Minna Planer

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Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (born September 1909 – January 25, 1866) was a German actress and the first wife of composer Richard Wagner, to whom she was married for 30 years but who lived apart for the past ten years.

She had an illegitimate daughter with a Royal Saxon Army officer who she raised as her own sister at an early age.

Richard Wagner married Richard Wagner in 1836 following a tumultuous court struggle that involved infidelities on both directions. Minna was the household's highest wage earner in the early years, enjoying a fruitful career as a dramatic heroine with praise for her performance and admirers for her beauty.

She participated in several of Wagner's life's adventures, including a perilous sea ride to London, hunger in Paris, and following him around Europe after his 1849 role in the Dresden uprising that resulted in his expulsion from Germany. Minna lived apart from him following Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck in 1857.

She suffered with a heart disease in later years that later claimed her life.

Life

Minna Planer was born in Oederan, Germany, on September 5, 1809, to a former Army trumpeter, Gotthelf Planer. She was born in poverty and then seduced by Ernst Rudolf von Einsiedel, a captain in the King of Saxony's Guards, who abandoned her after making her pregnant. Minna was sent by her family in the country to deny the pregnancy, and when her daughter, Nathalie ("Netty"), was born, she was brought up as Minna's sister.

Minna began her acting career as an actress, specializing in female lead roles ("Erste Liebhaberin") in tragedies. Several German theatre companies had her actresses on display, and she had appeared in Dessau, Altenburg, Magdeburg, and Dresden before meeting Richard Wagner. Minna writes a letter dating back to December 27, 1833: she sets out her working conditions: she would not accept guest appearances, but she wanted the leading tragic and young heroine roles. Her travel cost was 600 thaler plus travel costs. Although she was praised for her acting abilities as an actress, her physical appearances earned her admiration. "You made us O Fair One," one anonymous suitor wrote to her: "You broke the mold and never more will have such a fair appearance." "I've known you long, you regal being, stunning in youth, and your lovely image of you flitting around in my dreams."

Minna appeared in 1834 as part of Heinrich Eduard Bethmann's Magdeburg Theatre Company during a summer season at Bad Lauchstadt, a spa resort near Halle, near Halle. She was 25 years old at the time. Richard Wagner had arrived in Lauchstädt on August 1st to look into the offer of a position as conductor of the Magdeburg company but was surprised by the offer until he encountered Minna by chance while looking for lodging for the night. Wagner, 21, changed his mind and accepted the deal in order to pursue her, occupying rooms directly below hers.

Minna's marriage with Wagner was tumultuous and cynical, and there were numerous loud conversations that eventually ended with Minna in tears. However, by the time Wagner returned to Magdeburg to begin the season in October 1834, the two were engaged, and by February 1835 Wagner told his brother Alfred that he and Minna were engaged, but other suitors pursued Wagner. Minna, who was dissatisfied with the Magdeburg troupe and perhaps with Wagner, was dismissed as a result in Berlin's Königstadt Theatre. Wagner was wrangling, and she begged her to return and marry him. Minna eventually agreed to return, but she stayed in Magdeburg until the end of the season, before heading to Königsberg to join the local theatre company, while Wagner searched for jobs in Berlin. He joined Minna in Königsberg and accepted a menial job as a junior conductor after failing in this. Minna married Wagner in Tragheim Cathedral on November 26, 1836, where they protested even in front of the minister who was about to marry them.

Minna learned that being Wagner's wife was not the way to respectability she aspired. Wagner's debt piled up, and she was often forced to deal with creditors not only from Königsberg but also from Wagner's previous investment in Magdeburg. Wagner's salary brought in little money, and Minna's burgeoning on stage meant she was the main breadwinner, earning 700 reichsthaler in 1836. Minna continued to have admirers, and on May 31, she and a local businessman named Dietrich fled Wagner, taking Nathalie with her. Wagner eventually discovered her at her parents' house in Dresden and begged her to return to him. Minna vanished with Dietrich in July 1837 despite another brief repentance. Minna had a change of heart and returned to Wagner in October, after taking up a post in Riga as Music Director.

