Welcome to the themed trail "With Goethe at the Gotthard." This trail leads from Göschenen via Andermatt and Hospental up to the Gotthard Pass – where, deep within the mountain in the Sasso San Gottardo Museum, you'll find the only exhibition in the country dedicated to Goethe's Swiss journeys. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born August 28, 1749, died March 22, 1832) is one of the most famous German poets in human history. His activities and interests were extremely diverse. He undertook three journeys to Switzerland – in 1775, 1779, and 1797 – which he documented extensively in writings and sketches. On each journey, he climbed up to the Gotthard Pass and then returned the same way (thus never actually crossing the pass) – and his route took him across the Devil's Bridge (Teufelsbrücke) in the Schöllenen Gorge a total of five times, each time in different company, under different weather conditions, and amid different circumstances in his life and the political landscape of the era.
The first part of the themed trail leads you in Goethe's footsteps from Göschenen through the Schöllenen to Andermatt. The Schöllenen was an impressive place for Goethe, one that you “travel through” and that shapes every person. Until 1830, the foot and mule path was the only way – there was neither a road suitable for vehicles nor road or rail tunnels – and people and animals walked it at all times of year and day, up and down: even then there was lively traffic! Goethe and his various travel companions reported on their emotional world in notes and diary entries. These accompany us today in the smart guide, along the way at regular intervals, and also allow us to experience our own impressions and differences from earlier times more intensely: What did Goethe carry in his luggage? What do you carry in your luggage? Where did he get up in the morning? Where did you get up? What weather is there today? In which season are you? (Interesting: until the construction of the road tunnel in 1980, the pass road and the Gotthard Hospice were open all year round!)
Coordinate: 46.665967882835, 8.5881568463802
... calls the small staircase, and we follow the hiking trail towards Häderlisbrücke, Schöllenen, Andermatt.
Coordinate: 46.666037828147, 8.5877639932188
>> The Devil's Stone is located a bit further down today, you may have already seen it on your way here, at the roundabout before Göschenen When Goethe first travelled to the Gotthard in 1775, he sketched the Devil's Stone. This large boulder impressed him especially, and on his descent he captured it once again, this time from a different perspective. Rightly so, the stone impresses not only through its weight of over 200 tons and its height of approximately 13 m, but also through its history. According to legend, the devil built the bridge for the people of Uri (hence the name Devil's Bridge) in the Schöllenen. As payment, he was to receive the first soul that crossed the bridge – but he was tricked and received the soul of a billy goat instead. The devil became furious and wanted to destroy the bridge again, for which he dragged a huge boulder from the Wassnerwald. A pious old woman secretly painted a cross on the rock, which caused the boulder to fall in Göschenen, leaving the bridge intact: The Devil's Stone, weighing over 200 tons, still stands near Göschenen today, though it was moved by human hands in 1973 by 127 meters so that the motorway could be built. The Devil's Stone was so overwhelming for Goethe that he only dared to half complete the sketches of this tremendous wilderness pictorially: "On the 21st, half past 6 o'clock upwards; the rocks became ever more powerful and terrifying, the path to the Devil's Stone, to the sight of the Devil's Bridge ever more arduous. (...) The outlines may have succeeded for me, but nothing emerged, nothing receded; for such subjects I had no language." (From Poetry and Truth, Book 18, Page 58, GSW) Even today, we do not merely take a single photo of a sight during our travels. Every phone can take dozens of photos in seconds. It is astonishing that even Goethe was not satisfied with just one depiction. Do you remember the last time you were so impressed by something that you immediately took several pictures? Have you already taken photos from different perspectives on this hike?
Coordinate: 46.665069629729, 8.588357605293
Coordinate: 46.66371117762, 8.5878867118701
The original stone arch bridge, called “Häderlisbrücke”, which you cross here, was already built in 1649 in place of an older footbridge. Located above Göschenen, it is one of the oldest crossings into the Schöllenen. Goethe also sketched it, judging by the perspective, during his descent in 1775. The first journey that Goethe undertook to the Gotthard region began in May 1775 and was marked by a search for inner clarity. He set off hastily from Frankfurt to escape the personal entanglements with his fiancée Lili Schönemann, guided by the wish to experience alpine nature. The emotional highlight of this journey was his hike up to the Gotthard Pass, with the possible aim of descending toward Italy. There, at the summit point between north and south, Goethe nevertheless made a decisive resolution on 22 June 1775: he turned back, as he did not yet feel inwardly ready for Italy. While the first two journeys (1775 & 1779) that Goethe undertook in Switzerland were spontaneous, the third journey (1797) had to be planned well in advance, as political unrest prevailed due to Napoleon's campaigns in Europe. If you select the images in the digital guide, you will find Goethe's packing list here: Some differences between then and now are noticeable! For instance, today you may travel without white waistcoats, under-stockings, neckties, and 2 pairs of boots...
