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#III REICH
the-outer-topic · 18 days
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1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Cabriolet - William J Sims
Beginning in the '30s, Mercedes-Benz designed a wider gap between its racing cars -and luxury models. The 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500k Cabriolet A was one of the new luxury models, with flowing body lines and independent four-wheel suspension to assure a smooth ride on any surface. The 500K series cars were limited edition models offered in nine body styles and designed by Hans Nibel, who also designed the famous Blitzen Benz. A straight eight engine with overhead valves powered the 500K series. The engine was equipped with a supercharge that would engage when the accelerator was floored. Only 354 of the 1935 Mercedes 500K were produced
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ernestdescalsartwok · 4 months
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VON PAULUS-ARTE-PINTURA-STALINGRADO-DERROTA-VI EJERCITO-RETRATO-EXPRESION-TRISTEZA-PERSONAJES-HISTORIA-SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS
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VON PAULUS-ARTE-PINTURA-STALINGRADO-DERROTA-VI EJERCITO-RETRATO-EXPRESION-TRISTEZA-PERSONAJES-HISTORIA-SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS por Ernest Descals Por Flickr: VON PAULUS-ARTE-PINTURA-STALINGRADO-DERROTA-VI EJERCITO-RETRATO-EXPRESION-TRISTEZA-PERSONAJES-HISTORIA-SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS- El personaje del General FRIEDICH VON PAULUS, uno de los personajes más dramáticos en la historia de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su ascenso a Mariscal del Reich no pudo impedir la derrota del VI Ejército en la batalla de STALINGRADO en Rusia, expresión de tristeza ante la inminente rendición, pintura de retratos expresivos del artista pintor Ernest Descals, arte histórico sobre papel.
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oldschoolfrp · 6 months
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"In the past several weeks there have been raids on several outlying towns of the Barony by mysterious golden marauders. Whether these creatures are robots, mutants or men, none can be sure for reports are scarce." (Bill Willingham cover art for GW1: Legion of Gold, Gamma World adventure by Gary Gygax with Luke Gygax and Paul Reiche III, TSR, 1981)
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roehenstart · 1 month
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Frederick III of Germany. Attributed to Hans Wertingen.
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turbinepaints · 1 year
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star control 2
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graph100 · 1 month
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absolutely obsessed w electric counterpoint rn
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rwpohl · 7 months
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youtube
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world-v-you-blog · 1 year
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The Uses of History, 18 – France, Revolution #4, 1870-1, Part 4
(Image credit – Wikipedia) “I did not doubt that a Franco-German war must take place before the construction of a United Germany could be realized. France, the victor, would be a danger to everybody—Prussia to nobody. That is our strong point.” Otto von Bismarck, 1899-1900. Cited in Wikipedia, “Franco-Prussian War” War broke out between France and the North and South German Confederations on…
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impalachick · 18 days
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I agree that there could have been less POW camp scenes in order to make room for other pivotal air war moments.
However, I'd like to make the case that the POW camp scenes add a lot in their own right.
A lot of WWII media from the American POV have an inevitability factor. It seems that all of the allied characters usually know they're destined to win as long as they try hard enough. Obviously the characters can believe in their cause, but the uncertainty is never adequately captured when the characters never doubt their impending victory. The thing is, nobody actually knew if they were going to win against Nazi Germany. The Reich had superior firepower for awhile, and the entire country's resources were focused on war. The Allied forces started out as the underdogs. "What is so astonishing is that, at the start of the war, neither Britain nor the United States had much of an army and both had comparatively small air forces – very small in the case of the US." [x]
While members of the 100th are at Stalag Luft III, they have very little idea of what's going on - they hear bad news and pass that around the camp in order to manage expectations among the Americans. They start planning to resist in the event that their captors try to execute them all, because they don't know how the Reich will react to the invasion. They are all scared and off-kilter, and Buck and some of the others try to keep them focused on survival. But John Egan's mental health decline is really telling here - if he knew the Americans would prevail, then it would be logical to assume they'd all be rescued eventually. John doesn't believe that's going to happen, he doesn't know what to believe. The uncertainty starts to drive him a little mad, and with no planes to fly and no way to help tip the scales, he's stuck just stewing and waiting.
John Egan's actions in particular drive home the point that none of them can control the outcome of the war. And they have no idea how it's all going to end.
