Wagner's grandson held a lifetime contract at Bayreuth, refused to leave when the board named his daughter's rival, and handed the festival to his daughters at 89

Richard Wagner opened his festival theatre at Bayreuth in 1876. His English-born daughter-in-law, Winifred, ran the festival from 1930 to 1944 and was a close friend of Adolf Hitler, whom her son Wolfgang called "Uncle Adolf." In 1973 the family transferred the Festspielhaus and the Wagner archive to a new Richard Wagner Foundation and gave the Wahnfried villa to the town. The foundation's rules say descendants should run the festival "unless other, better suited applicants emerge." Wolfgang ran it for 57 years on a lifetime contract. In 2001 the board named his niece Eva Wagner-Pasquier, his daughter from his first marriage, as successor. He refused to go. He backed Katharina, his daughter from his second marriage. After his second wife Gudrun died in November 2007, he agreed in April 2008 to step down. On 1 September 2008 the board named Katharina, 30, and Eva, 63, joint heads. A rival bid by Wieland Wagner's daughter Nike with Gerard Mortier was rejected; Nike called the choice "embarrassing." Wolfgang's son Gottfried, estranged, attacked the festival's Nazi past. Katharina became sole director in 2015. In May 2024 the festival's shareholders, the federal government (29 percent), Bavaria (29 percent), the Society of Friends (29 percent) and the city (13 percent), renewed her for five years and added a hired business manager. In 2026 she runs the festival under that contract.