Hans Pfitzner as Director of the Strasbourg Opera from 1910, sought to stage his Der Arme Heinrich at Stuttgart, but needed a suitable tenor to convey the spiritual depths of the work.
However Pfitzner, seeking to raise a Munich Hoftheater boycott on performance of his works, rewrote the Arme Heinrich role for Erb, and staged it with him at the Prinzregententheater at Munich, privately, whereupon von Speidel for the Hoftheater asked Erb his price and was told 24,000 Marks per year.