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sisionscreen · 5 months
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RTL has made the first two episodes of the third season of Sisi (2021) available for members of the press. Alongside them, the synopses of all six episodes have been released as well as further stills only accredited press can download in full resolution. Translations under the cut.
Episode 01
Das Ausrufen der Republik und der Sturz von Napoleon III. führen auch in Wien zu Unruhen. Deswegen beschließt Franz, die Militärausbildung seines Sohnes Rudolf früher zu beginnen. Gleichzeitig befielt er Grünne, sich inkognito unter die protestierenden Arbeiter zu mischen, um herauszufinden, wer ihr Anführer ist. Sisi kann ihren sensiblen Sohn nicht vor der Armee bewahren und beschließt, ihn auf eigene Faust zu befreien.
The Republic's Proclamation and the fall of Napoleon III lead to unrest in Vienna. Because of that Franz decides to start the military education of his son Rudolf sooner. At the same time, he orders Grünne to go incognito among the protesting workers to find out who is their leader. Sisi can't keep her sensitive son from the army and decides to free him on her own.
Episode 02
Sisi packt ihre Sachen und hinterlässt Franz ein Ultimatum. Sie wird erst mit Rudolf an den Hof zurückkehren, wenn Franz ihr die Erziehung überlässt. Trotz der Garde von Franz, die Sisi und Rudolf dicht auf den Fersen ist, gelingt ihnen die Flucht. Dabei ist die Fotografin Alma behilflich, welche Mutter und Sohn mit nach Südfrankreich nimmt. Allerdings bleibt ihr Ankommen auf einer kleinen, idyllischen Insel nicht unbemerkt.
Sisi packs her things and leave Franz with an ultimatum. She will only return to court with Rudolf if Franz leaves the education to her. Despite Franz's guards which are close on Sisi's and Rudolf's heels, the escape is a success. They receive help from photographer Alma who takes mother and son with her to the South of France. However, their arrival on a small, quaint island doesn't stay unnoticed.
Episode 03
Mutter und Sohn finden auf der Insel endlich zu ihrer Lebensfreude zurück. Gleichzeitig entwickelt Sisi eine vertrauensvolle Beziehung zu Alma. Franz kämpft gegen ein Bündnis zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und Russland, welches er nur mithilfe seiner Mutter verhindern kann. Doch dann erfährt er von einem Spion, wo Sisi und Rudolf sich aufhalten. 
Mother and son finally rediscover the joy of life on the island. At the same time, Sisi develops a trusting relationship with Alma. Franz fights against the alliance of the German Empire and Russia which he can only prevent with the help of his mother. But then he receives news of a spy where Sisi and Rudolf supposedly are.
Episode 04
Franz sucht Sisi und Rudolf in Frankreich auf. Endlich ist die Familie wieder vereint. Kaiser und Kaiserin verbringen eine leidenschaftliche Nacht miteinander, aber schon am nächsten Tag nimmt Franz Rudolf heimlich mit nach Wien zurück. Sisi und Franz versuchen einander in fremden Armen zu vergessen. Franz' harter Umgang mit den aufständischen Arbeitern lässt Grünne an seiner Loyalität gegenüber der Krone zweifeln.
Franz goes to Sisi and Rudolf in France. Finally the family is reunited. Emperor and Empress spend a passionate night together but the next day Franz secretly take Rudolf back to Vienna with him. Sisi and Franz try to forget one another in the arms of others. Franz's harsh actions against the rebellious worker lets Grünne doubt his loyalty towards the crown.
Episode 05
Als Sisi erfährt, dass Franz Rudolf aus der Armee genommen hat, kehrt sie an den Hof zurück. Trotz ihrer Beziehungsprobleme empfangen Sisi und Franz gemeinsam den russischen Zaren für die Bündnisverhandlungen. Indes macht sich einer der unglücklichen Arbeiter auf den Weg an die Hofburg, um ein Attentat an der Kaiserfamilie zu verüben.
When Sisi learns that Franz took Rudolf out of the army, she returns to court. Despite their relationship problems, Sisi and Franz receive the Russian Czar for alliance negotiations. Meanwhile an unhappy worker is on its way to the Hofburg to make an attempt on the lives of the imperial family.
