Mannheim

“ I said I had been to the opera in Hanover, once, and in Mannheim once, and in Munich (through my authorized agent) once, and this large experience had nearly persuaded me that the Germans preferred singers who couldn’t sing. This was not such a very extravagant speech, either, for that burly Mannheim tenor’s praises had been the talk of all Heidelberg for a week before his performance took place—yet his voice was like the distressing noise which a nail makes when you screech it across a window-pane. ”

“ A few orchards, some walks shaded by willow-trees of all sizes form a verdant suburb to Mannheim. The houses in the town have often only one storey above the ground-floor. The main street is wide and planted with trees in the middle: one more down-fallen city. I do not like false gold, and so I did not want any Mannheim gold ”

“ We were now in the land of brutal barons, beer-bloated philosophers, beggarly mightinesses, devils, ghosts, and doppelgangers.
'Now this town of Mannheim, until we girt it by ramparts, was nothing more than a pretty village, guarded by the old castle of Rheinhausen; and our proceedings there, in stone and lime, were so highly resented by the Imperialists, that they never left us an hour in peace. Our boots were never off, and we slept in our frozen tents, with belts and harness on, till we were weary of our lives, and furious at the foe. ”

“ Once in half-an-hour a pair of wheels startles the slumbering genius of the streets, and is lost in feeble echoes. A faint indication of piano-music from the far interior of some of the large pleasant houses falls on the ear, competing with the footfalls, far between, of the very good-looking females with which Mannheim is adorned. ”

“ Contrasting strangely with Mannheim’s straight streets and quiet unpretentious business blocks, is the very peculiar city of Frankfort, where within a stone’s throw of each other are streets so entirely different, that in one you may imagine yourself on Broadway, while in the other you may with equal propriety consider yourself set back five or six hundred years. ”

“ The stay in Mannheim influenced his artistic life through the intellectual atmosphere of a capital in which flourished German science and German art; but beyond and above this, it was there that he was seized by the passion which sways the innermost being of man, and blunts for the time every other feeling. We have seen how susceptible he always was to female charms, and how he delighted in intercourse with agreeable women, whose attractions often threw a favourable light on his opinion of their musical acquirements. ”

“ Beautiful Rhine-stream, thrice-beautiful trim Mannheim;—yes, all is beautiful indeed, your Serenity! But where can the Prince be? he kept ejaculating. And Karl Philip had to answer what he could. Of course the Prince may be lingering about Heidelberg, looking at the big Tun and other miracles:—"I had the pleasure to repair that world-famous Tub or Tun, as your Majesty knows; which had lain half burnt, ever since Louis XIV. with his firebrand robberies lay upon us, and burnt the Pfalz in whole, small honor to him! ”

“ But in their stead are the regiments we saw in Mannheim and everywhere else, each one a fortress of flesh and blood. Germany will get rid of the whole of it one of these days, and the million of men employed to support that one unmitigated curse of the world, royalty, will be added to the productive power of the country instead of living upon it. ”

“ No orchestra in the world has ever surpassed that of Mannheim in execution. Their forte is a thunder, their crescendo a cataract, their diminuendo the distant rippling of a crystal stream, their piano the soft breath of early spring. ”

“ Owing to the rapid increase in the traffic, a new harbour at the mouth of the Neckar was opened in 1898. The industries are equal in importance to the transit trade, and embrace metal-working, iron-founding and machine building, the manufacture of electric plant, celluloid, automobiles, furniture, cables and chemicals, sugar refining, cigar and tobacco making, and brewing.
Mannheim is the seat of the central board for the navigation of the Rhine, of a high court of justice, and of the grand ducal commissioner for north Baden. ”

“ Mannheim, May 10, 1841.—I am about to leave Mannheim after a very kind reception. The poor Grand Duchess constantly talks of her death, though this does not prevent her making many plans. I wish she could realise her idea of marrying her daughter. She took me for a drive yesterday along a pretty part of the bank of the Rhine. A port has been made at Mannheim which attracts commerce and brings some life to this town where life has long been dormant. On the whole, I think the town preferable to Carlsruhe. I had a letter from my son-in-law written the day after my departure from Paris. ”

