[...] I shall hold to Wiesbaden for the summer in any case; there is much to be said for it; but for the moment your description has rather spoiled my taste for it and, in particular, I don't much take to the idea of plunging in winter among utterly strange folk and surroundings. Many other things accord with your suggestion to the contrary and have decided me to remain for the winter in Berlin. At first I wanted to avoid this, fearing I might prejudice my prospects somewhat by a premature appearance there. However, no one can force me to appear in public, can they? I know a few families there who will help me to pass the time pleasantly, and shall look no farther. Bülow has offered me full hospitality, complete freedom to work undisturbed, complete freedom from worry and everything else, and now the Avenariuses have done the same. They will not be offended if I prefer the Bülows. Hans invited me to visit him last summer; they know the conditions, as they had Liszt to stay with them; I am intimate with him and in him have to my hand a pianist, a practical musician and an uncommonly attached friend, so that I shall like working in such surroundings. The Avenarius family, on the other hand, is practically strange to me—in spite of my sister. Moreover, Cecilie doesn't deserve it; she never came to Switzerland. [...]
Now, there is a great deal else going forward which may bring things to some sort of issue in Berlin. Indeed, it looks to me as if my remarkably uncertain fate there were about to take a turn. Lord, if it turned out to be no more than a small pension, how it would help towards our settling down (somewhere else)! I have had it given out in Karlsruhe that I am to conduct Lohengrin there, and read my new libretto to the grand-ducal party. Already—as I know—the Grand Duchess (this between ourselves!!) has taken steps in Berlin. Well, we shall see what I shall be able to quarry out of this winter journey and its consequences.
There's one thing certain, though, Mutz. From this summer on we will try definitely to find somewhere to settle down. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 513