Tuesday, November 19:
R. has some proof correcting to do, and I take the opportunity to visit the gallery and the castle.
At the Heckels’ we see a very interesting picture of Beethoven which captivates R. enormously: “Yes, that’s how he looked; these eyes which see nothing and this mouth, showing all the stubbornness of a man whom nothing in the outside world can influence. And how wonderfully this man made music!”
A member of the orchestra presents R. with an autograph by Beethoven. We leave Mannheim around five o’clock, after R. received remarkable proofs of the sympathy and enthusiasm of the populace, who literally formed lanes wherever he went.
Our good friends are going through a bad phase at present; the entire Jewish clique has mobilized against them, and, since they came to grief on the theater problem with Bülow, they are in a poor position. On top of that, the great mistake of engaging Nohl.
We arrive in Darmstadt around 9 o’clock, delayed on the railroad. Brandt meets us and gives us theater tickets: Hebbel’s Nibelungen with Frau Seebach making a guest appearance. Indescribable!