Episode 06
Sisi erfährt, dass ihr Sohn von einem Arbeiter entführt wurde, der das Leben des Kaisers im Gegenzug für die Freilassung des Kronprinzen fordert. Dicht gefolgt von Franz, reitet Sisi los, um Rudolf zu retten. Während sich Erzherzogin Sophie und Gräfin Esterhazy um den Deutschen Reichskanzler Bismarck kümmern, finden sich Sisi und Franz in einer scheinbar ausweglosen Situation wieder.
Sisi learns that her son was abducted by a worker who asks for the Emperor's life in exchange for the freedom of the Crown Prince. Closely followed by Franz, Sisi rides to save Rudolf. While Archduchess Sophie and Countess Esterházy take care of the German Imperial Chancellor Bismarck, Sisi and Franz find themselves at an impasse.
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naturalrights-retard · 2 months
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So, my trial for thoughtcrimes in New Normal Germany takes place next Tuesday, January 23rd. It will likely be a one-day affair. It’s open to the public, so, if you’re in Berlin, you can come and watch at the Berlin District Court, Turmstraße 91, Room 371. The proceedings are scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon.
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The one on the left reads, “The masks are ideological-conformity symbols. That is all they are. That is all they have ever been. Stop acting like they have ever been anything else, or get used to wearing them.” The one on the right is a quote by Karl Lauterbach, who, believe it or not, is still the Health Minister of Germany. It reads “The masks always send out a signal.”
The image is from the cover art of my book The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021), which was banned in Germany by Amazon, Inc. two days after I tweeted those Tweets … which was also when the German authorities launched the criminal investigation that led to my prosecution and instructed Twitter to censor the Tweets.
Let me back up a bit, and tell you the whole story.
What happened is, I tweeted those two Tweets, and they came to the attention of the Hessen CyberCompetenceCenter (“Hessen 3C”), a department of another department of the Interior Ministry of the Federal State of Hesse. The Hessen CyberCompetenceCenter then reported my Tweets to Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), which launched a criminal investigation of me.
Also, the Hessen CyberCompetenceCenter instructed Twitter to censor my two Tweets, which Twitter did, and sent me this notice on August 30, 2022.
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trentreznortuesday · 3 months
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every album i listened to this year pt. 1
i listened to 238 albums that were new to me this year. this is the first 119 of them + basic genre tagging.
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Sea When Absent [noise pop]
ABBA - Volume 25 [karaoke]
Agriculture - Agriculture [black metal]
Agriculture - The Circle Chant [black metal]
Alcest - Écailles de Lune [black metal]
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb [black metal]
Animals as Leaders - Parrhesia [djent]
Another Heaven - 1: You Are Loved [shoegaze]
Art Sorority - Older Boys [folk punk]
Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture [black metal]
Atomic Guava - Peasants of the Future [power metal]
awakebutstillinbed - chaos takes the wheel and i am a passenger [emo]
Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell [punk]
bar italia - Tracey Denim [post-punk]
Basketball Divorce Court - rebound [punk]
Big Black - Atomizer [noise rock]
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You [alt-country]
Black Ends - Stay Evil [noise pop]
Black Math Horseman - Black Math Horseman [black metal]
Blanky - Blood Harmony [alternative]
Bosse-de-Nage - Bosse-de-Nage [black metal]
Bosse-de-Nage - ii [black metal]
Bosse-de-Nage - iii [black metal]
Bosse-de-Nage/Deafheaven - Split EP [black metal]
boybrain - In The Company of Worms [punk]
Bríi - Último Ancestral Comum [rock]
Cable Ties - All Her Plans [punk]
Callous Daoboys - Celebrity Therapist [hardcore]
Charlie Megira - Da Abtomatic Meisterzinger Mambo Chic [lo-fi]
Chat Pile - God’s Country [sludge metal]
Chat Pile - Remove Your Skin Please [sludge metal]
Chat Pile - This Dungeon Earth [sludge metal]
Chat Pile & Nerver - Brothers in Christ [sludge metal]
Cherub Tree - where are your manners [alternative]
Choncy - Community Chest [post-punk]
Corker - Falser Truths [post-punk]
Crime of Passing - Crime of Passing [post-punk]
Dark Factory - Dark Factory [new wave]
Days ‘N Daze - Rogue Taxidermy [folk punk]
Days ‘N Daze - Songs We Recorded for Splits [folk punk]
