English Translation

IV/2 Za Prag, 6 February 1943. V e r m e r k. Subject: Richard Wagner and Bayreuth. Wagner had realized the idea of his own festival house in Bayreuth in the year l874. The foundation stone laying of the Festival House was l872, one year after Wagner moved to Bayreuth. l876 took place the first three performances of the "Ring des Nibelungen". After Wagner's death in the year l883, his wife Cosima, the daughter of Franz Liszt and Countess D'Agoult took over the inheritance and continued the tradition of Bayreuth in the sense of the master. Later she was supported by her son Siegfried and completely replaced after her death l922. From Siegfried's marriage, (d.l93o) with Winifred, four children emerged: two sons, Wieland and Wolfgang (the latter's bride is Preulein Drexel), and two daughters, Predlind and Verena. The Bayreuth Festival has been held every year since the take-over of power (formerly always in two consecutive years with a one-year break), among others in the period from mid-July to mid-August. The intimate relationship of the Führer to Wagner's art and thus to Bayreuth is well known. The FührER has ordered that the Bayreuth Festival will now only be accessible during the war to members of the Wehrmacht and military workers.