Empress : Kaiserin

Weimar - Park an der Ilm

Since Franz's house was just at the edge of the Park an der Ilm (a park designed by Goethe himself!), I decided to take a stroll in the park to lift my spirits up. It was a big setback for me, that the Liszt Haus was closed when I'm in Weimar for that purpose! Indulged in the greeneries of the park. The weather was great - still cold (but with the amount of clothes I was wearing it wasn't a bother), but sunny and windy as well.

Liszt Denkmal
And I found it (more like I stumbled upon it) in a short time! A Liszt memorial with his (handsome :p) statue. I climbed up to the same height where he was just to take a photo (thanks to a passerby, of course. However she must have thinking that what a crazy girl this is). Hehe. Can't stop staring at that statue of my Immortal Beloved. So, so beautiful.

Shakespeare Denkmal, Künstliches Ruine
If Weimar was the centre of German Literature, I don't see why they can't place a Shakespeare statue in Goethe's park. However, the statue was vandalized! It was so sad, and I couldn't take a picture of it at all. It could only be more insulting to the great playwright if I bring the snapshot home. I could only hint with a sigh of relief that nothing of that sort happened to my love. Behind the statue lie the ruins of a wall of a certain building I don't know.

Die Ilm
I was on the river Ilm, a distance away from the Shakespeare Denkmal. Lovely, lush scenery. There was a street musician (it was too low-down to call him a "beggar" you see) playing his viola. It suited the peaceful atmosphere while I stayed on the bridge overlying the river Ilm for some time till he finished the piece he was playing. I continued my morning stroll along the paved route, the cold wind blowing strongly against me. Yet, I was at peace.

Goethes Gartenhaus
And I walked, and walked, and came across Goethe's garden house. What lovely garden! Goethe sometimes retreated to his garden house when he needed to temporarily run away from his state work (he was a minister) and to work on his literary works. I got free admission after showing the person at the entrance my student card! That was so cool. And Goethe's garden house (which he designed himself) shows that the man had good taste. Simple, yet an exquisite touch. Many of Goethe's own drawing drafts and paintings decorated the walls of the garden house. I saw the original piece of paper where Goethe scribbled his Erlkönig on! So in awe! And others of his letters, drafts (literary and graphic alike), and some of his original furnitures (including his bed).

Römisches Haus
The ground floor of this house was rebuilt after the bombing of 1945 (due to the cause of World War II), but the cellar survived the terrible event. Learnt a lot in this house - the history of the park, before and after the bombing. The park was wrecked after the air raid. Goethes Garten Haus and many other buildings (including this house) in the park was damaged. Why many still stand today is because they rebuilt the buildings (and the park) shortly after the bombing. A few was so badly damaged that there was no spark of hope left for a planned rebuilt. Perhaps that explains the ruins behind the Shakespeare Denkmal. In the cellar there were a few artifacts on display - saved and preserved after the bombing. Mostly from the Herrentempel (a temple which once stood in the park), the artifacts include a sphinx statue (the face was terribly ruined) and three headless statue which used to stand on the columns of the temple (why they were headless I don't know. Due to the bombing perhaps? The diagram showed a past Herrentempel with four of such figures completed with heads).

This is irrelevant, but before I left a book about the relationship between Beethoven and Liszt on the rack at the counter caught my attention. It was in German, but I think I bought it anyway to appease my disappointed heart. Hey, perhaps at the end of this year I could really read it at home! I have confidence in my knowledge of German.

Herrentempel
After learning about the terrible fate of the park, I took a detour and headed for the Herrentempel ruins, which I had missed earlier on. And there it was, the fourth (but headless) statue still standing on the last surviving column of the Herrentempel. Only the front entrance of the temple survived the bombing. It was a saddening sight.

Park Höhe
It was close to 1pm, and I walked back to bide farewell to my beloved statue, deciding to leave. Yet I stumbled upon the Park Höhe - a 50 meters deep tunnel under the park. It was incredibly cold in the tunnel, and I believe the temperature to be around 5-8 degrees down there. Some of Goethe's fossil collection on display; many fossils and rare minerals were discovered during the two-year long dig. And more history about the park at the last few exhibits - photos of the ruined park shortly after the bombing. And Franz once again worked his magic! There was this photo showing the overall view of the destroyed park, and far away it showed Franz's statue - still intact and standing!! Blessed, blessed, so blessed! It was an indescribable feeling. I could just shed tears of happiness. The back part of the cave tunnel was quite bizarre since it was rather dark. But for a geography major it would be very enlightening. The different contours and texture of the earth is being exposed for exhibition, which was rather freaky to see in the dark. And still scary to know that the Russian graveyard in the park lies above me, especially when it was such a creepy and cold place.

And so ended my walk in Goethe's park - I took over three hours strolling and exploring the park!

posted by empress @ 10:20 AM