Dazy - OTHERBODY [alternative]
Deafheaven - New Bermuda [blackgaze]
Deafheaven - Sunbather [blackgaze]
Deeper - Careful! [post-punk]
Dirty Old Town - No Returning Home [alternative]
Dummy - Mandatory Enjoyment [post-punk]
dust - et cetera, etc [punk]
Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call [country]
Ekko Astral - Quartz [punk]
Ekko Astral - The Quartz Farewell [punk]
Elizabeth Colour Wheel - Nocebo [black metal]
Erik Hall - Canto Ostinato (Simeon ten Holt) [neo-classical]
Erik Hall - Music For 18 Musicians (Steve Reich) [neo-classical]
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone [post-rock]
Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence [post-rock]
Ezra Furman - All of Us Flames [art rock]
Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People [art rock]
Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus [art rock]
Ezra Furman - Twelve Nudes [art rock]
Feeble Little Horse - Girl with Fish [shoegaze]
Fela Kuti - Beasts of No Nation [afrobeat]
Fela Kuti - Coffin for Head of State [afrobeat]
Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit [afrobeat]
Fela Kuti - Roforofo Fight [afrobeat]
Fela Kuti - Zombie! [afrobeat]
Feminazgûl - The Age of Men is Over [black metal]
Frail Body - A Brief Memoriam [hardcore]
Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams [hardcore]
GEL - Only Constant [hardcore]
Genital Shame - Gathering My Wits [alternative]
Gilla Band - Live at Vicar Street [noise rock]
Godcaster - Godcaster [psychedelic rock]
Hatchie - Giving the World Away [dream pop]
hey, Ily! - Internet Breath [bedroom pop]
Hoaxed - Hoaxed [alternative]
Home is Where - i became birds [emo]
Home is Where - our mouths to smile [emo]
Home Is Where - The Whaler [emo]
Horse Lords - Comradely Objects [microtonal]
Horse Lords - Hidden Cities [microtonal]
Horse Lords - Interventions [microtonal]
Horse Lords - The Common Task [microtonal]
Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight [post-hardcore]
Housewives - Twilight Splendor [post-punk]
Ian Noe - Between the Country [bluegrass]
illuminati hotties - FREE I.H.: This Is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For [pop rock]
Institute - Readjusting the Locks [post-punk]
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking [alternative]
Jeff Rosenstock - HELLMODE [punk]
Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream [punk]
Jeff Rosenstock - POST- [punk]
Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson - Still Young [punk]
Josaleigh Pollett - In The Garden, By The Weeds [bedroom pop]
julie - pushing daisies [alternative]
Kitten Forever - 7 Hearts [riot grrrl]
Kurt Vile - b’lieve i’m goin down… [alt-country]
Lamp of Murmuur - Saturnian Bloodstorm [power metal]
Leonard Bernstein - Chichester Psalms [choral]
Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony [folk]
Leonard Cohen - Songs from a Room [folk]
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker [folk]
Liturgy - 93696 [black metal]
M(h)aol - Attachment Styles [post-punk]
M(h)aol - Gender Studies [post-punk]
Malthusian - MMXIII [black metal]
Mamaleek - Cadejos [black metal]
Mamaleek - Come and See [black metal]
Mamaleek - Diner Coffee [black metal]
Mamaleek - Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Worlds [black metal]
Mandy, Indiana - i’ve seen a way [post-punk]
MDC - Live at CBGB’s [hardcore]
MDC - Millions of Dead Children [hardcore]
MDC - Millions of Dead Cops [hardcore]
MDC - Multi-Death Corporations [hardcore]
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II [alternative]
Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun [alternative]
Messa - Close [hard rock]
meth. - Mother of Red Light [noise rock]
Midori - Aratamemashite, Hajimemashite, Midori Desu [hardcore jazz punk]
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ernestdescalsartwok · 7 months
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WERNHER VON BRAUN-HANS KAMMLER-PEENEMÜNDE-ART-PINTURA-NACIMIENTO-NASA-PERSONAJES-III REICH-COHETES-ARTISTA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS por Ernest Descals Por Flickr: WERNHER VON BRAUN-HANS KAMMLER-PEENEMÜNDE-ART-PINTURA-NACIMIENTO-NASA-PERSONAJES-III REICH-COHETES-ARTISTA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS- Personajes del III Reich que tuvieron suma importancia en el desarrollo de los cohetes en la base de Peenemünde, WERHNER VON BRAUN y HANS KAMMLER, uno llegó a ser el director de la Nasa, en su nacimiento com agencia espacial y el otro despareció en la espesa bruma que envolvió el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Pintura del artista pintor Ernest Descals sobre papel de 50 x 70 centímetros, buscando las sugerencias plásticas.