Coordinate: 46.658468484118, 8.5843724959465
The gallery you encounter here has a special name: Tanzbeingalerie (Tanzbein Gallery). Now, its name has nothing to do with lively festivities or secret dance gatherings, but rather stems from the name of its builder. According to Goethe's moods, this path was an up and down. At different times, we encounter him both in a cheerful, dance-like mood and in a psychically and physically strained state of mind. Moods in General: In total, Goethe passed through the Schöllenen five times, each time at a completely different point in his life. The saying "One cannot bathe twice in the same river" can also be applied to the path through the Schöllenen: one is no longer the same person the next time, and the path itself is constantly changing as well. So we actually encounter Goethe five times in this narrow passage, each time in different moments and moods. In June 1775, up and down: young, in a spirit of departure, uncertain how his future would unfold (he was preoccupied with whether he wanted to settle into bourgeois structures). In November 1779, only downward: still young, but in service and responsible for "his" even younger duke – by this year he was already a member of the government and was intensively studying mining. In October 1797, again up and down: by now he also knew Italy, was married, and had a 9-year-old son. This journey, however, was different, because the political situation in Europe was unpredictable due to the Napoleonic campaigns. Moods in Focus: First Journey 1775 – Youthful Storm and Stress, successful author of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" Goethe experiences the Schöllenen and the Gotthard as overwhelming, which simultaneously evoked feelings of a "sublime sensation" as well as a "terrible" and "wild" experience of nature. Youthful enthusiasm and inspiration through the force of nature accompanied him; on the other hand, the journey was an escape from the circumstances in Frankfurt and a search for inner clarity. He undertook the journey with Jakob Ludwig Passavant. Despite their friendship, their time together was not without friction. Upon arriving at the Gotthard Pass, they disagreed about their destination. Passavant wanted to continue on to Italy, while Goethe wanted to return to Andermatt. They could not agree and did not speak to each other again until reaching the beautiful waterfall of the Reuss. Second Journey 1779 – Sense of Duty and Testing One's Limits Goethe undertook the second journey in the company of Duke Carl August under wintry conditions. Goethe here took on a dual role: he was the duke's friend, but also his responsible advisor and a kind of overseer. He experienced the wintry crossing of the Alps as a test of his limits, which the duke described as the "worst hardship." We encounter Goethe here in a divided mood, as he had to rein in his personal thirst for adventure and take care of the duke: "Had I been alone, I would have gone higher and deeper, but with the duke I must do what is moderate." (Diary entry of October 14, 1779, Thun, page 89 GSW). Moreover, he could only express his feeling of being confined in private and confidential letters, since he remained in the duke's service. Third Journey 1797 – Nostalgia and Scientific Distance Goethe experienced his third journey in a nostalgic mood. The adventurous character that had defined the first two journeys receded into the background, and Goethe now approached the Gotthard as an experienced geologist. He reflected on his previous journeys into the Gotthard region, his own mortality, as well as his methodical observations and documentation of nature. For Goethe, the third journey was a "journey and non-journey," as he described in a letter dated October 25, 1797 (GSW, 237).
Coordinate: 46.654974300048, 8.5831359210949
Now begins the entry into the heart of this section of the path: the Schöllenen gorge. The longest part of the theme trail from Göschenen to Andermatt has already been accomplished, but the Schöllenen gorge is quite something! It is a true zigzag, which also gave Goethe trouble. Nature was absolutely formative for Goethe, he engaged intensively with geology and botany. Shortly before the Schöllenen we encounter steep, wooded slopes, in which one can observe the rooting of trees in rocks and steep slopes. In Wassen, in 1775, Goethe sketched the dense mountain forest. A sketch of a log cabin on the Rigi, which he also made in the year 1775, shows a contrast between the detailed man-made hut and the outlines of nature. As we have already learned, Goethe was so overwhelmed by the immense power of nature that, when he sketched the Teufelsstein in Göschenen, he dared to complete only half of it as well. In his observations of rocks, minerals, and fossils, his mind was set alight. Inevitably, the question of the age of the earth presented itself to him. Goethe suspected that it must be unimaginably older than the 6000 years derived from the Bible (to question this, however, would have been extremely heretical). Shortly before his death, Goethe wrote to a friend: "One would have to go mad with further immersion into the contemplation of the ages." It seems as though botanical elements of nature also had the same effect on Goethe as the geological ones - both are present here in the short mountain summer in an extremely impressive way. In 1816 he wrote: "In the narrowest tunnel as in the deepest shaft To seek a light that would ignite the spirit, Was a shared, precious contemplation, Whether nature might not, after all, be fathomed."
