If the Salzburg Festival did not exist, one would have to invent it. This book tells the story of how it came to be, as thoroughly and accurately as no other book has done before. It describes the ideological backgrounds and the ideological implications of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's repeatedly revised festival concepts, adapted to the respective circumstances of the time, and dedicates extensive reading and enlightening commentary to all founding documents. It also recounts the early history of their conflict-ridden emergence and fluctuating development, considering the historical conditions. Norbert Christian Wolf uncovers many aspects that are difficult to reconcile with the image of a cosmopolitan peace project in the name of art. He also makes it understandable how and why the idea of the festival developed in the context of massive social and cultural political changes.