"Harzreise im Winter"

As I mentioned in my previous post, it was at this time of year in 1777 that Goethe took off in a trip through the Harz. By then, he had been in Weimar for two almost years. Some of my recent posts have described his accommodation to life in Weimar. Although he had a residence in the town, he was also had new quarters for himself on the banks of the Ilm, something of a retreat, which he occupied with only a man servant. In the early part of 1777, when not busy with his court duties, he tended to repairs and reconstruction of this new home. Things seemed to be going well, but, as mentioned in an earlier post, a certain darkening of his mood began in the middle of 1777, occasioned in part by the death of his sister Cornelia. So, what was a young man to do -- Goethe was approaching thirty -- but to make a geographic escape? Nicholas Boyle in his Goethe biography, writes that, as in 1772 and 1775, Goethe sought through such a escape "clarity and relief from despair and doubt."

The Goethe-Handbuch, my go-to source for background on many of my posts, doesn't have an entry on the Harz journey itself, only on the poem and its reception. It is often the case that scholars seek for an interpretation of a poem by Goethe in his personal experience. After all, didn't Goethe himself once say that all his work represented "fragments of a great confession"? Much of the reception presented in the Goethe-Handbuch is recapitulated in Boyle, who refers to it as a "poem of self-assessment," reflecting a "division of Goethe's self" at this time and an attempt to discover whether his destiny is to be that of "Glück" or "Unglück." In this the poem, the journey to an undisclosed location, represents an attempt to seek a path out of "the danger of emotional self-destruction" in which an entire generation was stuck.

For Boyle and for much of the reception of the poem, Goethe's aim on this trip ("avowed at first only to himself") was to climb the Brocken, his reason being to be open to "a sign." Thus, the oracular language in parts of the poem "Harzreise im Winter."

My own scholarship on Goethe has been skeptical of considering his poetry strictly in this way. In my view, the "meaning" of the poem is determined by the form or genre in which Goethe chose to write. In this case, Goethe has written a hymn, which necessarily evokes religious associations. Hymns are expressive of exultation, and I can't help feeling that this arduous journey on horseback in the worst kind of weather speaks to the exaltation felt in his own strength and endurance. His letters to Charlotte von Stein, written as he took overnight refuge in inns, offers details. On December 4, he writes:

Ein ganz entsezlich Wetter hab ich heut ausgestanden wie die Stürme für Zeugs in diesen Gebürgen ausbrauen ist unsäglich, Sturm, Schnee, Schlossen, Regen, und zwey Meilen an einer Nordwand eines Waldgebürgs her, alles fast ist nass, und erhohlt haben sich meine Sinne kaum nach Essen, Trincken, drey Stunden Ruhe.

He refers to what he has experienced as an adventure (Abenteuer) that he has withstood. As he sits in the inn at the end of the day in the company of "ordinary people," his clothes are hanging on the stove drying. 

The letters to CvS cover many subjects, while his diary entries (see Tweets) give evidence of the rigors of the journey. As the days go by the tone remains that of exaltation. Traveling alone on horseback, it is obvious that he has a lot of time to think about himself and what he is going through. Goethe has always looked for signs, and it is not unusual that he would refer to type in such circumstances. On December 9, he writes that he wishes that the duke could share the experience (Mitgenuss so eines Lebens) with him. As he writes, however, the duke would experience the rigors in a different spirit:

 ... aber den rechten leckern Geschmack davon kan er noch nicht haben, er gefällt sich noch zu sehr das natürliche zu was abenteuerlichem zu machen, statt dass es einem erst wohl thut wenn das abenteuerliche natürlich wird.

A somewhat different interpretation of Goethe's motive for the journey is that of Wolf von Engelhardt (Goethe in Gespräch mit der Erde) who claims that the relevant reason was to get a picture of the "modern mining industry," such as it was in that region. Evidence, according to WvE, is Goethe's purchase of technical literature on mining in early November already, along with mentions of this in letters to Charlotte von Stein, and, above all, the well-planned travel route, which omitted not a single important mining site. Again, the diary (see the Tweets) record all those visits. They also inform us that Goethe actually descended into the depths of the mines. As far as the Brocken goes, the highest mountain in Middle Germany, von Engelhardt writes that Goethe would have been familiar with two volumes by Johann Heinrich Zuckert on the "Naturgeschichte" of the Harz and of its mines, but which also mentions that the Brocken was notorious as a site of witches and Satanic goings-on. It can be imagined that Goethe, having endured the effects of such terrible weather, might have taken it into his head to ascend the Brocken. Endurance does seem to be one of the themes here, which some individuals are unable to muster, while others, born in fortunate circumstances, do not have to exercise. This would include Plessing, whom Goethe met (according to his diary) on December 3.

Von Engelhardt sees expressed in the poem and in the journey itself a new and unsentimental view of nature -- not a Christian one in which rocks and mountains have a divine source. Goethe sought to convey such an unsentimental view of the world to Plessing, without success. The central part of the poem would seem to refer to Plessing's dissatisfaction with the world.

A wonderful recording of the poem, read by Christian Wewerka, is available on this site, along with an English translation.