Verena Wagner (born 2 December 1920) is the fourth child and youngest daughter of Winifred and Siegfried Wagner and the granddaughter of German composer Richard Wagner.
Verena Wagner grew up in the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth and attended the Obernkirchener rural school. Adolf Hitler was a great fan of Wagner's music and became very close to Verena's mother, Winifred Wagner, (there were even rumours that they would marry). Hitler also befriended her children and treated them as his own.
Indeed, in 1940 Verena Wagner and Hitler were rumoured to be romantically linked[1]
"Many people affirm that Hitler would gladly marry the granddaughter of Richard Wagner, twenty-year-old, vivacious Verena Wagner, who is a frequent visitor and vacation guest at his mountain snuggery, were he not opposed in principle to marriages between persons of such unequal ages. She has the reputation of being his most outspoken critic, telling him in unflattering words simple truths that no Cabinet member would dare utter."[2]
In 1943 Verena Wagner married Bodo Lafferentz, a member of the Nazi Party from 1933 and a high ranking officer (SS-Obersturmbannführer) of the SS from 1939. They had five children: Améli (1944-), Manfred (1945-), Winifred (1947-), Wieland (1949-) and Verena (1952-).[3]
In 2003 Verena Lafferentz-Wagner attended the International Richard Wagner Congress held in Copenhagen, attending as guest of honour a performance of Die Walküre by the Royal Danish Opera with H.M. Queen Margrethe, H.R.H. Prince Henrik, the patron of the Wagner Congress, Herr Wolfgang and Frau Gudrun Wagner, and Kammersängerin Birgit Nilsson.[4] In February 2007 she opened, as guest of honour, a grand concert of her grandfather's works at Sofia in Bulgaria.[5][6]
Verena Wagner-Lafferentz is an honorary member of various international Wagner societies and is the vice-chairman of the Richard Wagner Foundation and a foundation board member of the Richard Wagner Festival.[7]