Cosima Wagner April 1871 they decided immediately that they would build their theatre there, and that the town would be their future home. Wagner announced the first Bayreuth Festival for 1873, at which his full "Ring" cycle would be performed. Aware of the honour that such an event would bring to the town, the local council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—overlooking the town, as a site for the theatre. Since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building was delayed and the proposed date for the initial festival was deferred. By the spring of 1873 only
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,