the bayreuth festival was seen as a family business, with the leadership to be passed from richard wagner to his son siegfried wagner, but siegfried, who was secretly bisexual, showed little interest in marriage. it was arranged that winifred klindworth, as she was called at the time, aged 17, would meet siegfried wagner, aged 45, at the bayreuth festival in 1914. a year later they were married. it was hoped that the marriage would end siegfried's homosexual encounters and the associated costly scandals, and provide an heir to carry on the family business.