Let us talk about Wagner and Nietzsche. Nietzsche excited Wagner’s imagination with revolutionary ideas that were hundreds of years ahead of their time. On his part Nietzsche had always been an aspiring composer and so he greatly admired Wagner’s considerable talent. With Nietzsche’s support and inspiration Wagner composed powerful music and operas but, he didn’t stop there. He also revolutionized the visual impact of theatrical production and birthed a whole new era of monolithic stage performance. It eventually influenced art as well as politics. At the height of Wagner’s career he and Nietzsche had a serious falling out. Their friendship not only collapsed, Nietzsche resented Wagner for the rest of his life. What happened?
Nietzsche had wholeheartedly supported Wagner’s vision but, as Wagner’s fame took off, his ambitions grew corrupt. Nietzsche poignantly and repeatedly confronted Wagner about his pandering to Germany’s upper class Royal establishment and their dangerously ethnocentric German nationalism but, it was futile. Their spat is often written off as a mere footnote in the lives of these great men but it’s important to note that Wagner’s stance deeply disturbed Nietzsche and consumed him. Nietzsche felt responsible. His own writings about humanity’s complex relationship with power had been misunderstood and usurped by Wagner. This interpretation now fuelled Wagner’s fame and Nietzsche feared that Wagner’s growing political influence might one day fuel something even darker. Germany adored Wagner and Nietzsche’s protests could not outshine Wagner’s rise.
A few years before his death Nietzsche gathered his strength and wrote an essay entitled “Nietzsche contra Wagner; Out of the Files of a Psychologist” in an attempt to explain, with deconstructive analysis, how he and Wagner were politically and philosophically polar opposites but, it was too late. The damage was done. Before his death Nietzsche, a pacifist in deed, sacrifice and ethic, would eventually regret that he had written a single word in German, for fear that any of it would one day motivate the ethnocentric nationalism Wagner now espoused. He wished he had written it all in French, a language with a far more complex structure for describing, with allegory and abstraction, the necessary elements of humanism and fraternal love. Unfortunately, fools and Nazis to this day continue to misinterpret Nietzsche. It’s his singular curse. Whatever your layman’s impression of Nietzsche, it’s likely wrong.
As of late Nietzsche and Wagner weigh heavily on my mind. I’m also particularly obsessed with a Rammstein song from 2019 entitled “Deutschland” because its lyrics so perfectly apply to Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine, like Germany of Nietzsche’s era, is at a terrible crossroads. As they lose this war they could as a nation fall even deeper into a Nazi form of ethnocentric nationalism which festers into warmongering or, rebel against it while remaking themselves anew without any Nazi ideology. If we lived in a compassionate world, nations would come together to encourage only the latter. But, instead we’re letting our corporate upper class Royal establishment use our tax dollars to further arm and normalize Ukrainian Nazis who now force thousands of Ukrainian men to fight to their deaths. They’re not saving Ukraine, they’re only dying to satisfy the ambitions of NATO.
The video for “Deutschland” is not only one of the most visually spectacular ever created, it’s quite obviously Wagnerian. In the controversy created by its imagery, and the choice of Ruby Commey in the role of Germania, Wagner was frequently invoked. Superficial critics saw only Wagnerian imagery which would excite far-right Nazis, despite the fact that Nazis are literally shot in the face by rebelling Jews in a crucial scene. Other critics saw Commey exploited in a “racist” manner, though she is depicted as the living eidolon of Germany itself. Rammstein has always been a decidedly left-wing band with a sharpened sense of cultural criticism. They use powerful Nazi imagery in order to criticize it. They cast Commey, a Berlin-born German actress to underline Germany’s lingering ethnocentrism. In aesthetic mastery, art is supposed to say challenging things about issues which are too complicated to distill any other way. Rammstein artfully accomplished exactly what was required of this subject.
Most importantly Rammstein expertly used the Wagnerian imagery which a young Nietzsche had once greatly celebrated. In their lyrical criticism of German history, the song also tacitly condemned this imagery’s euphoric and gilded misuse. This cleverly reconciled Wagner and Nietzsche. The lyrics pulled the passion Wagner felt for Germany into the forefront and even sympathized with it. At the same time they clearly expressed a moral desire to hate Germany for its shameful depths as Nietzsche did. The song quite obviously condemns Germany and critically deconstructs its corrupt religious and ethnocentric motivations as Nietzsche once attempted. The perfectly balanced artfulness of the cinematographic opulence and lyrical criticism creates a circle. The choice of Ruby Commey is its perfection. Nietzsche would have been pleased to see what he most loved about Wagner used to so poignantly and artfully express key points of his own vehement objection to Wagner.
Footnote: It’s important to underline just how important a role Ruby Commey plays in this video which has been viewed by over 252 million people. In provoking discomfort in those who felt she could not “represent” Germany as a black woman, she only exposed Germany’s (and Europe’s) persistent ethnocentrism. And any who believed modern Neo-Nazis would find a powerful black woman in this role “exciting” clearly don’t know about Nazis or modern far-right white supremacy. If anything, it angered them greatly. The hate which has lately been directed at Moses Ingram for her role as Imperial inquisitor Reva Sevander only proves my point. Nazis and wannabe Sith Lords feel threatened by black women who take on those roles. There’s no doubt that this alone influenced Rammstein’s choice. Commey is a perfect catalyst for the critical underpinning of ‘Deutschland’. And as far as “good roles” go for young black female actors, the role of ‘Germania’ is a score which far outweighs anything Marvel ever offered with Black Panther and its 72 million tickets sold. Let’s remember, Black Panther had the gall to actually feature a white CIA agent who plays the role of “friend of Wakanda”. The CIA who, in reality, plotted and schemed against real black leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, not to mention members of the real Black Panthers. Black actors who participated in Black Panther weren’t inspiring “heroes” they were actors bamboozled into public betrayal by the promise of blockbuster fame (except for DuVernay who had the sense to turn it down). However you cut it, Ruby Commey can at least sleep at night knowing she helped make art.
