Johannes Brahms and the Train: Musings on Musicians and Steam 387 It seems that Brahms’s family was also comfortable on trains. His father Jakob reported in a letter to Brahms, 4.1.1872, that his stepmother Karoline went to Sankt-Peterburg, an incredible journey by train at that time, to bring home his stepbrother Fritz Schnack when Fritz became sick in Russia in 1.1872.25 His father Jakob made several shorter trips down to Bonn to meet up with Brahms to holiday in the Mittelrhein region of Germany; they also travelled together in Switzerland in the late 1860s.26 Brahms was also good in giving directions on train travel. In Stephen-son’s collection of Brahms family correspondence we find a letter with directions for Jakob to travel from Hamburg to Bremen at the time of the premiere of » Ein Deutsches Requiem « op. 45 — in the end Jakob didn’t make the trip.27 (Another detailed example involving Brahms’s father will be discussed later in this article.) Stepbrother Fritz seems to have had a yen for travel: he went to Russia in 1869 where he stayed for three years; and also to Scandinavia in Fall 1888. From the time of Fritz’s Scandinavian journey until Brahms’s death in 1897, Brahms always asked in his letters to his stepmother about Fritz’s travel plans.28 The following quote from a letter to Karoline and Fritz in 1895 seems to me to show a bemused Brahms, as the relatively serious Hamburger pokes fun at the more casual approach by Fritz to taking off on travel adventures: […] damit Fritz gewiß ungeniert ist und Pläne bis zum Nordcap oder bis Rom machen kann […]29 Brahms’s interest in trains was just one example of the large interest he had in technology in general. We know that Brahms had received a basic education by the age of 15, along with a practical musical education. Although his formal education was limited, Brahms had a deep desire for knowledge and he worked assiduously to cultivate his knowledge over the years. According to Brahms’s friend J. V. Wid-mann, » Brahms had clear ideas and firm principles not only in all that concerned art and literature but also in other fields « .30 We know, for example that Brahms was an avid reader and had a passion for German literature and books on musical matters. But Niemann in his 1920 Brahms biography describes the library in Brahms’s Karlgasse 4 apartment in Wien as an » array of books [that] showed this was the haunt of no ordinary musician but one exceptionally well read in the whole sphere of the arts and sciences « .31 We know too, that Brahms’s circle of friends was wide-25 Letter Jakob to Brahms, Brahms-Stephenson: p. 189—90 (see Note 22).26 Brahms-Stephenson: p. 148, 150—52 (see Note 22); Geiringer: p. 98—101 (see Note 23). 27 Letter, Brahms to Jakob, 6.4.1871, Brahms-Stephenson: p. 171 (see Note 22).28 Brahms-Stephenson: p. 161, 268 (see Note 22). Brahms regularly asked his stepmother about Fritz’s travel plans, starting in 1888, see Brahms-Stephenson: p. 268ff.; the most frequent queries were in the summertimes. 29 Letter, 22.4.1895, Brahms-Stephenson: p. 284 (see Note 22). 30 Musgrave: p. 17, 170; Widmann, Johannes Brahms in Erinnerungen (1898), as quoted in translation in Musgrave: p. 170 (see Note 4).31 Musgrave: p. 151—52; Walter Niemann. Brahms. (1920) as quoted in translation in Musgrave: p. 40 (see Note 4). For a detailed discussion and catalogue of Brahms’ library, see Kurt Hofmann: Die Bi-