"Erkner" Erkner by MD2nd

Erkner Travel Guide: 4 reviews and 16 photos

Gerhart Hauptmann and Margarete Marschalk

The pictures I've took show Gerhart Hauptmann Museum in the town of Erkner. The Museum is a truly beautiful spot with great information on life & writing of this German novelist, poet and dramatist. Earlier the Museum served as Gerhart Hauptmann's accommodation. He moved there about 1880 after he married well-educated, rich and older (than him) Marie Thienemann. She gave birth to 2 or 3 children at home all by herself. Gerhart Hauptmann got quite famous - also due to her having his back 24,7. His story "Lonely Lives" describes "the tragic end of his unhappy intellectual torn between his wife and a young woman, Margarete Marschalk. Whom he later married after divorcing from his first wife (and petitioner), and moved to Silesian.

Former housing of Gerhart Hauptmann

Although Hauptmann helped to establish naturalism in Germany, he later abandoned naturalistic principles. In his then plays, fairy-tale and saga elements mingle with mystical religiosity and mythical symbolism. The portrayal of the primordial forces of the human personality in a historical setting (Kaiser Karls Geisel, Charlemagne’s Hostage) stands beside naturalistic studies of the destinies of contemporary people. The culmination of the final phase in Hauptmann’s dramatic work is the Atrides cycle (1941–48), which expresses through tragic Greek myths Hauptmann’s horror of the cruelty of his own time.

Living room of Gerhart Hauptmann

Later Gerhart Hauptmann's literary production became more prolific, but it also became more uneven in quality. For example, the ambitious and visionary epic poems Till Eulenspiegel (1928) and The Great Dream (1942) successfully synthesize his scholarly pursuits with his philosophical and religious thinking, but are of uncertain literary value. Nevertheless, Hauptmann’s reputation in Germany was unequaled until the ascendancy of Nazism, when he was barely tolerated by the regime and at the same time was denounced by émigrés for staying in Germany. Though privately out of tune with the Nazi ideology, he was politically naive and tended to be indecisive. He remained in Germany throughout WWII and died a year after his Silesian environs had been occupied by the Soviet Red Army.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/257058/Gerhart-Hauptmann

Pros and Cons

Pros:I found Erkner's citizens extremly kind and very welcoming. They do care about their visitors, and help them to get around town.
Cons:Many, many road constructions as of now.
In a nutshell:I defenitively recommend a visit at Gerhart Hauptmann Museum, the former house of Germany's most prominent dramatist of the early 20th century.

Intro Updated Apr 18, 2013
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Reviews (4)

Neat & lightful place Restaurants (1)

I ordered coffee with milk served very creamy with a cinnamon cooky. Ice cream selection looked very yummy. Service is... more travel advice

Lovely folks Local Customs (1)

On a rainy Friday I made it to Erkner by coincidence since those many of road constructions completely messed up my GPS.... more travel advice

Beware of many constructions Transportation (1)

Potsdam, Cottbus, Wittenberge and other towns in Brandenburg like Erkner too, have either direct and long distance... more travel advice

Working desk the novelist traveled w/through USA - Erkner

Gerhart Hauptmann Museum Things to Do (1)

Gerhart Hauptmann had his residence for some years in the small Brandenburg town of Erkner, which adjoins Berlin. The... more travel advice

Comments (3)

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Nemorino Nov 11, 2011 at 9:43 AM

Great that there is a museum about Gerhart Hauptmann! I think I'll have to take a bicycle trip around that area sometime. (The land is quite flat around there, I believe.)
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Balam Sep 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Looks a nice place, i would love a coffee and a biscuit
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Yaqui Jul 19, 2009 at 7:25 AM

Wonderful page young lady! You always find the best places to visit. The little store next to the museum sounds fantastic. Hoping your having a lovely weekend....hugs!