Verena Wagner Lafferentz

Who is Verena Wagner Lafferentz?

Verena Wagner Lafferentz 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. Hitler also befriended her children and treated them as his own.

Indeed, in 1940 Verena Wagner and Hitler were also rumoured to be romantically linked

"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."

In 1943 Verena Wagner married Bodo Lafferentz, a member of the Nazi Party from 1933 and a high-ranking officer of the SS from 1939. They had five children: Amélie, Manfred, Winifred, Wieland and Verena.