The motif
Our location is by the Weddersleben Devil's Wall, which in this beautiful section is completely free of trees and therefore looks so monumental. Legend has it that the devil wanted to build the wall in a single night. His realm was the Brocken, and he wanted to extend it into the Harz foreland. He had made a bet with God the Father. But then the rooster crowed, morning came, and he had to leave his work unfinished, though in rage he hurled a few more rocks. These strangely encrusted sandstone formations still lie today in the hilly Harz foreland. They naturally captivated artists as well, though identifying the more than forty Romantic-era Devil’s Wall paintings remains a special task for local historians. And the question of whether Carl Blechen was here by the Königswand or rather at the Hamburger Wappen has yet to be conclusively answered.
What is certain is that the Devil’s Wall is one of the oldest natural monuments in Germany. Already in June 1833, the royal Prussian district administrator Carl Weyhe forbade the local community of Weddersleben, under penalty of up to five talers, from breaking off stones from the Devil’s Wall. In December, this decree had to be repeated, “since it cannot be tolerated that the Devil’s Wall, which adorns the entire region, be destroyed by breaking off stones.” The devilish name and the force and diversity of these stones fascinated not only painters. Above all, they sought ways to express the diabolical — with vigorous strokes, dark clouds, moonlight, or like Carl Blechen, with a swarm of crows.
