[...] Accept my warmest thanks for your noble opinion of me. I have long become convinced that my ideals of art stand or fall with Germany. Only the Germany that we love and will to exist, can help to actualise my ideals.
Dimly I begin to conceive that grave and simple German hymn which shall fire our wills to action. Not days of pondering, but the moment of enthusiasm, of need, of rapture, will give me my best inspiration. Days of uttermost peril are drawing nigh. May our Princes' eyes be opened; far more effectively than all their diplomatists the singer can give voice to their call upon their people.
Be assured, I shall remember your noble challenge! Let us hope and strive! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 617