Isolde Beidler

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Notable

German scion of noted families. She was the daughter of Cosima, wife of conductor Hans von Bülow, but fathered by her lover, the composer Richard Wagner. Von Bülow was so devoted to Wagner that he accepted Isolde as his own, and registered her as "the legitimate daughter" of himself and Cosima von Bülow. Wagner was recorded as the godfather. Cosima had begun a relationship with Wagner in 1863. He was 24 years her senior. They married in 1870. Cosima Liszt/von Bülow/Wagner was the illegitimate daughter of the composer Franz Liszt. On 12 December 1900, Isolde von Bülow married Swiss conductor Franz Beidler (1872-1930) and they had a son, Franz Wilhelm Beidler (born 16 October 1901 in Bayreuth; died 3 August 1981 in Zürich) who became a Swiss journalist. Franz Wilhelm was their only child and Richard Wagner's first grandson. By 1907 a major family feud surfaced between the Beidler and Wagner families, culminating in 1913 in a sensational lawsuit. Isolde contested the rights of her mother Cosima Wagner and her son Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930) to the deceased Richard Wagner's fortunes. Isolde claimed rights to the estate because she was the oldest child of the composer. But because Cosima was still married to Hans von Bülow when Isolde was born, Isolde lost the court case. Isolde was thus effectively disinherited. She withdrew, and to the time of her death in Munich at four o'clock in the afternoon on 7 February 1919 she never again saw or communicated directly with her mother Cosima.