walk
A stroll (borrowed from Italian spaziare in the 15th century, “to spread out spatially, indulge in ”) is walking (ambulating, strolling, promenading, strolling) for pastime and for edification.
For example, you can take a stroll in the forest, in parks or along the dike , but also in business districts of the city as a stroll or to go window shopping. Walks can be used for relaxation, recreation or for observing and thoughtful leisure . People also go for a walk because of the sun, the fresh air, exercise and to “change the scenery”. A walking stick makes walking easier and more exhilarating.
Historical
The origin of the walk is the aristocratic “ lust stroll ” in gardens and baroque parks, later a social component was added (making contacts, having undisturbed conversations). The development of parks or promenades is directly related to the walk. It became fashionable among commoners in the 18th century. As a custom , it was very widespread in Germany at certain times - for example the Easter walk (see Goethe's Faust I ) or the Whitsun walk .
Some places of tourist importance, health resorts and seaside resorts , have promenades on which one can stroll (promenade or stroll) . For this purpose, circular routes called walks were created in health resorts . Walking slowly was an important part of the drinking regimen .
Walks are sometimes taken to avoid eavesdropping by third parties: While confidential conversations can be eavesdropped relatively easily when the other person is sitting down, this is difficult when walking.
The walk in literature and fine arts
Goethe was a famous walker (I went there for myself in the forest | and looking for nothing, | that was my mind.) . The Goetheturm was later built on his preferred bench in the Frankfurt city forest .
The walk through Friedrich Schiller's Elegy (the original title) became literarily significant , in which Schiller unfolds his own philosophy of nature and history based on the observation and contemplation of the uphill climber . The poem closes with the liberating line And Homer's sun , see! she smiles at us too. For example, the romantic painting by Caspar David Friedrich of such a giant walk, which was still common at the time .
A much-read travelogue of the passionate and observant world traveler Johann Gottfried Seume was his walk to Syracuse in 1802 . The title is to be understood ironically , however , since Seume's journey was not just an easy walk, but an almost one-year, sometimes dangerous hike. Just as ironic and understating is Karl Lukan's Alpine Walk (1988) about his five-month hike from Vienna to Nice (with his wife Fritzi).
Also have the walk z. B. Eichendorff (O valleys wide, o heights, | o beautiful green forest, | you of my lust and contractions | devotional stay) and Adalbert Stifter (The Forest Walker) given a lot of space in their works. Franz Kafka wrote a. a. a parable with the title The sudden walk and processed the motif of the walk in a chapter of his work Description of a fight . Robert Walser was an avid walker and processed this in his prose work The Walk .
The German painter Carl Spitzweg painted families on Sunday walks several times in the middle of the 19th century . The painting The Walk by Pierre-Auguste Renoir also shows a woman with two children in Sunday clothes .
Walk science
The promenadology (walking science) established at the University of Kassel by the sociologist Lucius Burckhardt advocates slow perception.
Phrase
The idiom after a successful battle, assignment, or test That Was a Walk is meant to express that it was an easy matter to deal with. Or the other way around. It won't be a walk in the park , says a politician before an election campaign.
Digestive walk
Digestive walk is a slang term for moderate physical activity, for walking in the fresh air after eating. He often finds his advocates after visiting restaurants and at an advanced age. The purpose of the digestive walk is to stimulate intestinal activity. The movement supports the peristalsis of the digestive tract . According to the abundance of a meal, the vernacular recommends: After eating you should rest or take a thousand steps . The ancient Romans already thought in the same way: Post cenam recreabis vel mille passus meabis.
See also
- Hiking , march , excursion , landscape running and the sport of walking .
- The foot traffic has its own cultural history.
- The Weender stroll was a walk in Göttingen.
literature
- Krepelin, Kirsten and Thränert, Thomas: The dedicated landscape . Walks and beautified landscapes around Dresden. Werner-Verlag , Worms 2011, ISBN 978-3-88462-296-4 , pp. 303 .
- Gudrun M. König: A cultural history of the walk. Traces of a civil practice 1780–1850. (Cultural studies. Special volume 20.) Böhlau, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-205-98532-X (plus dissertation, University of Tübingen 1994).
- Martina Lauster: Walter Benjamin's Myth of the "Flâneur" . In: The Modern Language Review. Vol. 102, No. January 1, 2007. pp. 139-156.