Cultural advisor in Bayreuth, that must be an Elysium. Everywhere you can boast of two world-famous musical theater venues (Wilhelmine’s Opera House and Wagner’s Festival Hall), and when there is a creak, a smell or a blaze on the Green Hill, then you can say “There you go, we are” with impunity only the small shareholder “up there” can withdraw. Splendid.
So much for the theory. In practice, before Benedikt Stegmayer’s Kurz era, it seemed as if Bayreuth had to bribe potential candidates for office with Rheingold before anyone would take the job in Upper Franconia. When the terms of office for Bayreuth’s cultural officers became shorter and shorter, one interim followed the other, and hardly anyone was able to keep track of who was last and who was currently responsible for culture, one applicant took it to the extreme in 2019. The man was officially chosen as the new speaker, but never once entered his office and fled before he had even increased the reputation of the undoubtedly famous cultural life of Bayreuth for an hour. World record!
After that, of course, it all seemed to be over, after which Stegmayer took over the office – and he only demonstrated in the SZ interview last December that he had a very concrete idea about his job. He openly admitted that Bayreuth had missed decades when it came to the culture of remembrance. But he also made it crystal clear that great strides were now being made with the planned documentation center for the history of ideology. It will be located in the house of the racial theorist and ardent Wagner admirer Houston Chamberlain – right next to the Wahnfried house – and will show the Bayreuth connection between art, culture and politics in the history of ideas.
Stegmayer was asked in the conversation whether he had good nerves. We could talk about it again in a few years, he replied. And – laughing at least – added: “Perhaps you’ll visit me in a sanatorium.”
Well, that won’t happen. Less than four months later, the city of Würzburg announced that Stegmayer had applied to be a cultural officer there. And will take over the office soon.
Würzburg? Of course, it also has a UNESCO cultural heritage. But they don’t have a festival there as a world event.
And then you can start to ponder: Why would someone do something like that? And while people were still pondering, the cultural committee of the city of Bayreuth recently met. Actually, it seemed to be more about something formal, a fundamental decision on the documentation center that had long been conceived. Nobody suspected anything serious, not even the mayor and the still cultural advisor Stegmayer. In the end, however, there was a recommendation from the committee. He would rather not see the plans for a documentation center implemented: the money, the risk – and everything!
The center is not dead yet, its fate must first be decided by the city council. But we now have a pretty concrete idea of why hardly anyone wants to be a cultural advisor in Bayreuth.