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News

09.11.2023
In memoriam Louis Oster
Berlin, 09.November 2023

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Friends of the Richard-Wagner Associations worldwide,

It is with deep sadness that I inform you that Louis Oster, our long-standing member of the Richard Wagner Association International and long-time chairman of the Richard Wagner Association Strasbourg, has died at the age of 92.

 Louis Oster leaves a big gap in the circle of all Wagner friends and our worldwide associations.

He has always stood with full commitment and with his whole heart behind our common cause of supporting the Richard Wagner Associations International and was always a great mentor for Richard Wagner's work and the Bayreuth Festival.

For us, his greatest achievement was and remains the legal merging of the German and international Richard Wagner associations into a single unity of all Wagner associations worldwide on equal basis as well as the creation of a common statute for all international associations in the world.

His Richard Wagner Congress in Strasbourg was unique and excellently organized with his team. The visit of the associations as part of the programme at the Richard Wagner Congress in the Strasbourg Parliament is one of the most impressive experiences we were able to take with us.

With the passing away of Louis Oster, we have all lost a humane and cosmopolitan person who was committed to Richard Wagner's impact worldwide. As a companion of our late first international president, Josef Lienhart, he was a veteran of our Richard Wagner Associations International and he will be remembered in our hearts forever.

With sincere thanks and silent greetings,

Rainer Fineske, President RWVI

Photo from April 2014
 © Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons