Quotes from Brigitte Hamann

Winifred ismét teherbe esett. Bayreuthban még évtizedekkel kés?bb is mesélték, hogy a terhessége elején szüntelenül hányó fiatalasszonyt Siegfried sopánkodva követte a vécére: "De Wini, azt a drága ételt!

She knows how to keep him interested in a thousand ways. And her peculiarity, her singularity may not always be easy for him to bear. But surely she has never bored him. Elle sait se faire désirer, but without pretenses. It is her way, and he is under her spell like a lover, and happy when he can touch her lightly to remind her of something!

No outsider was allowed to glimpse the mansion when Elisabeth was in residence. She could go walking for hours, observing the deer (she always carried wooden rattles with her to protect her from wild boars, who were afraid of the noise) or composing poems.

Whatever Elisabeth did, Franz Joseph's affection remained unchanged.

Elisabeth "has always been strange and has followed only her whims and wishes, and now shyness and melancholia have been added. Who among gifted people who enjoy unlimited freedom is entirely normal? The Empress is, as we all are, the product of conditions." (Bavarian lady-in-waiting)

Time and again the Empress contrasted the Habsburgs' sense of being among the elect with the middle-class virtues of the age of liberalism.

The Austrian Empress' entourage was so vast, with everyone watching everyone else, so many petty jealousies raged within this small society on Madeira, which was completely cut off from the outside world, that not even the slightest emotion could go unrecognized.

Chi può dirci dove si trova il confine tra la pazzia e la ragione? Dove la mente umana cessa di essere ordinata? Dove comincia e dove finisce la facoltà di sentire e di discernere tra il dolore autentico e quello dovuto solo all'autosuggestione, tra la vera gioia e quella fittizia?

This farce with "Titania and Alfred" is not as trivial as it may at first glance seem in the context of a biography. It characterized Elisabeth's relations with her admirers, as well as her inability to separate reality from fantasy. The fact that she spent many hours composing the Alfred poems shows the extent of her isolation.

She [Sisi] knows how to keep him [Franz Joseph] interested in a thousand ways. And her peculiarity, her singularity may not always be easy for him to bear. But surely she has never bored him.

Elég egy pillantás abba a csodálatosan szép, ibolyakék szemébe, hogy az ember megérezze, milyen jó lelke és szíve van." (Winnifred Wagner Adolf Hitlerr?l)

At her return, the Viennese did not receive their Empress with any great affection. Everyone was now criticizing her, even the common people, who were disturbed at the stories of the great sums she spent abroad. The diplomates also joined in the general chorus of outrage.

During the nearly two years of separation from her husband and the society of the Viennese court, the Empress had changed. She had become very self-confident and brisk and had learned to assert her interests vigorously. The Emperor living in constant fear that at the first sign of discord she might run off again and do further damage to the prestige of the August House, treated her circumspectly, showing infinite patience.

Triumphing at the hunts brought Elisabeth both an increase in self-confidence - since she shone not as an emperss, but as a horsewoman and a beauty - and a freedom from the court obligations that she sought. But such days on horseback generally ended in despair and bitter complaints about her life.

Elisabeth later always referred to this situation [her engagement and marriage] with great bitterness, saying, "Marriage is an absurd arrangement. One is sold as a fifteen-year-old child and makes a vow one does not understand and then regrets for thirty years or more, and which one can never undo again." "The Reluctant Empress", chapter 1

Hitler] Mesélt linzi ifjúságáról és arról, hogy gyermekként milyen nagy hatással volt rá a linzi Landestheaterben látott LOHENGRIN-el?adás. Akkoriban megfordult a fejében, hogy operaénekes lesz.

But even her Greek property did not inspire Elisabeth to settle down. Hardly had the castle been completed that she set out again, not unlike the way she had behaved about the Hermes Villa, which she no longer especially liked.

Hardly any other tale from Vienna was as interesting as learning from an eyewitness whether the Empress was truly as beautiful as it was said.

Elisabeth, unmoved, replied: "Oh, yes, they're curious - whenever there's something to see, they come running, for the monkey dancing at the hurdy-gurdy just as much as for me. That is their love!

Sissi's esoteric, overly sensitive nature was coupled with a considerable arrogance.

Non ha notato che in Shakespeare i pazzi sono le uniche persone assennate? Così anche nella vita non si può mai sapere dove si celi la follia e dove l'assennatezza; parimenti non sappiamo se la realtà è un sogno o il sogno è la realtà. Io propendo a considerare sani di mente quelli che vengono chiamati pazzi. Il vero buon senso viene considerato 'pazzia pericolosa'.

After a ball given by the Margrave Pallavicini, she did not return to the Hofburg until six thirty in the morning, by which time the Emperor had already set out for the hunt, so that she no longer found him at home. Political cares did not deter the Emperor, either, from going hunting as often as possible.