Jena — Bamberg — Bocklet
Bamberg is located ca. 125 km southwest of Jena; Bocklet is located ca. 70 km northwest of Bamberg.
Caroline, Auguste, and Schelling journeyed to Bamberg from Jena in early May 1800 on their way to Bocklet, where Caroline was to take the waters at the mineral springs after her bout with nervous fever during most of the spring of 1800.
(Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937].)
Bamberg 1831
(Frontispiece to Joseph Heller, Taschenbuch von Bamberg: Eine topographische, statistische, ethnographische und historische Beschreibung der Stadt und ihrer Umgebungen, als Führer für Fremde und Einheimische [Bamberg 1831].)
Bamberg 1832
Bamberg on the Rednitz River. — Caroline and Auguste seem to have arrived in Bamberg with Schelling ca. 8 May 1800. Auguste writes to her friend Cecilie Gotter on 16 May: “Are you not surprised by the return address, my dear Cecilie? Yes, yes, I am in Bamberg and have already been here for a week now and want to go ahead and tell you about how it all happened.”
(Illustration: Ludwig Lange and Ernst Rauch, Original-Ansichten der vornehmsten Städte in Deutschland, ihrer wichtigsten Dome, Kirchen, und sonstigen Baudenkmäler alter und neuer Zeit: nach der Natur aufgenommen [Darmstadt 1832], plate 25.)
St. Martin’s Church and Vegetable Market
Auguste writes to Cecile Gotter: “On Sunday I will be going to the Catholic church and hear some beautiful music. The trade fair is going on right now, so things are very lively, especially in our street, which is located quite close to the market place, though I have not yet been at the fair itself, I just passed through it.”
St. Martin’s church (an earlier Jesuit church), the vegetable market, and (at the far right on the left side of the street) the hotel Bamberger Hof, where Caroline, Wilhelm, and Schelling will stay after returning from Bocklet (see final gallery image).
It was in the vicinity of this market and the former area down the street and around the corner near Maximilian Square that Caroline and Auguste’s apartment, probably with Andreas Röschlaub, seems to have been located.
(Ludwig Lange and Ernst Rauch, Original-Ansichten der vornehmsten Städte in Deutschland, plate 26.)
Chateau Seehof
Auguste writes to Cecilie Gotter: “We have not yet been able to see much of the beautiful surrounding area here because at least until now the weather has not cooperated with us at all. We recently visited Seehof, the prince’s summer residence; it is a big, old-fashioned garden in the French style.”
Chateau Seehof, also called Castle Marquard, 3 km northeast of Bamberg, formerly a hunting castle and summer residence of Bamberg prince bishops.
(Almanach für das Jahr 1802 [Bamberg].)
Seehof Gardens Layout
The French gardens at Castle Seehof outside Bamberg.
This engraving trenchantly illustrates the French-style layout and gardens to which Auguste seems to have been so averse, whereas she was quite enamored by the English-landscape design of the Theresienhain (Theresa Grove) on the island promenade in Bamberg proper.
(Salomon Kleiner, Accurate Vorstellung dess Hoch Fürstl. Bambergischen Jagd-Schlosses Marquardsburg oder Seehoff genannt samt dem darzu gehörigen vortrefflichen Lustgarten, in sechs verschiedenen Prospecten und Grund-Rissen, vorgestellt, und nach denen von dem Ingenieur Salomon Kleiner, verfertigten Zeichnungen in Kupffer gestochen [Augsburg 1731.])
Seehof Gardens
Bird’s-eye view of the garden layout at Chateau Seehof.
(Salomon Kleiner, Accurate Vorstellung dess Hoch Fürstl. Bambergischen Jagd-Schlosses Marquardsburg oder Seehoff genannt samt dem darzu gehörigen vortrefflichen Lustgarten, in sechs verschiedenen Prospecten und Grund-Rissen, vorgestellt, und nach denen von dem Ingenieur Salomon Kleiner, verfertigten Zeichnungen in Kupffer gestochen [Augsburg 1731.])
Bamberg Locales
Illustration of the general location of St. Martin’s, the vegetable market, Maximilian Square, and the Nonnenbrücke in Bamberg. The Bamberg General Hospital, which Caroline, Schelling, and Wilhelm Schlegel will visit in August 1800, is at upper left.
(Plan der Stadt Bamberg [Bamberg n.d.]; Bibliothèque nationale de France.)
The Grove Theresienhain, 1831
Auguste writes to Cecilie Gotter: “But the way there [to Buch] is very beautiful, try to imagine: one walks along the river, which is called the Redniz, with water on the right and on the left an extremely beautiful oak forest, on the other side of the river a chain of beautiful green hills which reflect in the water and are crowned on top with dainty little garden huts.”
From the town center of Bamberg, one reaches Buch on foot by passing south through the Theresa Grove (Theresienhain) on the peninsula created by the two branches of the Regnitz River.
(Joseph Heller, Taschenbuch von Bamberg [Bamberg 1831], plate following p. 220.)
Theresienhain Map
Location of the Theresienhain on the Regnitz River just south of Bamberg.
(Plan der Stadt Bamberg [Bamberg n.d.]; Bibliothèque nationale de France.)
