| Page Views: 409 Last Visit to Bad Homburg vor der Höhe: April, 2009 | Hölderlin in Bad Homburg by Nemorino - last update: Apr 1, 2009 |
| The White Tower and Palace in Bad Homburg |
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe is now an affluent suburb of Frankfurt am Main. In the 19th century, Bad Homburg -- or just "Homburg", as it was officially called until 1912 -- was a fashionable spa for the rich and powerful, and before that it was the seat of silly little landgraviate (sort of like a minor-league duchy) called Hessen-Homburg.
Frankfurt and Bad Homburg are now connected (since June 2008) by a well-marked 22-kilometer walking and cycling trail called the Hölderlin Pfad (Hölderlin Path), named after the poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843), who used to walk from Bad Homburg to Frankfurt very often -- but not daily, as an exaggerated local legend asserts -- to catch a glimpse of his beloved Susette Gontard and on a good day even cop a kiss or at least exchange love letters by secretly passing them through the hedge when nobody was looking. |
| Susette Gontard, Hölderlin's Diotima |
Susette was married to a wealthy Frankfurt merchant named Jakob Friedrich Gontard. In 1796 they hired Friedrich Hölderlin, a recent theology graduate, as a private teacher for their children. This was a common occupation for young intellectuals in those days, before they got established as professors, like Hölderlin's friend and former roommate Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, or before they drifted off into incurable insanity as Hölderlin himself eventually did.
It was love at first sight between Hölderlin and Susette, but he was well aware that as a resident teacher the worst thing he could do would be to have a love affair with the lady of the house, so he suffered in silence and started rewriting his novel-in-progress, Hyperion, to make his hero's beloved Diotima more like Susette.
This was all very well for an idealistic poet, but Susette wanted more so she soon took the initiative, passed him on the stairs at every opportunity, spoke to him, told him how she felt. Before long they were spending hours together while her husband was off at work. She soon knew she was Diotima, and read every word he wrote.
In the summer of 1796 a French army was threatening to attack Frankfurt, so Susette fled with the children -- and their teacher! -- to Bad Driburg in Westfalen, leaving her husband behind to protect his business and the family property. In Bad Driburg Susette and Hölderlin had an idyllic summer together, before returning to Frankfurt and their life of secrecy.
It took another two years before even Susette's husband realized what was going on, but then in September 1798 he finally fired Hölderlin and ordered his children never to mention their teacher's name again. |
| Hölderlin in Bad Homburg, by Jochen Schmidt |
After losing his teaching job at the Gontards, Hölderlin moved to nearby Bad Homburg at the suggestion of his old friend Isaac von Sinclair, who lived and worked there as a minister in the government of the Landgrave of Hessen-Homburg. In the next two years Hölderlin finished the second volume of his novel Hyperion and wrote numerous poems that were not widely appreciated at the time but which later established his reputation as one of the most brilliant poets of his generation.
These two years, 1798-1800, were the years of his now-famous walks from Bad Homburg to Frankfurt and back.
Later Hölderlin returned to Bad Homburg for another two years, 1804-1806, but that was a very different time. Susette was dead, so there was no longer any reason for him to walk to Frankfurt. Hölderlin still had some lucid periods in which he wrote great poetry, but during these two years it gradually became clear that insanity was taking hold of him, and in 1806 his friend Sinclair reluctantly agreed to have him forcibly removed to an asylum in Tübingen. He lived for 37 more years, but never really recovered. |
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Nemorino's Bad Homburg vor der Höhe Travel Tips
| Overview | Things to Do
Tips: 23 - Photos: 67 | | | | Restaurants | Hotels & Accommodations | | | | Nightlife | Off The Beaten Path
Tips: 4 - Photos: 9 | | | | Tourist Traps | Warnings Or Dangers | | | Transportation
Tips: 4 - Photos: 11 | Local Customs | | | | Packing Lists | Shopping | | | | Sports Travel | General Tips |
 Comments for Nemorino about Bad Homburg vor der Höhe | | | | |
LoriPori Mon May 18, 2009 15:27 UTC
Great updates for Bad Homburg vor der Hohe. | HORSCHECK Wed Apr 22, 2009 21:30 UTC
Don, I hope you are doing well. Fabulous upate about "Die Eichbäume"on the Hölderlin Path. Well done. | csordila Mon Apr 6, 2009 23:19 UTC
The Hölderlin Path maybe a pleasant walk. The dactylic hexameters of "Die Eichbäume" reminds me of the Greek epics. Best. L. | tiabunna Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:47 UTC
Apart from learning about Bad Homburg, this was an interesting lesson on Holderlin and Susette. Some lovely old buildings in the town and the snow really finished off the photos. |
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