Bayreuth Festival derided for his 1956 production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg." Stripped of its pageantry, conservatives viewed the breaking of this "sacred German tradition" as an outrage. Wieland defended the changes as an attempt to create an "invisible stage" that would allow the audience to experience the full psychosocial aspects of the drama without the baggage and distraction of elaborate set designs. Others have speculated that by stripping Wagner's works of their Germanic and historic elements, Wieland was attempting to distance Bayreuth from its nationalistic past and create productions with universal appeal. Over time, many critics came to appreciate the unique
Gau Bayreuth Gau Bayreuth Gau Bayreuth (until 1942, "Gau Bayerische Ostmark" (English: Bavarian Eastern March)) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. From 1926 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party for these areas. The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onwards, after the Nazi seizure of power, the "Gaue" increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany. At the head of