Bayreuth Festival and foreign singers, long after they had been banned from all other venues across Germany (including heldentenor Max Lorenz, married to a well-known Jewish woman). Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that Hitler even wrote a letter (at her behest) to anti-fascist Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, begging him to lead the festival. Toscanini refused. From 1933 to 1942, the festival was conducted principally by Karl Elmendorff. It was under the Third Reich that the festival made its first break from tradition, abandoning the deteriorating 19th century sets created by Richard Wagner. Many protested at the changes, including prominent conductors
Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg railway Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg railway The Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg line is a single-track main line railway in the German state of Bavaria. It is an important section of the so-called "Saxon-Franconian trunk line" from Dresden to Nuremberg. The line was opened in 1853 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. It was the first Bavarian railway line to be built and leased to the state. That is, it was financed by the city of Bayreuth and the line was built and subsequently leased by the Bavarian government. The route from Neuenmarkt to Bayreuth was opened on 28 November 1853 by the Royal Bavarian