Friday, November 8:
In connection with Emperor Heinrich's poem, we talked yesterday about this wonderful race of Hohenstaufens, who appear before us like all the magnificent figures of the ancient world, whereas in a modern hero, Frederick the Great, one sees only the special qualities of one particular individual. "They were great and enlightened men, philosophers and poets, but all that has been ruined for us by the Curia, which is why I am so bitter about its power, and so full of rage."
We come to the subject of our undertaking. I tell R.: "And if it fails, we can always remember Queen Luise, who gave Napoleon the reply, 'It was permitted to the grandsons of Frederick the Great to attempt the impossible.' It is also permitted to the composer of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Meistersinger, Tristan, and the Nibelungen to attempt the impossible."
R.'s longing for leisure, in order to study fine things such as Middle High German; his lament, in view of his extravagant proclivities, that he has no inherited fortune; his wish to leave something behind for Fidi, so that he will not have to work for a living, "and then he must marry a lovely, good and rich woman." I protest; he quotes several examples of happy marriages of this kind.
He will without doubt, he says, be pursued right up to his death by thoughts of the slanders and disrespect which his lack of property has brought on him. "A German cannot be destroyed," R. begins when we talk of the way the German princes ignore him and his undertaking, "and what that really means is that, however badly things turn out for him, however much he is neglected by his princes and held up in his progress, there is something inside him which cannot be got at. And that's how I am."
Then, on the difference between Germany and France: "I should find it easier to believe that Nassau and Hanover would become independent than that such a monolithic state would be possible for us. Berlin as our capital is impossible to visualize. It is true that one is better served in Paris than in Germany; the various branches of life have been able to make much better progress, and the pride, the vanity, of the working man has been raised to great heights, whereas here it is still humble and neglected."
Letters from Vienna: it seems that a mistake has been made back here, too, for the people in Vienna say they have received nothing apart from the general report. R. talks to the mayor and decides to make his journey. We go for a walk, I in some annoyance over the children's untidiness, but that soon passes.
In the evening a visit from Prof. Nägelsbach; he has read R.'s paper and tells him they cannot be grateful enough for all the stimulation he has brought them here. Following him, our splendid dean, full of life and fire; he talks about the tremendous agitation against our undertaking. If it nevertheless succeeds, the consequences will be immeasurable.