Gleimhaus
Gleimhaus
Where today is a large green meadow, stood in Hermann Schwab's time half-timbered houses.Schwab writes:If one [...] a few steps further, so greets in the shadow of the cathedral a quiet, small house, above whose door a plaque tells that J.[W.[ilhelm] L.[udwig] Gleim lived and wrote here: the Gleimhaus is it, one of the most significant places of German literary history in the wide fatherland. It is a gar modest cottage, in which 150 years ago until the beginning of the penultimate century lived father Gleim, the canon and cathedral secretary, and it could be so proud, because its walls have looked the greats of the eighteenth century in rich numbers and still carry the images in the quiet peace of the temple of friendship.Schwab also describes in detail the premises in the Gleimhaus.There are two rooms that first receive me, and whose walls from ceiling to floor are clothed with pictures; here stands the poet next to the painter, the philosopher next to the researcher, the prince next to the general and many others who belonged to the small crowd of great people. It is Gleim's circle of friends that the poet father had painted; noble names whose bearers once walked through these rooms and, as they looked into life, still look down on me today in their pictures; whether serious or cheerful, whether courageous, lost in the world or full of life, a mausoleum that has overcome death, for immortality dwells here. [..] The second room [...] contains the most valuable part of the collection of paintings. In the middle of the left wall father Gleim greets, his dear smile on his lips, and around him are grouped the pictures of his father, his brothers, his niece Gleminde, who kept house for the bachelor [...]. The opposite wall bears the best portrait of Lessing, surrounded by the pictures of Klopstock, Herder, Jean Paul, Wieland, Lavater and others. [...] and with them Moses Mendelssohn. In 1933, the portrait of Moses Mendelssohn was removed from the collection at the charge of the National Socialists. To date, the painting has disappeared.
As seen on
Walk with Hermann Schwab
Click shuffle to discover more great stories.
©2025 All rights reserved.