Honoured Sir and Friend!
It is not my wish that you withdraw from further co-operation in the execution of the plans which you have designed. I have demonstrated to you that it was most important to me, for the successful progress of the work, to keep you on good terms with the gentlemen to whom the execution of your plans was directly intrusted. At the present moment it is not my purpose to inquire closely into the reasons which have arisen for making impossible this necessary unanimity. It is sufficient to assume that you yourself recognise that the situation has grown impossible. This opinion I have imparted to the gentlemen of the Executive Council, without, however, expressing a wish. My sole, sincere desire is that you and I, two honourable men, should part in peace for the present. In regard to the payment of any indemnification, this question belongs to a province in which I take part with all the necessary force and energy only when it concerns the accomplishment of my undertaking as a whole, and as I have eliminated any idea of material profit for myself, I leave all decisions of this nature to the directors of the economic part of the undertaking, who are pledged to the strictest economy on every point.
As soon as the part Herr Brückner is to take in the final execution of the decorations is settled, I promise you without fail to remember him and also yourself by compensating you for the part you have taken in the matter by the further protection of your copyright in the future.
With the request that you present my regards to your highly esteemed wife and mother-in-law, I extend my hand to you at parting and remain always
Yours respectfully,
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 62