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News from the Committee

03.02.2023
Petition: Save the historical-critical edition of the Wagner letters
Petition: Save the historical-critical edition of the Wagner letters

We would like to draw your attention to a petition started by Dr. Sven Friedrich, director of the Richard Wagner Museum and Archive. The publication of the historical-critical edition of Richard Wagner's complete letters is currently hanging in the balance. The Richard-Wagner-Verband International e. V. supports the petition and asks you to sign it. Below is the complete appeal by Dr. Friedrich with further information and the link to the petition:

"Richard Wagner's letters are not only central documents for the life and work of the important composer, but also highly significant sources in terms of cultural history in view of his considerable and multi-layered history of reception and impact.

The historical-critical edition was already begun in 1967 and has now reached volume 26 with the letters of the year 1874. After the end of the funding of the office at the University of Würzburg by the DFG, however, the issue is now on the verge of collapse.

Thus, of all things, the significant and particularly momentous last decade of Richard Wagner's life, the chapter "Bayreuth" would be almost completely missing. It includes the construction of the Festspielhaus, the Bayreuth Festival during Wagner's lifetime with the premiere of the incommensurable tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in 1876 and "Parsifal" in 1882, Wagner's everyday life in Haus Wahnfried and Italy as well as the emergence of his late so-called "regeneration writings", which connect his momentous racial anti-Semitism with his aesthetics of art religion and cultural theory.

The text constitution of the remaining 5 volumes has already been completed, so that only their editing, commenting and production would have to be done.

The discontinuation of the edition at this point in time would therefore be a declaration of cultural bankruptcy!

Help by signing a completion of the Richard Wagner letter edition - Online petition (openpetition.de). With as many well-known signatures as possible, this could help to enable the remaining financing of the issue. You are also welcome to forward this letter to interested parties in your area.
Link: Vollendung der Richard-Wagner-Briefausgabe - Online-Petition

With thanks for your support and kind regards

Dr. Sven Friedrich

Museum and Archive Director"