Leutra source in Weimar

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Leutra source or source of purification
Ox-eye or hot spring
Sphinx grotto

The Leutra springs (also Läutra spring or Läuter spring ) are three karst and fault sources of the Leutra in the park on the Ilm in Weimar . The source is to the right of the Ilm, south of the Sternbrücke . Two of the springs were artistically designed as a sphinx grotto and a so-called ox-eye at the end of the 18th century . The Sphinx Grotto was built in 1784 at the behest of Duke Carl August by Martin Gottlieb Klauer , who created it based on designs by Georg Melchior Kraus . The ensemble is one of the oldest facilities in the park and is now part of the " Classic Weimar " world cultural heritage .

geology

The three karst and fault sources are ascents of calcareous water from the geological faults on the edge of the Ilm valley trench. The resulting stream, the Leutra, is only a few meters long and flows into the Ilm as a right tributary . It has a constant temperature of 8.5 ° C. These springs are part of a karst spring and cave system in the Park on the Ilm and beyond. Geologist Walter Steiner has provided an overview of this . Steiner also wrote a monograph on the geological subsurface of Weimar.

history

It was built in 1786 by court sculptor Martin Gottlieb Klauer at the behest of Carl August based on a design by the court painter Georg Melchior Kraus . The sphinx , resting on a large cuboid , was created based on the Egyptian model and was originally made of Berka sandstone, while the grotto was built of travertine . The preparatory work began as early as the end of 1783 east of the raft ditch with the excavation, where there was once a well and a small waterfall is still located today. The name Läuterquelle has become commonplace for this wash fountain . Georg Melchior Kraus recorded this in several drawings. The grotto itself began in 1784. This ensemble is one of the oldest design elements in the park and is not far from Goethe's Gartenhaus am Stern. There is a copy in the park, while the original has been in the Roman House since 2012 . There was also once a waterfall operated by a pumping station built in the raft ditch. An engraving created by Kraus in 1797 shows this waterfall, which flows into the Leutrabach and looks like a veil in front of the Sphinx grotto. At the mouth of the Läutra waterfall in the raft ditch, a bas-relief depicting bathing nymphs with a triton and a trident , a work by Klauer, was set up in 1788 . A stitch z. B. from 1801 by Konrad Horny , as it looked in 1795, shows this. This can also be found by Georg Melchior Kraus in 1792. But this relief is no longer there; According to Wolfgang Huschke , it was erected in 1788, but removed again in 1798. Not far from there is the southern wayside cross on the Stern, where a faun and pan statue designed by Kraus in 1791 and sculpted in plaster by Friedrich Wilhelm Eugen Döll and burned in clay by Klauer was erected. This also no longer exists. The waterfall also disappeared with these between 1798 and 1800. In a drawing by Georg Melchior Kraus from 1801, the Sphinx grotto is already shown without the waterfall. In general, the Leutra spring with the Sphinx grotto was not infrequently drawn by Kraus, as the collections not only in Weimar, but u. a. also prove it in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main or in the Goethe Museum (Düsseldorf) . Kraus also recorded what the actual lauter source , which was once a wash fountain, had looked like in this capacity. He drew two young women washing clothes there before the renovations began. One such drawing is in the Städelmuseum in Frankfurt. The motif returned to Kraus in 1805 when he also drew two young laundresses with a dog. This is also available in the Städelmuseum Frankfurt.

The stream is actually only a few meters long. The source (s) of the Leutra or the Läutra , a small stream flowing directly into the Ilm not far from the Sternbrücke , is framed by the Sphinx grotto. That was not always the case, because the Leutrabach previously flowed into the raft ditch, which no longer exists, as it was filled up to the Sternbrücke as early as 1798–1801. The lower reaches of the Graben that had been preserved became the lower reaches of the Lauter. This brook and with it the source got its name from the unusually clear water, which is why it was used as a wash fountain. This is due to the fact that these waters rise from the depths as fissure sources in a geological fault. Their temperature is therefore also constant at 8.5 ° C. The round shape of the enclosure of the so-called ox eye , which is a walled spring funnel, is also connected above ground to the Leutrabach via a channel. The ox eye or the spring itself with its circular border is likely to have been made around 1799–1800, even if there are no drawings from this period that show this. A plan of the Ilmpark by Johann Friedrich Lossius from 1790 shows the Läuterquelle and Läuterbach as well as the Sphinx grotto, but not the ox-eye or the hot spring. Lossius would certainly have noted the source funnel too. The hot spring rises a few meters from the Sphinx grotto. One of the earliest cartographic recordings, which attests to the existence of the ox-eye and thus documents its presence, dates from 1808 by Franz Ludwig Gussfeld on a map of the Ilmpark.

