People as a Source of Legitimacy of Authorities: Richard Wagner and his Project of Cultural Revolution in the Period of Second Empire

Key words: Richard Wagner, "The Artwork of the Future", Germany, nationalism, «people», populism. This paper is devoted to the project of culture-political transformation of society through art, described by composer Richard Wagner in his essay «The Artwork of the Future». This project is considered in the context of forming of the German national state and also in the context of the cultural situation in Germany. The main source, used in this paper, is essay, written by R. Wagner, which is called «The Artwork of the Future». Based on this essay, with the usage of methods, developed by the tradition of intellectual history, there will be analyzed such concepts as «nature», «arbitrariness», «people», «enemies of the people», «luxury» and «fashion». Specificity of the usage of the concepts "people" and "enemies of the people" allows one to conclude that the Wagnerian style of thinking can be considered as an early form of culture-political populism because the concept of «people» means «mass».