Influences

Friedrich Nietzsche | Arthur Schopenhauer | Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

The Pernerstorfer Circle provides a reminder of just how influential Richard Wagner was in his place and time, not just as a musician, but as a purveyor of ideas. As Wagner moved in the mid-1870s into an increasingly mystical-religious point of view, the Circle evidenced strong inclinations to regard him as a prophet of art,  spiritualism, and Schopenhauer-inspired philosophy.

Victor Adler and Siegfried Lipiner were among the Circle members who made pilgrimages to Beyreuth. Lipiner himself became a point of interest for Wagner via recommendation from Nietzche, and Wagner apparently interviewed him as a possible writer to translate Wagner's ideas into popular form.

Among the Wagnerian ideas that influenced the circle were:

• The need for a deeply spiritual root -- a "true religion" -- to undergird social regeneration.
• A call to recognize the unity of all that lives and a deny the will-to-live in itself.
• Vegetarianism: the killing and eating of animals was self-destructive (because they share the same world-soul).
• Self-consciousness was key to people acknowledging and acting in accordance with unity. An art could contribute mightily to this consciousness. The Poet-Priest would lead humanity to salvation.

Friedrich Nietzsche | Arthur Schopenhauer | Richard Wagner