“ Notwithstanding his success as a playwright and his receipt of the honorable title of Councilor from the Duke of Weimar, Schiller was unhappy at Mannheim. Sickness, debt and loneliness oppressed him, making creative work well-nigh impossible. In June, 1784, when the sky was looking very black, he received a heartening letter from a quartet of unknown admirers in Leipzig, one of whom was Gottfried Körner. Schiller was deeply touched. In his hunger for sympathy and friendship he resolved to leave Mannheim and seek out these good people who had shown such a kindly interest in him. ”

“ Even the clever Judith Mannheim, with her "passion for intelligence," understands only his work, and not the faith upon which that work is based. Nevertheless, the strong will of the Jews appeals to his own strength, their vitality to his vigorous life. He sees in them "the ferment of action, the yeast of life." A homeless man, he finds himself most intimately and most quickly understood by these "sanspatries." Furthermore, as a free citizen of the world, he is competent to understand on his side the tragedy of their lives, cut adrift from everything, even from themselves. ”

“ All Mannheim was in the streets that led to the place of execution, and many patrols were passing up and down. On the day when the sentence was announced the whole town had been sought through for a chaise in which to convey Sand to the scaffold, but no one, not even the coach-builders, would either let one out or sell one; and it had been necessary, therefore, to buy one at Heidelberg without saying for what purpose. ”

“ He had become convinced that there was after all nothing to be feared from the Duke of Württemberg. Moreover, since the peremptory rejection of 'Fiesco' the Mannheim theater had been doing a very poor business. What more natural than that the shrewd intendant, with an eye to better houses, should bethink him of the pen that had written 'The Robbers'? From Schwan and from Streicher, who had remained in Mannheim, he knew of Schiller's address and occupation. So he wrote him a gracious letter, inquiring after his welfare and expressing particular interest in the new play. ”

“ Mannheim's sympathies are all showered on Coolgardie. He evinces the warmest interest in every matter pertaining to the welfare of its citizens, and he zealously assists in the promotion of utilitarian schemes. ”

“ Schiller had not yet left Mannheim for the second and last time, when, in 1784, Christophine paid him a visit, escorted [327] thither by Reinwald; who had begged to have that honour allowed him; having been at Solitüde, and, either there or on his road to Mannheim, concluded his affair. Streicher, an eyewitness of this visit, says, "The healthy, cheerful and blooming Maiden had determined to share her future lot with a man whose small income and uncertain health seemed to promise little joy. ”

“ The Mannheim School The symphony came to life in Germany. Paul Landormy in his History of Music tells us that it was the time of the “poor scholars” who were educated free from expense in the schools with the understanding that they were to learn the “musician’s trade” and take part in the concerts organized by the cities and the courts. Thus symphony orchestras grew up all over Germany,—Munich, Stuttgart, 274Dresden, Darmstadt, Hamburg where Telemann conducted, in Leipsic, Berlin and Mannheim. ”

“ Wieland writes to Merck (II., p. 116) : "I must go to Mannheim, for I must and will have my fill of music once in my life, and when or where shall I have a better opportunity?" Klopstock, too, went to Mannheim chiefly on account of its music (Briefe an Merck, II., p. 51) , and "they were anxious to satisfy his fastidious taste" (Schubart, Teutsche Chronik, 1775, p. 183) .]
11 (return)
[ Lord Fordyce declared, as Schubart relates (Aesthetik, p. 131) , that Prussian tactics and Mannheim music placed Germany at the head of nations.] ”

“ A rare good man to meet is your German. He has his peculiarities, but he is good and solid all the way through.
In Mannheim, as in all German communities, the absurd American fashion of treating is most sternly discountenanced and tabooed. The true German will not have it at all, at any price. Your friend asks you to join him in a bottle of wine, and you accept, but that does not mean that he pays for your drink. ”