Theresienhain Aerial Illustration
An aerial illustration of the paths and location along the river.
(Martin von Reider, Plan des Theresien Hains bei Bamberg [ca. 1816].)
Buch (Bug) outside Bamberg
Auguste writes to Cecile Gotter: “Yesterday we were also in Buch, a very famous amusement locale for the residents of Bamberg; it is a house beautifully situated right on the water and where there is a large hall where twice a week there is music and dancing. But I did not dance, since the society there did not really seem the best to me.”
Buch, or Bug, ca. 3 km south of Bamberg on the Regnitz River where the river splits into the two arms that flow through Bamberg proper. This illustration shows not only the tavern, but also the ferry from the peninsula.
(Joseph Heller, Taschenbuch von Bamberg [Bamberg 1831], plate following p. 220.)
Buch, 1820
Illustration showing the ferry docks on both sides of the river, a ferry making a crossing, and the stairway leading up from the river to the tavern on the far side (as in the previous illustration).
(Buch bei Bamberg von der Morgenseite, colorized engraving after Conrad Wießner [Nuremberg ca. 1820].)
Bamberg, Nonnenbrücke
The Nonnenbrücke in Bamberg (“At the Nuns’ Bridge,” the vegetable market at top right. The original house at this location (no. 1) was built in 1736, likely as the private home of the architect Justus Heinrich Dientzenhofer (1707–44).
Caroline tried to lease an apartment in this house for herself, Auguste, and Schelling, but was prevented from doing so by the elderly owner Ferdinand Ignatz Faber, whose recently widowed son was also occupying the building with his children.
Auguste to Schelling: “Röschlaub himself went to see him, but he gave all sorts of excuses, for example, that there was no woman in the house, since the son is a widower with small children, and disorder may arise and the furniture might get damaged and the house was up for sale and — in a word, he absolutely refuses, and the son can do nothing now and stands there like someone who has just gotten a whipping from Papa.”
(Excerpt from illustration by Matthias Merian [1648].)
Bamberg Environs
Location of Seehof, Theresienhain, Bug (Buch), and the Altenburg Castle (see following images) outside Bamberg.
(G. D. Reymann, Topographische Spezialkarte von Mitteleuropa, map 202.)
Altenburg Castle, 1831
Auguste writes to Cecilie Gotter: “Something else I will be seeing and which is very interesting is the Altenburg, an old castle on a mountain where Otto von Wittelsbach murdered an emperor.”
The Altenburg castle — during Auguste’s visit: the Altenburg ruins — is situated at the southwestern edge of Bamberg, just a few kilometers from the center of town.
(Joseph Heller, Taschenbuch von Bamberg [Bamberg 1831], plate following p. 240.)
Altenburg Castle, 1648
The Altenburg castle at top left (no. 4) above Bamberg proper.
(Excerpt from the illustration of Bamberg by Mathhaeus Merian [1648].)
Altenburg Castle, by Friedrich Karl Rupprecht
(Joseph Heller, Die Altenburg bei Bamberg: Geschichte und Beschreibung derselben [Bamberg, Aschaffenburg 1829], plate following p. 18.)
Altenburg Castle Grounds
Altenburg Castle grounds presumably much as Auguste would have seen it during her visit in 1800.
(Joseph Heller, Die Altenburg bei Bamberg: Geschichte und Beschreibung derselben [Bamberg, Aschaffenburg 1829], plate following p. 20.)
Postal route from Bamberg to Bocklet
Auguste writes to Cecilie Gotter on 16 May: “Since the route to Bocklet passes through Bamberg, we decided to rest here a few days and then travel on further; but then the weather got bad, and Hofrath Marcus, one of Mother’s physicians here — told us that the accommodations in Bocklet were just being renovated, and that it would probably be two weeks before we could continue on there.”
The postal route from Bamberg to Münerstadt — the closest postal station to Bocklet — covered approximately 75 km but did not take passengers all the way to Bocklet, 7 km to the west; those wishing to continue on to Bocklet had the opportunity to hire a private carriage or other conveyance.
(Neueste Post. Karte von Deutschland und den angrenzenden Laendern [Vienna 1805]).
Bad Bocklet and Münnerstadt
Bad Bocklet, not being a postal station, is not listed on the previous map of postal routes; here a map showing its relation to Münerstadt (here spelled Münnerstadt) and Bad Kissingen.
(Karte des deutschen Reichs, ed. C. Vogel [Gotha 1907], no. 18.)
Hotel Bamberger Hof, 1812
Schelling and Caroline stayed in this hotel after returning to Bamberg from Bad Bocklet following Auguste’s death. Wilhelm Schlegel then joined them.
(Illustration from Joachim Heinrich Jäck, Bamberg und dessen Umgebungen: Ein Taschenbuch [Erlangen 1812; postal-coach schedules in the margins).
Hotel Bamberger Hof, 1837
Here the elegant hotel (at center) in 1837 next to Saint Martin’s and fronting the marketplace.
(Illustration from Ludwig Lange, Ernst Rauch, and Georg Lange, Original-Ansichten der historisch merkwürdigsten Städte in Deutschland, vol. 1 [Darmstadt 1837], plate 26.)