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oldschoolfrp · 9 months
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"Hiding behind two large electronics cabinets are two hissers. One is armed with a vibrodagger, the other with a stun whip." (Harry Quinn, from Paul Reiche III's Gamma World 1e adventure The Albuquerque Starport, TSR, 1981)
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roehenstart · 1 year
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List of Monarchs: The House of Habsburg.
1. Guntram the Rich (920-973; the progenitor of the House of Habsburg and the House of Zähringen).  Guntram possessed lands in Alsace and in Breisgau, from Vogesen to Kaiserstuhl and the Black Forest.
2. Radbot of Klettgau (c. 985 – 1045). He was Graf (Count) of the county of Klettgau. He built Habsburg Castle.
3. Werner I, Count of Klettgau (c. 1025/1030-1096). Sometimes called Werner the Pious. He had two sons: Otto II, and Albert II.
4. Otto II, Count of Habsburg (d. 1111). Graf (Count) of Habsburg and one of the founding members of the Habsburg family.
5. Werner II, Count of Habsburg (d.1167). He was the great-great-grandfather of King Rudolph I of Germany.
6. Albert III, Count of Habsburg (d. 1199; also known as Albert the Rich). Like his father, he was a loyal supporter of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen.
7. Rudolf II, Count of Habsburg (Rudolph the Kind; d. 1232).
8. Albert IV, Count of Habsburg (Albert the Wise; 1188-1239). On the death of his father in 1232, he divided the family estate with his brother Rudolf III, retaining the ancestral seat of Habsburg Castle. A follower of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, he took part in the Barons' Crusade of 1239 with King Theobald I of Navarre and died near Ashkelon.
9.  Rudolf I of Germany (1218-1291).
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blackswaneuroparedux · 9 months
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An artist has to pay for the gift of his genius. Wagner paid. He was defeated, one way or another, all his life. His own self-destructiveness always pursued him. There wasn’t one of his triumphs that was not spoiled, at the moment of triumph, by his own self-destructiveness. But what he couldn’t do, his characters do. In his operas, he splits his many-faceted self into those characters. He drains off the evil in himself and, as the long dramas move towards their great catharses, he brings the good together. Hans Sachs does what Wagner wanted to do but never could – renounce his own wilfulness and open up in understanding and compassion to others.
M. Owen Lee, Wagner and the Wonder of Art: An Introduction to Die Meistersinger
Of Wagner’s great operas, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” often gets overlooked when the conversation of “greatest works” begins. Perhaps partly because the story is pretty straightforward and is also admittedly one of the composer’s more intimate operas. The opera opens on Midsummer's eve, Nuremberg in the 16th century - a setting many productions have played loose with for example I went to one of Glyndebourne's production that updated the setting to the early 19th century.
The story revolves around the real-life cobbler-poet Hans Sachs and the guild of mastersingers - poets and musicians who pursue their craft according to traditions and rules. A goldsmith's daughter, Eva, and a knight, Walther von Stolzing, fall in love, but Eva's father has promised her to the winner in the forthcoming song contest. Walther must learn the mastersinger's art rapidly, under the wise tuition of Sachs (considered Wagner's most generous and human character) - and despite a challenge from the foolish town clerk Beckmesser.
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The premiere of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was generously supported by Ludwig II of Bavaria, at the Munich Court Opera on 21 June 1868. Hans von Bülow conducted, and Franz Strauss, the father of Richard Strauss played the French horn at the premiere. It was enthusiastically received, and Eduard Hanslick wrote in Die Neue Freie Presse, “Dazzling scenes of colour and splendour, ensembles full of life and character unfold before the spectator’s eyes, hardly allowing him the leisure to weigh how much and how little of these effects is of musical origin.”
Within a year of its premiere, Meistersinger was performed across central Europe, and Hans Sachs’s final warning at the end of Act III for the need to preserve German art from foreign threats became a rallying point for German nationalism, particularly during the Franco-Prussian War, the Wilhelmine Reich, the Weimar Republic, and most notoriously, during the Third Reich. But - and quite rightly so - many contemporary productions have attempted to redeem it as one of Wagner's most approachable, tuneful and likeable works.
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The opera itself was not based on any major myth the way some of his other works were and its tame and comic nature make it seem ripe to overlook in the context of his other massive philosophical works. Yet this opera is every bit as good, if not better, than many of Wagner’s best works. It’s overture has become a staple of the standard orchestral repertoire, but its themes of longing and the nature of art and its purpose are among the most immersive and potent discussions that the creator engages his audience in. The main draw I think is the character of Hans Sachs himself that Wagner himself readily identified with.
As a 15-year-old Wagner saw Deinhardstein’s comedy “Hans Sachs” on a Dresden stage, which captivated him instantly. It was about the Nuremberg poet and Meistersinger Sachs, who was known for his poetry in the 16th century. The art of the Mastersingers went back to minstrels who made music according to free rules and who recorded their art rules in fixed tablatures as they gradually settled in the cities. This art was subsequently administered by the guild masters, of whom the shoemaker Sachs was the most famous.
17 years after his experience in the Dresden theatre, Wagner felt the need to create a cheerful counterpart to the tragic “Tannhäuser”. He recollected the comedy and created his first sketches in 1845 during a spa stay in Marienbad. His involvement in the Dresden Revolution and the hectic flight to Switzerland interrupted the work and it was to take another 15 years before he resumed work.
Why it took him so long to write could partly be explained by financial woes which despite taking a heavy advance he failed to turn in a credible draft. It was not until the work on the opera continued when Ludwig II of Bavaria relieved him of his financial needs and he was able to complete the work by 1867. But also he needed time for ideas to marinate as it was only later that Wagner had come across a chronicle by Wagenseil (“von den Meisters Singer holdseligen Kunst”), which gave him a comprehensive insight into the rules and regulations of the Meistersinger.
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But yet another reason exists which was the emotional turbulence in his life, in particular his relationship with his then secret lover, Mathilde Wesendonck. At the invitation of his Zurich patrons, the Wesendonck couple, Wagner spent a few days with them in Venice in 1861. There he discovered that his secret lover Mathilde Wesendonck was pregnant with her husband’s fifth child. After the love affair was already in a crisis, Wagner realised that this love, which inspired him to “Tristan and Isolde” was over. Now Wagner decided to philosophically transcend this indirect “rejection” and saw himself as Hans Sachs, who renounced love for noble reasons.
The philosophical framework for this was provided by Schopenhauer’s work “Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung” (The World as Will and representation”), which he had become acquainted with a few years earlier. In Schopenhauer’s pessimistic view of the world, the will of the predator “man” results in destructive torments. This inherent mania leads to war, self-destruction and loss of love, whose only way out is renunciation (of the will).
Thus the shoemaker poet Hans Sachs became a Schopenhauer figure whose world philosophy Wagner expounded in the delusional monologue of the third act. This philosophical change explains the paramount importance of Hans Sachs’ figure in Wagner’s Meistersinger: Sachs is the master himself. Wagner identified himself with no other figure more than the cobbler-poet, and he has him quoted in the third act “Tristan and Isolde”: «Mein Kind, von Tristan und Isolde kenn’ ich ein traurig Stück. Hans Sachs war klug und wollte nichts von Herrn Markes Glück». (“My child, I know a sad tale of Tristan and Isolde. Hans Sachs was clever and did not want anything of King Marke’s lot”). Isolde now became Eva!
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Apart from Sachs, all other figures fade away, even the revolutionary hero and iconoclast Walther (who also has a little Wagner in him) must take a back seat to the light figure Sachs. If the Junker Walther were the hero of the final act in a “normal” opera, the third act now becomes the two-hour “Hans Sachs Festival”, which begins with his Wahn-monologue and ends with his «Verachtet mir die Meister nicht» (“Don’t despise me the masters”), forming one of the most gigantic par force tours in all of opera literature. The part of Sachs demands the whole range of the singer’s repertoire: high lyrical passages, long declamatory stretches and of course the high passages of the third act and the enormous final scene.
Marco Jentzsc sings a snippet of Walther's prize song in David McVicar's 2011 production.
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