Saturday, January 1:
Went to church; afterward received visitors. R. discovers that the newspapers are saying that Herr Scaria demanded 2,000 florins for his entire stay in Bayreuth and had been turned down by the management committee. R. is requesting a correction through Standhartner.
R. reads the history of the Arabs and says that the more he sees what difficulties the founding of a state brings, the more convinced he is of the recklessness of shaking the foundations, and he sees how fortunate all who possess dynasties can count themselves. The spirit which founded states knew instinctively what it was doing in providing those. R. is despondent: “The meanness one is confronted with,” he says, “gets worse and worse; I never before experienced what I am going through now.” Herr Gross told him that, when they tried here to counter the lies about the sale of our house, no newspaper would accept the item.
R. is very depressed; we have a sad evening. I clear up letters and bills and, as my first expenditure in the New Year, pay for the upkeep of my brother’s grave in Berlin.