Triesnitz
“At Triesnitz, a couple of English miles [other editions read: half a mile] from Jena], Goethe and he [Schiller],” we are told, “might sometimes be observed sitting at table, beneath the shade of a spreading tree; talking, and looking at the current of passengers.” — There are some who would have “travelled fifty miles on foot” to join the party! (Thomas Carlyle, The Life of Friedrich Schiller [London 1825], 193–94).
Driesnitz (or Driessnitz, Triessnitz, Triesnitz), originally a rural area on the southern edge of the village of Winzerla, just south of Jena proper, and in the eighteenth century a popular excursion locale for “academic Jena” (Franz Ludwig Güssefeld, Topographische Charte der umliegenden Gegend Von Jena / nach eigenen Messungen und andern Origin. Zeichnungen [Jena 1800]; reprinted in August J. G. K. Batsch, Taschenbuch für topographische Excursionen in die umliegende Gegend von Jena [Weimar 1800]):
Here an excerpt from the previous map showing the location of Triesnitz (die Driesnitz) just south of the village of Winzerla; the topography of this map also shows the elevated setting of the locale:
At the time, the locale included a tavern and outdoor dining (Christian Gotthilf Immanuel Oehme, In der Trießnitz um 1780; Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden; Adelung, Johann Christoph, InvNr SLUBKS B2449):
August Jäger von Schlumb, Felix Schnabels Universitätsjahren oder Der deutsche Student. Ein Beitrag zur Sittengeschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart 1835), ed. Otto Julius Bierbaum (Berlin 1907), 238–40:
And it is indeed true: during the summer it is absolutely beautiful in Jena! The surrounding areas are charming, the change of scenery between mountains and valleys and forests and streams is unique, taking walks is an extremely pleasant pastime, and the villages and inns are all nearby and inviting even from afar! . . . Sundays and Wednesdays there is a grand public dance — called a Witz or Ulk — on the Triesnitz, a locale above the village of Winzerla established and run by fat, clever Herr Jakob. People dance, bowl, and just carry on in a wooden house.
[A similar outdoor dance scene by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, illustration to Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1776); also in XII. Kupfer zu den Leben und Meynungen Tristram Schandy’s (Berlin 1778); Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Signatur DBerger AB 3.11:]
On the hilltop platform, all the beautiful people of Jena and the surrounding area sit around in a colorful circle, the profound, reflective professor with his students, the speculating merchant, the employee with his brooding office countenance, the easy-going, gawking farmer, the carefree fellow, upright as well as saucy beauties, virtuous housewives, venerable grandmothers, everyone all mixed up together and enjoying the lilt of life and this charming tradition. Everyone listens to the music of the musicians hovering about in these airy heights, everyone sings, springs, drinks, cuddles, dances, and plays.
[Illustration from Gustav Heinrich Schneider, Die Burschenschaft Germania zu Jena (Jena 1897), 127:]
On Sundays the strapping young tradesman adorns the society with his Dulcinea [the simple but beautiful peasant woman in Cervantes’s Don Quixote], and even the reticent farmer’s hand dares enter the grand assembly with his upright beloved; the maids and cooks are too numerous to be counted and are adorned like oxen at Pentecost to celebrate the free day of the Lord on Triesnits, this gathering place of the beautiful, cultivated world during the summer. In the dance hall things are animated indeed,
[A similarly animated, late 18th-century Italian scene by Gaspare Diziani with men and women dancing in a tavern; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; Signatur TViero AB 2.16:]
as also at the countless tables and benches and on the fragrant lawn, colorful during the day, even more so during the evening and at night. . . . [Städtische Museen Jena]
Things proceed more properly on Wednesday. On this day, the flor of Jena, Lobeda, Kahla, and the neighboring villages still make an appearance, but this time they are more active than on the day of the Lord, for now there is dancing: the daughter, the mother, the grandmother, the teenager, and the matron all prance about in the spinning hall with its wooden floors, the professor risks dancing a country dance, the student requests a rushing galopade.
How harmless, how headily content are the daughters of Eve on this day, so free and easy and casual and acquiescent! But now people are among their own kind; the boors are far removed, as are the maids, the rural louts with their wenches, the boot-polishers, and even the least suspicious of the fairer sex are strictly forbidden and kept far away, as are those of the ugly sex as well, i.e., the masculine sex.
(Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, in the Göttinger Taschen Calender Für das Iahr 1795; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
And how pleasant the walk back home! The departing beauties traverse luxuriant meadows on the shore of the silver River Saale light as whisks — the son of the muses cleverly follows behind, extoling both the creation and its creatures. Twilight, then darkness — for the way back to town is far, and the Demoiselles have narrow shoes — the free, upright son of the muses pushes ever closer, dares to offer his arm to the beauty when she suddenly stumbles — ah, but declined — yet he implores so urgently, so flatteringly, for after all: he is intimately familiar with the path, knows all its dangerous places — accepted! for the night is no man’s friend, and happy he who must not traverse the deceptive paths of this life alone . . .
(Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Das Spatzierengehen [1780]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Uh 4° 47 [162]):
Here a “gallant student” toasting friendship with a demoiselle in a Jena student’s album ca. 1750 (Ernst Borkowsky, Das alte Jena und seine Universität: eine Jubiläumsgabe zur Universitätsfeier [Jena 1908], 101):
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott