The motif
This painter’s view looks down from a hill onto the oldest spa resort in the Harz Mountains. Twenty years earlier, in 1811, it had been opened. The area belonged to the small principality of Anhalt-Bernburg, with the secondary residence in Ballenstedt. The idea of establishing a spa came from the search for new sources of income.
This is the most beautiful section of the Selketal Trail, which runs as a cliff path high above the river. Only on a second glance can we recognise the old spa. A six-storey hotel tower from GDR times and a flat building from the 1990s in front of it disturb the proportions; the old spa building had to make way for them. Still preserved are: on the left the bathhouse from 1817, in the centre of the picture the promenade, and on the right the baroque tollhouse, of which only the roof can be seen. The walls of the former logis house are still contained within the picturesque, but unfortunately dilapidated, Reichsbahn hotel. In the best condition is the old Swiss-style cavalier house at the very back of the view; it has been renovated and is now a hotel.
Right next to us stands the Peace Memorial from 1954, created by Paul Einecke (1885–1973) from Harzgerode. At that time, people were still under the fresh impression of the Second World War and hoped, full of reconciliation, for a united Germany without the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. The two lowest steps of the Peace Memorial originated from the former monument with the Iron Cross, as the painting shows. The cross was erected in 1818 and has been missing since 1945.