Plan of the Weimar Ilm Park by Franz Ludwig Güssefeld

At this point, Güssefeld records the "spring of water". In addition, the course of the Leutrabach has changed because the Floßbach was filled, which ultimately led to the change in the routing in this area. The oldest cartographic record with changed routes and already changed course of the Läutra as well as with the ox-eye should come from Johann Valentin Blaufuß from the year 1799. Another plan by Johann Valentin Blaufuß from 1824 shows the ox-eye more clearly in a plant frame. On this map, the source of the ox-eye is also referred to as the hot spring. Before the Leutra was laid and the ox-eye was put on, the mouth of the Leutra was in the raft ditch, where the spring of the spring came from. The representations of the mouth area u. a. von Kraus and Horny leave no room for doubt when one takes into account the site plans of Lossius, Blaufuss and Gussenfeld. The area where the Leutrabach flows into the raft ditch was designed like a waterfall. This was retained when the Leutrabach, which flows into the Ilm near the Sternbrücke, was relocated. It should be noted that the designation of the leutra sources is occasionally incorrect in the more recent literature, even though the cartographic designations from the 18th and 19th centuries actually do not allow confusion.

According to Wolfgang Huschke, the importance of the grotto as a park element was “entirely in keeping with the sensitive spirit of the time, to put the viewer in a melancholy mood”. The effect of the view into the gruesome rock dwelling through the veil of the former waterfall should have been reinforced. According to legend, this place is said to have been a preferred residence of the composer Franz Liszt . There is a picture of the painter Franz Gustav Arndt , who belongs to the Weimar School of Painting , in the Liszt House in Weimar , which refers to a musical work by Liszt, the Consolation's (Consolations). A detail in the left background of the picture could be understood as grotto-like and thus refer to the legend that the Sphinx grotto is said to have been Liszt's preferred residence. But that's not what is meant here! The legend may have something to do with Liszt's membership in Freemasonry . However, it is unlikely that the construction of the Sphinx Grotto was connected to Masonic activities, because the Weimar Masonic Lodge Anna Amalia on the Three Roses had already ceased its work in 1782.

