[...] Responsibility for the conspiracy which was intended to bring you to the point of abdicating last summer must be borne by all who did not openly and self-sacrificingly defend and avenge the dignity of their King, a dignity that was defiled in the most unheard-of manner. The whole of your ministerial and secretarial staff at the time bear fellow responsibility: none of them stood up for you; they were all, and still are, mere tools in your enemies’ hands. Claims that they acted only out of ignorance or, rather, with a view to helping you, are a lie. The Court in Vienna lived in daily expectation of receiving news of your abdication: Archduchess Sophie enquired openly whether the ... had been sent packing yet. - It is your duty here to clean up properly and clear things out, and then gradually, but decisively and without delay, to surround yourself with entirely new men. -
Listen further to the words of a dying man! -
What you cannot achieve by a change of staff, you must aim at accomplishing by a powerful show of political initiative! Nothing can save Bavaria unless you choose the only right and proper course of action, and carry it through with all your energies.
The German Confederation could have been saved, and it might have led to something significant in a salutary sense, if only Bavaria had taken the initiative last spring and acted energetically. Bavaria was called upon to lead the German princes and to arbitrate between Prussia and Austria, but only if every conceivable defensive power had been mustered at once. This opportunity was missed because the Bavarian Minister was already in collusion with Prussia: the shameful semblance of a war that he conducted, and the resultant weakening of Bavaria’s position and her humiliation, all created a mood of despair in the country: everyone is openly turning to Prussia, in order at least to partake of a powerful government and organization. Working against this is the influence of Austria and the Jesuits bent upon saving the country for Austria as soon as the latter recovers (as it hopes it will) and takes its revenge on Prussia. In this event Austria will treat Bavaria and Württemberg as Prussia treated Hanover and the Electorate of Hesse: the Main will then divide Austria and Prussia; and there will no longer be any question of Germany or of Bavaria. In the face of this, Bavaria can retain her independence only by forming an allegiance with Prussia; for Prussia can never “annex” Bavaria; but Austria can and will do so the moment that it recovers. And so, resolutely and honourably, an allegiance with Prussia: for only in this way will Germany, too, be saved; precisely because Prussia (more especially as “Prussia”) can never annex the southern German states; and this, ultimately, is the only way in which it will be possible for Austria to rejoin the German Confederation as an allied power, since it will then be obliged to do so by force of circumstances. And so, if Bavaria adopts the right policy and does so unflinchingly, she will at the same time guarantee Germany’s continuing existence and powerful reunification, otherwise the country will disintegrate for ever into an Austrian and a Prussian half. Bavaria can be the cement, so to speak, or the heart of this union. Then Germany will be something, it will be powerful: the German will feel himself, and we shall show the world what is German and what the German spirit is, we shall pour new life into the arid veins of the poor, unbelieving German world. Let the flag of the noble German spirit then flutter over Germany from Munich, a flag which I, too, will have helped to weave and which my glorious Siegfried shall flourish high above the German lands. -
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 359