The Swiss "Wagners"

It comes as no surprise that Richard Wagner's extensive family also has a branch in Switzerland. But that this was unknown even to close family members until some time ago is more surprising. In their new monograph, Verena Naegele and Sibylle Ehrismann reveal how this came about and what the Swiss Wagner descendants are all about. The Beidlers. In the shadow of the Wagner clan is more than just a companion volume to the exhibition that the two music journalists conceived on this topic and presented at the Zurich City Archives in summer 2013. It is an independent examination of the complex events that led to the break between the Beidler and Wagner families - and at times reads like a thriller that you will be reluctant to put down.

In a sophisticated overture, the authors begin with the explosive paternity trial and evaluate unknown sources for the first time: Isolde, Richard Wagner's first-born daughter, married to the Swiss conductor Franz Beidler, fought for her right to bear the name Wagner. However, as she (like her siblings Eva and Siegfried) was born at a time when her mother Cosima was still married to Hans von Bülow, she was legally a born von Bülow. The authors describe the consequences of the lost trial for the Beidler family, in particular for the first Wagner grandson Franz Wilhelm Beidler, in detail, but not with great attention to detail. In a matter-of-fact tone, but with a focus on their subject, they cover a broad arc from Lucerne via Bayreuth and Berlin in the 1920s to Zurich, where Franz Wilhelm Beidler helped shape Swiss cultural life for many years as secretary of the Swiss Writers' Association.

"Beidler - the name was unknown to us," says Nike Wagner in the foreword to this meticulously researched volume, which now closes a gap in the Wagner genealogy.

Verena Naegele and Sibylle Ehrismann: The Beidlers. Im Schatten des Wagner-Clans, 336 p., Fr 38.00, Rüffer & Rub, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-907625-66-8