Snake Stone in Weimar

Snake stone (copy)

The snake stone is a monument in Weimar in Thuringia .

It is located in the park on the Ilm . The original snake stone was erected in 1787 by Martin Gottlieb Klauer on behalf of Duke Carl August on the left bank of the Ilm, based on an ancient Roman model, a cast of a sacrificial altar from Herculaneum . This was done in honor of his friend Goethe , who at that time had already been in Italy for a long time . A copy made of red sandstone, which is painted white, has stood here since 1968. The copy made by Franz Dospiel was placed in the park in 1968. The snake as a symbol of fertility through its upward winding around the column points to the power of nature, which promotes gardening and agriculture and at the same time brings healing power. On top of the sacrificial altar the snake bites into the sacrificial bread. The inscription Genio huius loci - the spirit of this place - indicates the harmonious connection between spirit, nature, literature and art. The snake symbol is again referred to in Klauer's grave urn in Jacob's cemetery . The same can be found at the cenotaph for Leopold von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in Tiefurt . The bite in the own tail symbolizes death and at the same time rebirth ( reincarnation ).

The weathered or damaged by the Second World War original of the serpentine stone, which only shows the shadow of the upward winding snake, has been in the Roman House in Weimar since 2012 .

The publishing house Hermann Böhlaus Successor , founded in 1624 and belonging to JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung since 1998 , used this motif as the company logo. The last time this company logo was used by Hermann Böhlaus' successor Weimar can be traced back to the 2004 Goethe Yearbook.

literature

Erich Trunz : Der Schlangenstein , in: Goethe-Jahrbuch 100 (1983), pp. 127-144.
Hannes Bosse : The outwitted snake. Legends and fables from Weimar and the surrounding area are retold from a local history perspective . Fixed band. Wartburg Verlag , Weimar 2002, ISBN 978-3-86160-146-3 , p. 150 .
Susanne Müller-Wolff: A landscape garden in the Ilmpark: The history of the ducal garden in Weimar . Cologne-Weimar-Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-412-20057-2 , 158 ff.
Gitta Günther , Wolfram Huschke , Walter Steiner (eds.): Art. Schlangenstein, in: Weimar. Lexicon on city history. Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-7400-0807-5 , p. 383.

Web links

Commons : Schlangenstein in Weimar - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Nicholas Boyle : Goethe: the poet in his time , vol. 1, Munich 1995, p. 561.
↑ Gerd Seidel and Walter Steiner , Baustein und Bauwerk in Weimar (Tradition and Present: Weimarer Schriften 32), Weimar 1988, p. 78 and p. 91, note 65. The year 1949 given there was corrected by Steiner himself in Gitta Günther , Wolfram Huschke , Walter Steiner (Ed.): Weimar. Lexicon on city history. Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-7400-0807-5 , p. 383. The indication of 1949 is likely to be based on an error by Dospiel. Steiner referred to statements from Dospiel himself!
^ Susanne Müller-Wolff: A landscape garden in the Ilmpark: The history of the ducal garden in Weimar . Cologne-Weimar-Wien 2007. ISBN 978-3-412-20057-2 , p. 134. There is only one snake on the urn, not several, as is written by Müller-Wolff.
↑ Goethe-Jahrbuch 121 (2004), Weimar, p. 1. ISBN 978-3-7400-1218-2

50.973527777778 11.333861111111Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 24.7 ″ N , 11 ° 20 ′ 1.9 ″ E

[1] Nicholas Boyle : Goethe: the poet in his time , vol. 1, Munich 1995, p. 561.

[2] Gerd Seidel and Walter Steiner , Baustein und Bauwerk in Weimar (Tradition and Present: Weimarer Schriften 32), Weimar 1988, p. 78 and p. 91, note 65. The year 1949 given there was corrected by Steiner himself in Gitta Günther , Wolfram Huschke , Walter Steiner (Ed.): Weimar. Lexicon on city history. Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-7400-0807-5 , p. 383. The indication of 1949 is likely to be based on an error by Dospiel. Steiner referred to statements from Dospiel himself!

[3] Susanne Müller-Wolff: A landscape garden in the Ilmpark: The history of the ducal garden in Weimar . Cologne-Weimar-Wien 2007. ISBN 978-3-412-20057-2 , p. 134. There is only one snake on the urn, not several, as is written by Müller-Wolff.

[4] Goethe-Jahrbuch 121 (2004), Weimar, p. 1. ISBN 978-3-7400-1218-2