Bocklet in Franconia, 1936
Modern Bad Bocklet on the Franconian Saale River, where Auguste died on 12 July 1800 and is buried.
Wilhelm writes to Johann Diederich Gries on 7 July 1800 to explain the name:
“I am so sorry, my dear friend, for causing your divinatory acumen to be so laboriously and, moreover, also so futilely taxed. It was, however, no doubt less a matter of my own handwriting than that you simply did not want to believe that the name of the locale really was exactly as you read it, and then also a problem with your geographical, statistical, and topographical books, which contained no reference to it. Said mineral spring and spa resort is called Bocklet, written Bocklet, βοκλετ, and is located near Schweinfurt in Franconia, which you will want to add to the address if, for example, you are writing to Caroline. She will be staying there until toward the end of July, and has described the setting and surrounding area there as being quite pleasant.”
(Postcard from 1936.)
Map of Kissingen, Bocklet, Schweinfurt, and Bamberg
Caroline, Schelling, and Auguste journeyed first to Bamberg (lower right on map, ca. 130 km south-southwest of Jena). Bocklet is ca. 70 km northwest of Bamberg, ca. 32 km north-northwest of Schweinfurt, and 10 km north of Bad Kissingen. Würzburg, where Caroline will live 1803–6, is ca. 50 km south-southwest of Bocklet.
(Karte des deutschen Reichs [1894-95], ed. Carl Vogel [Gotha 1907].)
Bocklet with the Church of St. Laurent
Church of St. Laurent in Bad Bocklet, in whose cemetery Auguste is buried; Wilhelm Schlegel mentions this view of the valley.
Wilhelm writes:
“I recently made my first pilgrimage to her grave. It is located … in a narrow, enclosed, cheerful valley that gives no hint of graves; she lies in a narrow and poor village cemetery, which is, however, situated out in the open and from which one can look out onto the beautiful valley.”
(Early postcard.)
Bocklet in 1831
The “Brunnentempel”: “being supported by two rows of Tuscan columns, which allow the eye to wander freely on the blooming valley beyond, a particularly sweet impression is produced.” This view of the “Brunnentempel,” with slight variations, will recur in later guides.
(Illustration by J. B. C. Foerisch, frontispiece to C. J. Haus, Bocklet und seine Heilquellen für Aerzte und Nichtärzte [Würzburg 1831].)
Bocklet in 1837
Auguste is buried in the church cemetery at right.
(Illustration from “the author of ‘St. Petersburgh,'” The Spas of Germany, 2 vols. [London 1837], 322.)
Bocklet in 1838
Bocklet 1838. Frontispiece to Ferdinand Kirchgessner, Der Kurort Bocklet mit seinen Heilquellen und Bädern. Ein Taschenbuch für Kurgäste und Aerzte (Würzburg 1838). Kirchgessner will use a slightly different version of this view in the second edition to his guide.
Mineral Springs Fountain ca. 1910
The earlier chalybeate mineral spring in Bocklet from which guests and patients drank had an octagonal shape.
(Postcard 1910.)
Bocklet in 1840
Bocklet in 1840. A similar view of the church in whose cemetery Auguste is buried, though by this time the location of her grave was no longer known.
(Unpaginated illustration in Der eiserne Pavillon über den Heilquellen Ragozi u. Pandur in Kissingen. (n.p., n.d. [1840]).
Bocklet in 1845
(Unpaginated steel engraving from Album von Kissingen, Bocklet und Brückenau in Stahlstichen, nach Original-Zeichnungen [Frankfurt 1845].)
Bocklet in 1845
A colorized version of the previous image from 1845, here on a postcard from 1920.
Bocklet in 1859
A slightly different engraving of the illustrations from 1831 and 1838; note the different windows in the facade
(Frontispiece to Ferdinand Kirchgessner, Das Stahlbad Bocklet bei Kissingen: Ein Taschenbuch für Kurgäste und Aerzte, 2nd ed. [Würzburg 1859]).
Bocklet, 2012
Bad Bocklet, 2012 (photo Bbb): Contemporary photo of the promenade in preceding illustrations.