2019/01/01

The Kickelhahn Hut


Audio comment by Bob Muscutt, 
reading of poem in German by Karl-Heinz Mauermann.




Our greatest expedition from Weimar was to Ilmenau, in which we felt an interest on Goethe’s account, apart from the reported beauty of the country. (…) (…W)e set out with a determination to find the Gabel-bach (forked brook) and Kickel-hahn (Goethe’s rustic hut) without the incumbrance of a guide. Our walk was glorious along a road bordered by lofty pines. At last we reached a fine spot on the summit of a hill, where a house was being built. We had some suspicion that this might be the Gabelbach, but in our uncertainty still went on through the drizzling rain which now came on, admiring the grand openings here and there which showed pine clad hills rising above each other like wave upon wave. At last we met a waggon, and on asking the driver where the Gabel-bach was he told us we had already passed it. So we turned back, and found near the unfinished house, the man who inhabits the simple wooden house which used to be Carl August’s Hunting box. He sent a man on to shew us the way to the Kickel-hahn, which we at last reached – I with weary legs. There is a magnificent view of hills from this spot, but Goethe’s tiny wooden house is now closely shut in by fir-trees, and nothing can be seen from the windows. His room, which forms the upper floor of the house is about 10 or 12 feet square. It is now quite empty, but there is an interesting memorial of his presence in these wonderful lines written by his own hand near the window frame:

Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh’,
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest Du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur! Balde
Ruhest du auch. 

Over all the mountain peaks is quiet; in the treetops you trace scarcely a breath; the little birds are silent in the woods. Wait now, soon you will rest also.
– from George Eliot, Recollections of Weimar



Extended reading from George Eiot, Recollections of Weimar, 
by and with Margot Erbslöh.



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