Then, of course, there’s Weimar, where around the year 1800 Goethe and Schiller mutually inspired one another to produce ever new masterpieces. Year in year out, Schiller staged his plays, while Goethe worked on his Wilhelm Meister and took up his Faust again. At that time, the Thuringian residence was the undisputed intellectual capital of Germany. Schiller died in 1805, which for Goethe was an enormous personal loss. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire collapsed in ruins.

The state of Prussia as well. When marauding French soldiers passed through Weimar after winning the battle of Jena and Auerstedt, Goethe’s mistress Christiane Vulpius stopped them from harassing him by personally blocking his door. Those were terrible days that October, from about the 14th to the 17th. On October 19th, Pastor Günther joined the couple in matrimony.