Web links

Commons : Leutraquelle in Weimar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the geological peculiarities of the fissure source and cave system http://www.geogruppehamburg.de/Exkursionen/Exkursion_2012_Netz_01.pdf P. 43 ff. -Ders .: Geology, The geological structure of the underground of Weimar (= Weimar writings on local history and Naturkunde vol. 23), Weimar 1974.
  2. ↑ The Sphinx statue visible today is a copy made of Cotta Elbe sandstone from 1977/78 by the Dresden sculptor Hempel . Gerd Seidel, Walter Steiner: Building block and building in Weimar (= Standing Commissions Culture of the Weimar City Council and the Weimar-Land District Council in cooperation with the Weimar City Museum (ed.): Tradition and Present). Weimar writings. Issue 32. Weimar 1988, ISBN 3-910053-08-4 , p. 77. -Gitta Günther, Wolfram Huschke, Walter Steiner (Eds.): Art. Sphinxgrotte , in: Weimar. Lexicon on city history. Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1998, p. 407.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Huschke: The history of the park in Weimar , (= Thuringian archive studies, vol. 2, edited by Willy Flach ), Weimar 1951, p. 66.
  4. ↑ https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/grotte-der-sphinx-im-park-zu-weimar
  5. ↑ Susanne Müller-Wolff: A landscape garden in the Ilmtal: The history of the ducal park in Weimar. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-20057-2 , p. 152 f. ( Online excerpts ).
  6. ↑ A horizontally visible drilling channel on the back of the large stones to the passage above the Sphinx grotto, which can be perceived from the horn, may still come from a tube of it.
  7. ^ Birgit Knorr: Georg Melchior Kraus (1737–1806). Painter - educator - entrepreneur. Biography and catalog raisonné . Dissertation, University of Jena 2003 ( full text ): described in the catalog section under D 81 on p. 132. Cf. Huschke, Taf. XI. Huschke refers to a template from the Goethe National Museum (Weimar) .
  8. ↑ Huschke, p. 67.
  9. ↑ Huschke, plate X.
  10. ↑ Knorr (2003): described in the catalog section under A 131 on p. 42. Knorr refers to Wolfgang Huschke / Wolfgang Vulpius : Park um Weimar. A book of poetry and garden art , Weimar 1955, Fig. 75.
  11. ↑ Huschke, p. 100 and P. 200.
  12. ↑ Müller-Wolff, p. 153.
  13. ↑ Huschke, p. 100.
  14. ↑ https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/grotte-der-sphinx-im-park-zu-weimar Knorr (2003): described in the catalog section under A 223 on p. 57.
  15. ↑ https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/grotte-der-sphinx-im-park-zu-weimar
  16. ↑ Knorr (2003): Described in the catalog section under D 81 on p. 132.
  17. ^ Eberhard Freiherr Schenk zu Schweinsberg: Georg Melchior Kraus. Weimar 1930 (= writings of the Goethe Society, 43rd volume), plate 31.
  18. ↑ Knorr (2003): Described in the catalog section under Z 347 on p. 103. There it dates approx. 1785–1789, while the database of the Städelmuseum gives the date approx.
  19. ↑ Knorr (2003): Described in the catalog section under A 224 on p. 57.
  20. ↑ Huschke, p. 100.
  21. ↑ https://haab-digital.klassik-stiftung.de/viewer/fullscreen/1309234175/2/
  22. ↑ Gitta Günther, Wolfram Huschke, Walter Steiner (Ed.): Art. Leutraquelle , in: Weimar. Lexicon on city history. Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1998, p. 276 f.
  23. ↑ A plan of the Ilm Park from 1799 by Johann Valentin Blaufuß shows the beginning of the changes to the star, at least with regard to the routing. https://haab-digital.klassik-stiftung.de/viewer/epnresolver?id=1867764709 -Müller-Wolff, p. 222 f. and Plate 77. The location of the ox's eye is already determined in this plan.
  24. ↑ http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/70400370/df_dk_0002936
  25. ↑ Strangely enough, Burkhardt does not even mention the spring spring as one of the leutra springs and thus the ox eye. Carl August Hugo Burkhardt : The creation of the park in Weimar , Weimar 1907, 8 f.
  26. ↑ So in the otherwise very meritorious work by Hans-Joachim Leithner: WeimarWissen: von Brunnenstuben, Röhrenfahrten und Wasserlinien, the historical and younger fountains in Weimar , Weimar 2018. The incorrect attributions are already in the table of contents: on p. 309 as Läuterquelle I = Ox eye; P. 311 Läuterquelle II = Sphinx grotto; P. 313 Läutraquelle III = air stone.
  27. ↑ Huschke, p. 66.
  28. ↑ Bernd Wurlitzer, Kerstin Sucher: Weimar and surroundings. 4th updated edition, Dumont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2017, p. 250. ISBN 978-3-7701-7387-7
  29. ^ Annette Seemann : Weimar. A travel companion , Frankfurt / M.-Leipzig 2004, p. 222. ISBN 978-3-458-34766-8
  30. ↑ https://www.weimar-lese.de/index.php?article_id=503
  31. ↑ The painting is out of focus overall. The painting does not come from Liszt's original holdings, but was added in 1956. The subject of the picture goes back to the Consolations piano pieces from around 1849/50. The inspiration for the title probably came from the collection of poems of the same name by Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve from 1830. It bears the inv. [Stamp] 125/1956 .
  32. ↑ https://freimaurer-wiki.de/index.php/Franz_Liszt
  33. ↑ Müller-Wolff, p. 166 and p. 152, note 39.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 46.4 "  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 4.8"  E