Richard Wagner Theatre") was laid. Wagner initially announced the first Bayreuth Festival, at which for the first time the "Ring" cycle would be presented complete, for 1873, but since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building was delayed and the proposed date for the festival was deferred. To raise funds for the construction, "Wagner societies" were formed in several cities, and Wagner began touring Germany conducting concerts. By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig were initially ignored, but early in 1874, with the project on the
Ernst August Wagner once by drowning himself and by jumping off a bridge, though both attempts failed, because he was, according to his own words, "too weak". In the following years his wife bore four more children, concluding in July 1909 with Rudolph Alfred. Wagner was said to have been unhappy about the births of his children and complained about the financial stress of feeding his family; he was seemingly indifferent to the interruption of his birthday in 1909 by infant Rudolph's death. Some time in 1906 or 1907, thinking that the people from Mühlhausen had passed on their knowledge about his crime,