Dear Herr Heckel,
Your proposal is first-rate: if such a unification comes to vigorous life, it will be the very thing I want. Meanwhile the strength of the situation still resides in its single robust parts. It is units that offer the most solid support at present. The society "Wagneriana" in Berlin lately voted the purchase of sixty (60) Patronat-vouchers, and the engagement of the whole orchestra. Vienna promises that it will shew itself equally generous in course of this winter. At Leipzig, on the other hand, ¾ of a voucher has been signed till now: in Munich — per Vereins — absolutely nothing, so far as I know. You in Mannheim alone have proved yourselves alive. Nevertheless, I comprehend that only by means of a large and general association can the enterprise be lastingly and resultfully insured: therefore I think your proposals much more than simply worth consideration.
As to the date of my journey, at present I can say no more than that it will occur at latest in the first part of December, when I think of spending at least two days in Munich. At Bayreuth everything is already stirring in the most auspicious fashion; my wishes are met with the most earnest attention. There I shall arrange whatever is needful, especially as concerns the site (which the town will probably present to me), so that the building may begin in March. But where are the heads of Vereins, to be called thither (or to Leipzig — according to Herr von Loen)? Beyond your Mannheim Verein I know none that has done anything hitherto, or even made itself worth noticing, as a Verein. Herr Dr. Kafka will shew us in time, with his Viennese, how things are going there. So I think that a convocation would have no meaning before next March at Bayreuth. For the moment the really important thing appears to me, that you should issue a strongly-worded appeal in the sense you have conveyed to me by your draft. By next March we should know the full extent of the response, and then a calling of the clans at Bayreuth (for the foundation-laying) would have some meaning.
I hope you are of my opinion; and perhaps you will have the kindness to communicate your views to Herr von Loen, at like time giving him my best compliments.
With all respect. Yours faithfully
Richard Wagner.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 7