“ At Mannheim, the centre of the German radical movement, he had imbibed revolutionary principles, attaching himself to the extreme party which aimed at a united Germany under a republican government. At Heidelberg he actively engaged in political agitation, helping to form democratic "clubs among undergraduates, soldiers, and citizens, and contributing to the advanced nationalist press of Baden, Bavaria, and Prussia. ”

“ Violin playing in Germany had its source and inspiration in the concert tours made in that country by the great Italian virtuosi, a number of whom lived for periods of some length at the courts of Berlin, Dresden, Mannheim and other capitals, where they trained pupils for the various ducal orchestras. The orchestra at Mannheim was the most famous for its work and sent out a number of fine players and musicians. Space does not permit the mention of these men. ”

“ Saw the cathedral, pierced at the roof by bombs in the last siege the town underwent. The reliefs—some of which were in a good style—many decapitated. There was a German marshal who was represented as gravely putting forth his powdered head from under a tombstone he has just lifted up—with an inscription saying "I am here."
From Mayence we went to Mannheim through a fine country. Crossed the Rhine on a bridge of boats. Taken very ill with a fever at Mannheim—could not write my Journal. ”

“ We sometimes sigh under the weight of our burden on account of poor Germany, from which land the accounts continue unsatisfactory. Mannheim, where we had such a sweet little meeting with a few pious persons last year, is now being bombarded; also in several other parts of the Rhine the insurrection is not yet subdued. Our friend Dr. Murray returned on Second-day last from a tour through part of France, Belgium and the Rhine. ”

“ On the third day we arrived at Heidelberg, where we visited the castle. A flourish of horns soon brought a number of hearers around us, who were highly delighted with our four-part songs and Methfessel’s comic lyrics. As we had inscribed our names in the visitors’ book, it soon became known in the town that I and some musical friends were on our way to the festival at Mannheim, and in the evening a deputation from the Heidelberg musical society made its appearance at our inn with an invitation to make the passage to Mannheim the next morning on board the society’s vessel. ”

“ Then to dirt and delay the citizens soon get accustom'd,
Just as the beggar's accustom'd to wear his cloths full of tatters.
Therefore I often have wish'd that Hermann would start on his travels
Ere he's much older, and visit at any rate Strasburg and Frankfort,
And that pleasant town, Mannheim, so evenly built and so cheerful.
He who has seen such large and cleanly cities rests never
Till his own native town, however small, he sees better'd. ”

“ Immediately on the occurrence of the excess here related, the Senate held it necessary for the protection of the city, hastily to request a hundred dragoons to be sent for from Mannheim. These hundred dragoons marched out of Mannheim, about nine miles below Ketsch, only at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, after the students had, in fact, crossed the Rhine at Ketsch; and they never directed their march at all against the students, but rode direct to Heidelberg. ”

“ The castle of Heidelberg, one of the most splendid monuments of the Middle Ages in all Europe, was blown up with gunpowder; the people of Mannheim were compelled to pull down their own fortifications, after which their city was burned, Speyer, with its grand and venerable Cathedral, was razed to the ground, and the bodies of the Emperors buried there were exhumed and plundered. While this was going on, the German Princes, with a few exceptions (the "Great Elector" being the prominent one) , were copying the fashions of the French Court, and even trying to unlearn their native language! ”

“ Jourdan drove the Austrians back and invested Mainz; Pichegru occupied Mannheim. Clairfait, however, forced Jourdan to abandon the siege of Mainz and cut the two French generals off from one another. Mannheim was retaken and both the French armies were pushed back across the Rhine.
A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
In the war on the Italian frontier the British fleet in the Mediterranean bore some part. In Hood's absence it was commanded by Admiral Hotham, a distinguished officer, though lacking in dash and resolution. The French threatened Corsica with their Toulon fleet. ”