Bayreuth composer Richard Wagner, who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883. Wagner's villa, "Wahnfried", was constructed in Bayreuth under the sponsorship of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and was converted after World War II into a Wagner Museum. In the northern part of Bayreuth is the Festival Hall, an opera house specially constructed for and exclusively devoted to the performance of Wagner's operas. The premieres of the final two works of Wagner's "Ring Cycle" ("Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung"); the cycle as a whole; and of "Parsifal" took place here. Every summer, Wagner's operas are performed at the Festspielhaus
Gau Bayreuth the "Gau" was also home to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and its many subcamps. Because the "Gau Bayerische Ostmark" was not a border region any more, it was renamed into "Gau Bayreuth" in 1942. Wächtler was shot on orders of Hitler, having left his capital Bayreuth in April 1945. He was replaced by Ludwig Ruckdeschel, whose reign until the surrender of Nazi Germany was very brief. The Gauleiter of Gau Bayreuth: Ludwig Ruckdeschel was also the deputy "Gauleiter" from 1 February 1933 to June 1941. In this position, he led the "Gau" from Hans Schemm's death to the appointment of