I just wanted to flink in that Hitlers disturbance - what in my regard was the sign of his mental illness - was his hyperexaggerated selfidentification with the German people. I can tell you Hitler said, and many have heard him say that, that "Sollte ich jetzt sterben und das Deutsche Volk wird zur Grunde gehen" ("The German people cannot exist without me"). Wherever Hitler heard about the greatness of the German people his convincion was propulsed, as it is expressed i.e. in Hans Sachs singing the end of Wagners "Die Meistersinger". Of course one can always say Wagners antisemitism affected Hitlers, but I would say 'twas rather marginal compared with other things. Besides, Wagners antisemitism was a result of many and contradicting emotions in him, selfhatred among them (remember he changed his legal name; Geyer). Wagner has written and said foul things about the jews, but he has also said things like for example: "I would have nothing against the jews if they just gave up their religion"; In a letter to his friend Ludvig II of Bayern he complains on the antisemitists that write him letters believing they can "count with" him. And so we have that jew Levi, who conducted the first performance of "Parsifal" in Bayeuth... James Zehm [log in to unmask]