Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of April 28, 1874

Overview

They enter the new house before it is fully complete, but the day feels celebratory rather than chaotic, with meals, meetings, and careful planning filling the hours. The children delight in their rooms, and R. crowns the place with its name, turning an unfinished move into a shared feeling of arrival and blessing.

Content

Tuesday, April 28:

Move into the new house! It is not yet finished, far from it, but we shall conquer. Nice lunch at the Feustels’; at 4 o’clock consecration of the dining room with a conference among Herr Hoffmann, Brandt, Brückwald, the management committee, and the Bruckner brothers, scene-painters from Coburg.

At Prof. Hoffmann’s suggestion, the task of preparing the scenery according to his sketches is entrusted to these two. R. tells me about the fine mood which prevailed throughout, and how everyone was filled with a spirit of complete dedication to the cause. The house could have been accorded no finer consecration.

Cozy supper; the three little ones, Eva as leader, thank us for having given them such nice rooms. Fidi has a room of his own. Moonlight; going out on the balcony, R. and I see the grave, and he christens the house: “The Final Happiness.”