In the steps of Goethe and Friederike Brion and other Sessenheim, France Things to Do Tips

You would like to explore Sessenheim "in the footsteps of Goethe and Friederike Brion"?

The hiking association Club Vosgien has marked a route (see other picture). It is marked by a red circle and takes about 90 minutes for the 6 km.

It starts at the town's centre (No. 1) with the Lutheran church, parish priest's house and the Goethe Memorial, then continues to (No. 2) the tumulus (or Goethehügel or Friederikensruhe) and the Goethe-Eiche, an oak tree (No. 3).

When walking I suggest to read (or listen to) Goethe's "Dichtung und Wahrheit" ("Poetry and Truth") where he also describes his relationship to Friederike and Sessenheim.

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Website: www.sessenheim.net/fred.html

The Gothe-Museum is a small private collection and part of the restaurant "Au Boeuf" giving you the once in a time chance of combining German and Alsatian culture with French cuisine.

As other people collect stamps the family has started decades ago to collect bits and pieces with a connection to Goethe.

The benches in the restaurant are originally from the old church that was taken down in 1911.

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Phone: +33 3 88 86 97 14
Address: 1 rue de l'Eglise, 67770 Sessenheim
Website: www.auberge-au-boeuf.fr

Albert Fuchs was a professor at the university in Strasbourg and the founder of the Goethe memorial.

In the Rue Albert Fuchs many timber frame houses are still standing (see the pictures).

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Address: Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim

The house with the No. 4 in Rue Albert Fuchs is a timber frame house with infills plastered in a bright yellow colour. It stands right beside the Goethe memorial.

It was built in 1765 by the family Binder Schoeplin as can be read nicely written on one of the corner timber posts (see pictures).

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Address: 4 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim

The house with the No. 5 in Rue Albert Fuchs is an old timber frame house.

It was built in 1823 by Jacob Krautwasser and Carolina Hoen as can be read nicely written on one of the corner timber posts (see pictures).

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Address: 5 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim

The house No. 6 in Rue Albert Fuchs from 1820 was used by guardsmen during the time of Napoleon. It has a timber porch typical for the imperial time.

In 1961 professor Albert Fuchs founded the Goethe Memorial to commemorate the connection of the young Goethe with Sessenheim, who fell in love with the pastor's daughter Friederike Brion in 1770/71 and visited Sessenheim a couple of times.

The building has two public rooms, the front "bust hall" (described separately) and the "room of documents" in the back. In the latter you can immerse into the time when Goethe was visiting Sessenheim, the French and German people, friends, philospohers, statesmen and their visions he was exposed to and influenced by.

It is open to the public throughout the year.

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Address: 6 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim

The front room of the Goethe Memorial building in Rue Albert Fuchs No. 6 is dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). He was a student in Strasbourg from April 1770 to August 1771. During this time he visited many Alsatian towns together with his friend Friedrich Leopold Weyland and for the first time in August 1770 also Sessenheim where he met Friederike Brion, the daughter of the pastor. He fell deeply in love with her but finished the relationship a year later.

Centrally in the bust hall the bust of Goethe commemorates his connection with France. The bust itself was modelled by Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) in 1829. He sent it as a present to Goethe who welcomed it deeply moved as a sign of transnational human ties (during the times of rising nationalism). The bust exhibited here is a copy of the original.

Below the bust on the base are two quotes catching the eye. "Vous étes un homme" ("You are a man") was said by Napoleon when they met in Erfurt in 1808. "L'inépuisable est dans sa nature" ("Inexhaustible he is in its nature") was said by Paul Valery in 1932 at the Sorbonne during a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of Goethe's death.

The quotes left and right of the bust are Goethe's: "Und dein Streben sei's in Liebe und dein Leben sei die Tat" ("Let love guide thy strivin and let action be thy life") and "Alle menschlichen Gebrechen sühnet reine Menschlichkeit" ("All man's failings are redeemed by the pure essence of his humanity").

On the right wall the dates of Goethe's time in Alsace (2 April 1770 - 14 August 1771) is inscribed together with important people he met or whos ideas he heard about during his time as a student in Strasbourg: Herder, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Diderot.

On the left wall his love Friederike Brion (19 April 1752 - 2 April 1813) is immortalised together with a line by Goethe: "Sie hat mich geliebt schöner als ich's verdiente" ("Her love was finer than I deserved").

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Address: 6 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770

This barn stands in the yard of the parish house (todays Lutheran parish.

At the time when Goethe came to Sessenheim in 1770 it was the house of the family Brion, the minister of the church.

It is said the Goethe helped in the house, as in October 1770 when he helped to store corn in the barn. Therefore the barn is called "Goethe barn". It can be seen on one of Goethe's own drawings (Link to Wikipedia).

It was restored in 1927 and 1958.

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Address: 8 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim
Directions: Beside the Goethe Memorial.

The house with the No. 14 in Rue Albert Fuchs is a further timber frame.

It was built in 1819 by people with the initials HR + ML as can be read nicely written on one of the corner timber posts (see pictures).

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Address: 14 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim

The house with the No. 16 in Rue Albert Fuchs is another timber frame.

It was built in 1821 by Jacob Vix and Katharina Heintz as can be read nicely written on one of the corner timber posts (see pictures).

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Address: 16 Rue Albert Fuchs, 67770 Sessenheim