When New Year 1852 arrived, Minna had no real conviction that it might bode well. She simply hoped that the events of the previous year would not be repeated. The winter was bleak, but things did seem to look up as it drew to a close. In March and April 1852, Richard was able to report to his niece Franziska that Minna was enjoying herself more than she ever had in Dresden. She had “girlfriends and entertainment,” he wrote. She had made friends among the women in Zurich and appreciated the entertainments that the city offered. He, by contrast, was inwardly unhappy, even despite having indulged in “wanton luxury” that same spring, buying the finest fabrics and furniture in order to recreate “the fantasies of 1001 Nights” in his study, as he wrote to Julie Ritter. There were several reasons for his general dissatisfaction. He felt he lacked appreciation and encouragement for his work, and he suffered from hypersensitive nerves. Most of all, he longed for a woman in his life who might provide him with unqualified understanding. In January 1852, he wrote to Uhlig: “I would give all my art to regain my youth, health, nature, an unreservedly loving wife and able children! Go on, take my art! And give me the others!” He had often enough emphasized that his artistic work was the most important thing in his life, but what mattered to him now was woman (though the two were in any case intertwined for him).

The Wagners were nevertheless managing to settle into their new life in Switzerland. The brief Swiss civil war of 1847 (the “Sonderbund” war) was now a few years past, having ended with a victory for the (largely Protestant) liberals over the (mostly Catholic) conservatives. The modern federal state of Switzerland was founded in its wake in 1848. Zurich, originally a tiny town, would soon become the largest city in the country. There was a sense of a new beginning, and these years were characterized by expansion and building work. The city walls from the 13th century had already been demolished in 1811, and by 1829 almost all the old towers and gates of the city had disappeared.