29 Hannu Salmi • Salmi Hannu
Richard Wagner (1813–1883) has often been regarded as a symbol of “Germanness.” Despite this view, few studies have been undertaken regarding his nationalistic thinking. Imagined Germany focuses on Wagner’s idea of Deutschtum, especially during the unification of Germany, 1864–1871. Salmi discusses how Wagner defined Germanness, what stereotypes, ideas, and sentiments he attatched to it, and what kind of state could realize Wagner’s national Imagined Germany Hannu Salmi ideals.
“Salmi makes an important contribution to our understanding of one of the most fascinating artistic figures in German politics and culture, particularly his political role.” Michael Meyer, California State University, Northridge Imagined Germany “Salmi lays forever to rest the myth, propagated by some of Wagner’s older apologists and by many of his more recent critics, that there existed a communality of interests between Wagner and Bismarck, as well as between the new ‘Reich’ and the Wagnerian cultural Richard Wagner’s enterprise. Salmi shows, more clearly than anyone has done thus far, how Wagner at first styled himself as the ‘most German of National Utopia Germans’ only to realize, in the end, that he had been crucified ‘am Kreuz des deutschen Gedankens’.” Hans Rudolf Vaget, Smith College Second Edition
Hannu Salmi is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku in Finland. He has published numerous articles on the history of music in Finland and Germany, but is also known as a historian of film and popular culture.
German Life and Civilization
Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PMPeter Lang www.peterlang.com via free access
9781433173660_cvr_eu.indd All Pages 21-Feb-20 16:12:06 29 Hannu Salmi • Salmi Hannu
Richard Wagner (1813–1883) has often been regarded as a symbol of “Germanness.” Despite this view, few studies have been undertaken regarding his nationalistic thinking. Imagined Germany focuses on Wagner’s idea of Deutschtum, especially during the unification of Germany, 1864–1871. Salmi discusses how Wagner defined Germanness, what stereotypes, ideas, and sentiments he attatched to it, and what kind of state could realize Wagner’s national Imagined Germany Hannu Salmi ideals.
“Salmi makes an important contribution to our understanding of one of the most fascinating artistic figures in German politics and culture, particularly his political role.” Michael Meyer, California State University, Northridge Imagined Germany “Salmi lays forever to rest the myth, propagated by some of Wagner’s older apologists and by many of his more recent critics, that there existed a communality of interests between Wagner and Bismarck, as well as between the new ‘Reich’ and the Wagnerian cultural Richard Wagner’s enterprise. Salmi shows, more clearly than anyone has done thus far, how Wagner at first styled himself as the ‘most German of National Utopia Germans’ only to realize, in the end, that he had been crucified ‘am Kreuz des deutschen Gedankens’.” Hans Rudolf Vaget, Smith College Second Edition
Hannu Salmi is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku in Finland. He has published numerous articles on the history of music in Finland and Germany, but is also known as a historian of film and popular culture.
German Life and Civilization
Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PM Peter Lang www.peterlang.comvia free access
9781433173660_cvr_eu.indd All Pages 21-Feb-20 16:12:06 29 Hannu Salmi • Salmi Hannu
Richard Wagner (1813–1883) has often been regarded as a symbol of “Germanness.” Despite this view, few studies have been undertaken regarding his nationalistic thinking. Imagined Germany focuses on Wagner’s idea of Deutschtum, especially during the unification of Germany, 1864–1871. Salmi discusses how Wagner defined Germanness, what stereotypes, ideas, and sentiments he Imagined Germany Hannu Salmi attatched to it, and what kind of state could realize Wagner’s national Imagined Germany ideals.
“Salmi makes an important contribution to our understanding of one of the most fascinating artistic figures in German politics and culture, particularly his political role.” Michael Meyer, California State University, Northridge Imagined Germany “Salmi lays forever to rest the myth, propagated by some of Wagner’s older apologists and by many of his more recent critics, that there existed a communality of interests between Wagner and Bismarck, as well as between the new ‘Reich’ and the Wagnerian cultural Richard Wagner’s enterprise. Salmi shows, more clearly than anyone has done thus far, how Wagner at first styled himself as the ‘most German of National Utopia Germans’ only to realize, in the end, that he had been crucified ‘am Kreuz des deutschen Gedankens’.” Hans Rudolf Vaget, Smith College Second Edition
Hannu Salmi is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku in Finland. He has published numerous articles on the history of music in Finland and Germany, but is also known as a historian of film and popular culture.
German Life and Civilization
Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PM Peter Lang www.peterlang.com via free access
9781433173660_cvr_eu.indd All Pages 21-Feb-20 16:12:06 German Life and Civilization
Jost Hermand General Editor
Advisory Board
Helen Fehervary Ohio State University
Peter Uwe Hohendahl Cornell University
Robert C. Holub University of California at Berkeley
Klaus Scherpe Humboldt University, Berlin
Frank Trommler University of Pennsylvania
Vol. 29
PETER LANG New York • Bern • Berlin Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PM via free access Hannu Salmi
Imagined Germany
Richard Wagner’s National Utopia
Second Edition
PETER LANG New York • Bern • Berlin Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PM via free access The Library of Congress has catalogued the first edition as follows
Salmi, Hannu. Imagined Germany: Richard Wagner’s national utopia / Hannu Salmi. p. cm. — (German life and civilization, ISSN 0899-9899; vol. 29) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883—Political and social views. 2. Nationalism— Germany—History—19th century. 3. National characteristics, German. 4. Germany—Historiography. 5. Music—19th century— Philosophy and aesthetics. I. Title. II. Series. DD210.S24 943’.07’092—dc21 98-53632 ISBN 978-0-8204-4416-1 (first edition hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4331-7738-5 (second edition hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4331-6940-3 (second edition ebook pdf) ISBN 978-1-4331-7366-0 (second edition epub) ISBN 978-1-4331-7384-4 (second edition mobi) DOI 10.3726/b16835
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
The online edition of this publication is available open access. Except where otherwise noted, content can be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
© 2020 Hannu Salmi
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Hannu Salmi - 9781433173844 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 08:58:33PM via free access