Alpine Summer

The trip to Frankfurt was long. Somewhere over three hours long. The trains weren't bad -- at one point we had particularly good seat, being on an IC and all. What follows is actually going to be my site report I wrote for the trip, and I'll just amend it with pictures. We toured Goethe's house and a museum that held a lot of artwork related to his life. Through this experience, I really feel like I learned more about the person behind "Faust" and understand the significance of certain artistic choices he made in this important piece of art.

From our textbook, we learned that Goethe had a rather idyllic childhood. I never realized exactly what this meant for the time in which he lived. While many people lived in homes with four or fewer rooms, the Goethe haus had four floors, not including the cellar and attic. While we were told that this was not the original construction of the house--nor even the same house Goethe lived in--it is my understanding that the reconstruction attempted to stay as true as possible to his father's design. The simple fact that Goethe's father was able to make the decision to tear down a perfectly good building, add on to the existing structure, and buy up land from the neighbors shows the family's enormous wealth.






















The furniture found inside, which the tour "guide" / "watcher" assured us was from the original house, is symbolic of the level of wealth the Goethe family enjoyed. It's one thing to have more than enough money to feed and clothe your family; it's quite another to be able to afford numerous pieces of expensive multi-inlayed wooden furniture. The fact that there was the need for more than one secretary, many tall grandfather clocks, and several display cabinets to display any number of goods exemplifies high-class living.






















Since Goethe was neither abandoned nor orphaned at a young age, he lacked much of the tragedy found in most Romantic writers. Love seems to have been the first thing he wanted and was denied. This is an idea that is carried over into "Faust" -- Dr. Faust asks for many things from Mephistopheles, but he is always intent on love. Much of the first part after the appearance of Mephistopheles is taken up by Gretchen and Faust's desire for her. He loses her and has to deal with the grief of this lost love. Later, in Part II of the play, Faust wishes to have the love of Helen of Troy because he has heard that she was the greatest beauty to have ever lived. Again, he must lose her as she returns to the land of the dead.






















Faust seems to have everything he truly needs -- he has a good job, he is respected because of his position, he is well-learned, and never goes hungry. However, like Goethe, he wants more than he needs, and he leaves the comfort of the easy life to search for it. Goethe did the same thing, and in the end, became the forefather of Romantic writing.

















The best part, however, was the Goethe am Ball exhibit. You can visit my webshots for the entire series.