Osterode Hohe Warte

A circular hiking trail from Osterode via Düna and Ührde passes the Teufelswarte, the Uerderberg-Warte and the Old Castle of Osterode. We can reflect on the topography and the painter’s imagination in our watchtower painting, which shows a square tower that doesn’t exist anywhere here. It’s a surprisingly beautiful tour through a hilly landscape with views of the Harz Mountains from the south (about 15 kilometres, 3 hours, partly following the Karst Hiking Trail).

Pascha Johann Friedrich Weitsch (1723–1803) did everything with great passion. At the age of thirty-three, as a soldier, he threw himself into painting, forgot everything around him and did nothing but sit and learn, for he had nothing but his talent. But from sitting indoors so much, he became quite ill, and we owe thanks to the good doctor Benedikt Brückmann for the right diagnosis. Weitsch needed to get back out into the fresh air and walk, for many days and weeks. That’s what he did, and while walking, Weitsch also came up with the idea of putting Harz motifs onto porcelain. So the story of the artistic discovery of the Harz region began around 1760 with a doctor’s recommendation — one that still applies to everyone today who spends a lot of time indoors.

“[…] I am no longer a soldier, but now a painter, thank God … and so he left the military after 12 years of service completed. – His liveliness and his diligent and constant painting, and the fact that many now sit while painting porcelain, gradually brought him to hypochondria, so that he himself did not know what was wrong with him. – The physician Brückmann, a friend of his due to their shared love of art, immediately recognised the ailment and taught him to walk again; his strength was gone, and so he took him out onto the street, which they did together for several days, until he had to walk alone again every day, and thus returned to his usual health. He had never had a serious illness; the main reason for that was a cheerful, healthy nature and, alongside it, a strict sense of order in eating and drinking – and continuous diligence, working industriously until just a few days before his death. –

(…) During the Seven Years’ War, there was not much to earn at the porcelain factory, therefore the painter W., now a master, always painted in oil and thus earned a living for his family. At this time, his affliction of hypochondria made him believe every day might be his last. After the war, a table service was commissioned by the Duke, for which W. also had to paint a sample plate; he depicted a neighbouring area of the city of Brunswick and named the place underneath the plate. – The Duke liked this plate so much that he wanted W. to paint the entire service with towns, villages, districts, and hamlets from the land of Brunswick – this entirely cured his hypochondria, as he undertook a walking journey along the Weser with a messenger who carried his things, in order to sketch towns and villages for the purpose of the service.” (Recorded by the painter’s son in 1815)