Minna held a job at the Riga City Theatre for two years before Wagner resigned in January 1839. He then devised a wild plan to depose his creditors: He and Minna, along with their dog Robber, escaped across the nearby Russian border and boarded a ship bound for London and then travelled to Paris, where Wagner predicted that his new opera Rienzi would make his fortune. On April 18th, Minna made her last stage appearance in Riga in the title role of Schiller's Maria Stuart. It was her money from this appearance that paid for Riga's flight from Riga to London and Paris. Despite the danger of being shot by border guards, they made the illegal crossing safely on July ten days earlier, but Minna was crushed on July 14th. Minna died as a result of the miscarriage, according to Nathalie. Although there are no further evidence to back up this assertion, Minna bore Wagner no children. Minna and Wagner set sail from Pillau on the Thetis and sailed into a hurricane that culminated in them berth in a Norwegian fjord. They arrived in London after a long 24-day journey for a trip that should have taken 8 days. They took a steamer to Paris after a week recovering in London.

Minna and Wagner lived in Paris from 1839 to 1842, suffering extreme poverty. Wagner's scheme fell apart because the Paris Opera Company was not involved in bringing either Rienzi or his new piece, Der Fliegende Holländer, to the public. Wagner was detained for debt, and Minna had to beg their German friends in Paris for money to release him. The Wagners were only allowed to leave Paris in April 1842 by the Hoftheater in Dresden. Wagner became the King Kapellmeister of Dresden, achieving the stability and social status that Minna had aspired for. Wagner's participation in the Dresden uprising in May 1849 resulted in a warrant being issued for his detention, and Wagner fled to Zurich.

Minna was furious with him, and their marriage cooled irreparably after that. She regarded Zurich as a provincial town and mourned the loss of her social position as Frau Kapellmeister. She promised to rejoin Wagner in Zurich in August of this year, but it was clear that their world views were completely different. Minna was able to appreciate his role as a conductor, but she quickly discovered that his operatic performances were not to her liking. Nonetheless, she was now tied to him, and she had feared that her time in servitude would come. Minna began showing signs of heart disease, for which she was prescribed laudanum. She wrote to Wagner before joining him in Zurich: a letter from her: She wrote to him about his arrival:

In 1850, Wagner tried to leave Minna but he had an affair with Jessie Laussot, a married 21-year-old Jessie Laussot, with whom he had intended to elope to the Far East. However, Minna and Jessie's mother put an end to this scheme, and Wagner and Minna then returned to Minna, where their friendship revived some of the original's ardour. Ferdinand Praeger took "A picture of Minna" on a visit to the summer 1856, capturing the dynamic of their marriage: a snapshot of their love.

When Wagner was engaged on Tristan und Isolde in 1857, it was the case with Mathilde Wesendonck, which caused the final breach between Minna and Wagner. Minna accused adultery, which Wagner denied, claiming that Minna had given a "vulgar interpretation" on his letter after she found it in April 1858. In subsequent letters, Minna maintained that Wagner had been seduced by Mathilde and that she was "that hussy" and "that filthy woman." Wagner and Minna, on the other hand, will fly to Venice and Minna in the hopes of improving her deteriorating heart health. Minna wrote to Mathilde before leaving for Dresden: he was a teacher at the University of Mathilde.

"Tristan and Isolde were a much too enamoured and odious pair," Minna later described them as "a much too enamoured and odious couple."

It was only in November 1859 that Wagner travelled to Paris to perform a revised version of Tannhäuser at the Opera that Minna consented to his demands that she accompany him, but it was not easy. Minna disapproved of his rewritten Tannhäuser and believed that he might have had a financial success with Rienzi. Wagner retired from Vienna after the disastrous failure of the Paris Tannhäuser in July 1861, while Minna returned to Bad Soden and later Dresden, where she, Nathalie, and her parents lived at Wagner's expense.

When Wagner was living in Biebrich Minna in February 1862, a surprise visit to him began, but all the old problems were reignited when a letter from Mathilde Wesendonck arrived. "10 days of hell" was Wagner's description of the time. In June 1862, he suggested they divorce, but Minna declined to investigate this. Despite repeated pleas for him to join her in Dresden, he did not.

Minna and Wagner were never to marry again, but neither did they divorce. Minna was financially supported by Wagner for the remainder of her life.

Minna Wagner died of a heart attack in Dresden on January 25th. Wagner did not attend the funeral. Minna's grave is on display in Dresden's "Alter Annenfriedhof."

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