Coordinate: 46.649583461561, 8.5883333500611
The Schöllenen Gorge – the shortest way south! Goethe described the gorge as "dreadful," which one could only manage to climb with "hardship and toil and sweat." The gorge is the passage to the Gotthard, Furka, and Oberalp passes, a true incision into the mountain. Goethe stands especially for literature, theatre, art history, and poetry – but he also engaged with content of a different kind. One of his great passions was geology. He owned a rock and mineral collection of about 18,000 specimens, making it one of the largest mineral collections ever assembled by a private individual. A few dozen pieces of the collection came from his third Swiss journey. Goethe also exchanged thoughts with Wilhelm von Humboldt about his "mineral hobby," and he wrote in a letter to Humboldt dated 7 February 1798: "The rocks of the Gotthard have also set my mineralogical hobby in motion again, so that I do not lack for entertainment from this side either during the gloomy winter days." Goethe was one of the first "influencers" in human history and a true communication talent. On his travels he met a variety of people: merchants, travellers, women carrying wood, mercenaries and soldiers, residents, or migrant workers – he engaged with them in conversation and documented his experiences in texts or drawings.
Coordinate: 46.647141941946, 8.5907889494479
Upon its completion in 1708, the Urnerloch was one of the first "tunnels" in the Alps! It was 65 m long and represented a huge advance for the traffic of the 18th century. In the following stretch of the theme trail, Goethe observed all kinds of traffic situations, including local women wood carriers. For a few groschen, they hauled wood up the valley to supply the Urserental — which is almost treeless apart from the protective and therefore protected Bannwald — with firewood. Goethe describes the situation as follows: "The women carrying wood met us: in the Urselertal [Urserntal] they receive 6 groschen for the load, the wood costs them 3 groschen at Göschenen, the other half is their carrying wage. The Reuss plunges down in great masses. Bridge. An inscription in granite nearby, Schricker; probably the supervisor of the bridge construction. The valley of Urseren builds the road almost all the way to Göschenen. Peculiar views into the depths behind us: cows and women wood carriers climbed up, fog with them at the same time." He did not draw them, however; the only depiction of the women wood carriers comes from Franz Xaver Triner (1767-1824). Not only because this is the only known depiction of these women wood carriers is the role of these women so special, but also because, according to historical records, it was mainly men who built infrastructure. Women who could earn money in the 18th and 19th centuries possessed more freedoms. However, since women were largely excluded from historiography, it is not clear to what extent the women wood carriers of the Schöllenen represent a special case — but the fact that they were recorded at all (both by Goethe and by Triner) shows their special role. But it was not only women who walked this path; from Hospental onward, Goethe experienced brisk pass traffic. Annoying for Goethe: mules. "They keep an uneven pace ... If one stands still to look at something, they overtake one again, and one is burdened by the deafening sound of their bells and by their load standing broadly to the side." But they also delighted him through the lively sound of the animals' bells, which stirred Goethe's memories of the mountains. Even before Goethe's death, the pass route was made accessible for carriages and wagons, with the construction of the second bridge in 1830. Traffic problems on the Gotthard are thus nothing new!
Coordinate: 46.645547345513, 8.590454094655
After the extremely rocky stretch, the Urseren Valley now opens up before the hikers - then as now. The sight of the small stone church on the left, eastern side, the Kolumban Church, already greeted Goethe on his first ascent, while the new part of the village on the western side has only emerged in recent years. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was deeply impressed by the Gotthard region and reaches for the highest praise in the "Letters from Switzerland" compiled in 1780: «For me, of all the regions I know, it is the dearest and most interesting; be it that old memories make it worthwhile, or that the feeling of so many interconnected wonders of nature arouses in me a secret and unnameable pleasure.» Due to erroneous measurements, Goethe and his contemporaries still considered the Gotthard massif to be the highest elevation of the Alps during his first journey, as it also represents a unique watershed: from here the rivers Rhine, Rhone, Reuss and Ticino flow in four directions. – Goethe had to correct the height of the Gotthard years later, yet for him it retains "the rank of a royal mountain above all others, because the greatest mountain ranges converge here". The aim of this themed trail was to convey some impressions of Goethe's connection to nature and to bring you closer to his fascination for the region. This section is thus completed, but Goethe did not stop in Andermatt! The second section of the themed trail "With Goethe at the Gotthard" leads to the Gotthard Pass - and at the pass summit, the destination of all his journeys, the only permanent exhibition on Goethe's Swiss travels can be discovered deep in the mountain at the Sasso San Gottardo Museum (www.sasso-sangottardo.ch).
Coordinate: 46.640081905508, 8.5935232605854
Coordinate: 46.636973282272, 8.5947242394029