Monday, January 12:
R. looks somewhat better, has slept well, and is at any rate in better spirits than yesterday evening. It is a consolation to me that a cold wind is blowing, for this would have prevented his going out even if he had been in good health.
Arrival of our friend Herr von Stein, a happy reunion; he tells us about Vienna, Richter and the 9th Symphony, Salvini; we tell him our troubles. When Herr v. St. tells us that he heard the Faust Overture in a concert hall in Dresden, R. says: “Have they really turned that into a concert hall? I suggested it thirty years ago and was refused.” Prof. Schron talks about the Camorra, with which he claims to be in touch.
R. is reading Düntzer’s life of Goethe with great interest, and remarks how fine the Weimar period was, on account of all the practical activity; he says the Weimar state undoubtedly owed to him all the things which Carlyle praised so highly, and all done under conditions of great difficulty, hated by the Court, forced to throw out most of the administrators; he had persevered only for the sake of his relationship with Frau v. Stein, which he would otherwise have had to give up: “It must have been quite a splendid relationship,” R. says.