studies in the Ring.

5. Dragon-Slayer by Profession.

6. The Future as Art.

7. A Royal Failure.

8. The Witch's Kitchen.

9. A Lethal Subject.

10. Pioneers.

11. An Official Blessing.

12. The Saviour Betrayed.

13. Wagnerian Hero: A Self-Portrait.

14. Blood Brotherhood.

15. Life under the Mastersingers.

16. Barbarossa Returns: Ahasversus Perishes.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.