An Inspirational Paradise for Painters or How Carl Spitzweg Came to Rothenburg.

 

An Inspirational Paradise for Painters or How Carl Spitzweg Came to Rothenburg and Found his Love for it.

That is the topic of a story Fritz Schaumann tells, stating that while its content is basically true to the facts, the story-line may be a little embellished. Through Carl Spitzweg, one of the best known German painters of the romantic period, Rothenburg with its lanes, populated picturesque alleys and squares was memorialized. According to Friedrich G. Schaumann, the museum director, this fact bears special significance for the Schaumann family, as it has do to with the cherished Schopf-painter Grandpa Scheibenberger. The current owners of the Schopf firm are his direct descendants, representing the the fifth generation.

It was around the year 1860: The pharmacist/brush artist  Carl Spitzweg had been allowed to copy paintings in the gallery of Count Schönborn in Pommersfelden. He had forwarded his painting materials to Munich where he intended to return. With his bundle on his back he ambled along the Main river on a detour through the Steigerwald to Ebrach and to Sulzfeld where the exquisite wines pleased his palate. Stopping at the Schnecke in Ochsenfurt, where, according to oral tradition, a gnarled latin-school teacher, who was assiduously sipping  glass after glass of wine, advised him to go on to Rothenburg, as that would be the right place for painters. Consequently, the painter by vocation, Carl Spitzweg, cheerfully hiked up the Tauber valley passing through Creglingen and by nightfall reached Detwang where he found quarters at Johann Friedle’s Schwarzes Lamm, a welcoming inn. At the adjoining table the inn-keeper was talking to a grayhaired patron who appeared to be a painting colleague for he was relating how his valued journeyman painter had just broken a leg,  unfortunately at the worst time since the city architect had ordered the eagle at city-hall to be regilded, the Steinsfeld church was to be painted, the pastor of Bettwar wanted to have his study repainted immediately and the upper floor of city-hall was to be artfully decorated with sayings created by him…and much more was to be done. Picture: The hotel in Paradeisgasse

Now, Spitzweg felt his oats and offered his help since, after all, he was of the same trade. The old master painter, who was Grandpa Scheibenberger, suspiciously considered the stranger’s offer but his pressing need of a helper prompted him to bring him home and put him up in the attic-room. Much could be said now about how the “journeyman painter” was taken with the beauty of the town and how it turned into his love, all the while fulfilling his varied duties with skill and diligence. His master was full of praise and at the same time tender feelings arose in another person, the daughter of the house. Weeks passed and the painter’s sketch pad was filled with expressive pictures. Still, he started thinking about how he might one day detach himself from this inspirational paradise. Coincidence came to the rescue: Master Scheibenberger had been commissioned to gild the sculpture of  St. Mary gracing the exterior of the pharmacy named after her. Master and  journeyman took their materials to the imposing patrician building that had already been committed to Spitzweg’s sketch book for later execution as a painting. But after they had erected their scaffold, the pharmacist and owner of the house, Fritz Weißgerber, approached the journeyman and greeted him and gave him away as a former university pal. Thus, the charming fraud found an abrupt end and thusly Spitzweg’s beloved Rothenburg became eternalized  through the works of a gifted painter. Picture: The St. Mary’s pharmacy with its bay-window and statue.

Written by Friedrich G. Schaumann and Translated by Kristin L’Hommedieu, M.A.

This Story at German language: http://blogreiter.typepad.com/blogreiter/2008/04/erlebnisparadie.html

Notes: Friedrich G. Schaumann the author, has developed and is managing a museum in the cellar vaults of his business and residential property located at the corner Juden- and Galgengasse in Rothenburg. It shows the history of the local Jewish community during the 13th century, the period during which Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch resided and taught in the city. Find a description of the museum with source references in the Blogreiter weblog

http://blogreiter.typepad.com/blogreiter/2007/06/jdisches leben.html

The picture shows Friedrich Schaumann in the museum vaults with the installation “Rabbi Meir instructs his students”.

The current Hotel Spitzweg is a location that recalls many details from the life of Carl Spitzweg, the widely known painter of the German romantic period who lived in Rothenburg and worked here as a pharmacist. http://www.hotel-spitzweg.de/ISY/

The street Paradeisgasse with a decorative saying and the house Nr. 2 where Carl Spitzweg lived.

Design and Fotos by Leo Wirth