 In Switzerland he met Richard Wagner, the novelist Gottfried Keller, and was befriended by Mathilde Wesendonck.He also became friends with the composer Theodor Kirchner, an important member of the Schumann-Brahms circle, and created an orchestral cycle out of arrangements of some of Kirchner’s piano pieces.Following a nervous breakdown (the details of which are not precisely known) Schulz-Beuthen returned to Germany; he was unable to compose for several years, but resumed his teaching activities in Dresden, where he lived – except for a short period spent in Vienna, 1893-95 – from 1881 until his death on 12 March 1915.