I've enjoyed Wagner's music since childhood -- long time before I knew of any controversy or non-musical objections to it, before I learned that Hitler liked it. I don't think it's even necessary for me to say I loathe Hitler and his beliefs. (But I DID have a great-grandfather return to Germany because he liked Kaiser Bill...he died on the boat on the way back.)

The first inkling I had of any controversy was when the organist at the Lutheran church I attended (I was maybe 10 at the time) refused to play the Wedding March ("Bridal Chorus" "Treulich geführt" -- usually referred to as "Here Comes the Bride") from Lohengrin because Wagner was an immoral man and, among other things, stole his best friend's wife. (That whole scandal was much more complicated, as I learned when I was older.)

Wagner was a German nationalist with socialist leanings (socialism is the exact opposite opposite of Nazism) who worked for the unification of Germany. He held some social views which, while I disagree with them, were common in the era in which he lived.

Linn