I must first earnestly ask pardon, Sir, for venturing to trouble you with a weighty request. Emboldened by the advice of my sister Ottilie and by her assurance that you would not object to fulfil a request of this kind if you were able to do so, I take the liberty of begging you to be so kind as to obtain for me a passport from Leipzig for my journey to Riga. I might, indeed, have asked my brother Julius to do me this service, but considering that the matter is somewhat complicated by my absence from Leipzig and by the fact that I have been away from the town for a long time, I shall undoubtedly do better—as my sister advised me—to apply to one more experienced than my brother in these matters, and I therefore turn direct to you [...] The chief obstacle, my earlier liability to military service, is removed by the fact of my marriage, and probably the only objection now would be that I have been for some time abroad. I can plead against this, however, that I came to Prussia three years ago without a passport or the need of one, and have since returned without one. Now I cannot obtain a passport from Königsberg, my last place of residence, without personal application there. I would therefore like to pass once more for a Leipziger, name, Richard Wagner, age, twenty-four years, appointed as kapellmeister to the theatre at Riga by contract, who wishes to travel thither via Berlin but is uncertain as yet whether to travel via Lübeck by sea or overland through East Prussia. If other obstacles should arise I trust in your knowledge and skill to overcome them to my advantage. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 42