Sunday, January 11:
After our reading yesterday our conversation turned to the task which could have been assigned to the King of Bavaria; since the whole political burden is being carried by the German Emperor, he, as virtual founder of the Reich, could have devoted himself undisturbed to establishing a temple for German art.
R. said one could expect things only from princes who had not been brought up as heirs to the throne and future monarchs, such as the present Emperor Wilhelm, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the first King of Bavaria - Frederick the Great and the earlier kings had certainly been exceptions.
From Freytag he reads me the curious and significant story of Helmbrecht - and curses the Renaissance, which undermined the German character. Fidi surprises us after lunch: R. and I were talking (I no longer know in what connection) about Germany’s being colder, whereupon Fidi interposed, “But in Spain it is fine” - undoubtedly a memory of the frequently recurring quotation from Don Giovanni - it made us laugh heartily.
R. is going through the score for the second act. A telegram from Minna Standhartner, saying my father has just been playing in Vienna (for the Franz Joseph Foundation), “storms of applause,” which strikes us as strange!
In the evening Luther - bury our friend, from whom we have gained the knowledge of how the German people adopted Christianity. In the conservatory, I wrote to Richter regarding Vienna and a possible concert there - oh, misery! Thank God R. is now in good health. Our various domestic disasters wring from him the exclamation: “Devil take all women! You are the only one who, when her vanity was wounded, did not turn everything upside down and cause indescribable chaos and unrest.” In the course of our conversation he recalls Paganini and his daemon, and says that in comparison Herr Joachim and his consorts could hide their heads in shame.