Bayreuth Festival: Söder bowed in front of ex-Chancellor

On Friday evening, the top of German politics gathered on Friday evening to open this year’s Bayreuth Festival on Friday evening.

For the premiere of Richard Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg”, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz showed a cleverly hand for timing. Exactly 15 minutes before the start of the new production, he stepped over the red carpet with his wife Charlotte.

But the true star of the evening should only appear a few minutes later: Angela Merkel, accompanied by her husband Joachim Sauer. The former Chancellor, a regular festival guest for years, was significantly more popular than her successor Merz. While this had gone into the building for the waiting on the waiting for the waiting, Merkel had a short wave for the festival fans.

The reaction of Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder also caught the eye: the 58-year-old bowed to the ex-chancellor-a rare gesture of respect in the political landscape. Before that, Söder had already taken care of when he joked with his Union Customers of the Landers, Mario Voigt and Reiner Haseloff, that they were the “three tenors”.

The political parquet in Bayreuth proved to be a relaxed meeting place this year. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, Minister of Culture Wolfram Weimer, Federal Minister of Research Dorothee Bär, Greens politician Cem Özdemir, the President of the Bavarian state parliament, Ilse Aigner and the former Greens chairman Ricarda Lang mixed up to the illustrious society.

The celebrities who do not come from politics included “The Taste” star chef Alexander Herrmann and pop star Florian Silbereisen this year. The latter of his first visit to the festival: “I couldn’t believe it at all when the invitation came from the Prime Minister. But the invitation was really real!”