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© Fotoweberei & Schloß Wernigerode GmbH

Schnarcherklippen

1784

The motif

These two cliffs caught attention early on, partly because of their distinctive twin-tower shape and also because of their height of almost 30 metres. The large Schnarcherklippe can be climbed today. Goethe and the artist Georg Melchior Kraus drew the small Schnarcherklippe on 5 September 1784. Kraus carefully sketched the granite’s spheroidal weathering. Where wind and rain had a stronger impact, the erosion was also more pronounced. Meanwhile, Goethe studied the rock of the large cliff and discovered that the granite deflected the magnetic needle of his compass. He noted this with astonishment in his geological diary. Where the deviation was strongest, he marked small signs on the rock.

Whether the small Schnarcherklippe actually produced distinctive snoring sounds that day, we don’t know. For that to happen, a strong wind from the southeast must be blowing. But in Faust Goethe captured his memory of this visit in verse, as he placed his Walpurgisnacht scene here between Schierke and Elend: “And the cliffs that bow, / and the long rock noses, / how they snore, how they blow”.

To the Malerblick location
Schnarcherklippen, Kraus
© Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Georg Melchior Kraus

Artist

5 September 1784

created

Drawing with black chalk

48.7 x 39.3 cm

Classical Foundation Weimar/Museums (Goethe’s property)

Inv. No. KHz/AK 3215

Hiking tip

The hike from Schierke to the Schnarcherklippen takes about half an hour. The rocks lie directly on the Teufelsstieg. Near the cliffs, there’s also a stamping point of the Harzer Wandernadel. From the large Schnarcherklippe, you have a good view of Wurmberg and Brocken.

About the artist

The worldly Georg Melchior Kraus (1737–1806), who had studied in Kassel and Paris, was already known to the young Goethe from their shared hometown of Frankfurt am Main. Goethe said of Kraus that he was the most pleasant of companions. So he was the ideal artist for Weimar — although it wasn’t Goethe but Friedrich Justin Bertuch who brought him there. Bertuch was a publisher and businessman in Weimar, while Kraus was an illustrator and keen observer. Together they formed a strong team, and with their “Journal des Luxus und der Moden” and their “Bilderbuch für die Jugend” they shaped the taste of an entire generation in the decades before 1800. In 1776, they jointly proposed to the young Duke Carl August the creation of a “Free Drawing School” in Weimar, which was to be free for everyone and aimed to improve the education of craftsmen. Kraus remained its director until his death, while Goethe was involved as supervisor, teacher, and also as a drawing student. Another successful undertaking.

Goethe understood that only Georg Melchior Kraus could fulfil his wish for vivid illustrations of his geological speculations. The two of them took the Harz journey together from 8 August to 14 September, although Goethe occasionally had to attend to duties at court and left Kraus behind in the Harz.

For comparison

Georg Melchior Kraus after Friedrich Hieronymus Spörer, The Two Schnarcherklippen, 1785, title page from: Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von Trebra: Experiences from Inside the Mountains (1785), 

Schnarcherklippen, Spörer
© Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel

coloured etching, Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel, inv. no. M: Nf 2° 3 

The author of this book was the Clausthal mining councillor Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich von Trebra. He was Goethe’s friend and adviser on all mining and geological matters. But why is there an etching by Georg Melchior Kraus on the title page, based on a drawing of a miner? A letter that Kraus wrote at the time from Zellerfeld to his friend Bertuch in Weimar gives the answer: "Our journey is going quite well and happily, only a little slower than we thought. I lived for two whole weeks in Zellerfeld with our dear friend Mr von Trebra, where I felt very comfortable, especially during the last week when I was there alone. During the day I stayed among rocks and cliffs, ate my lunch (which I always carried in my travel bag) in the woods, and in the evening I returned happily to my cosy lodging, usually bringing with me a piece of rock — drawn — in my portfolio. The Harz offers wonderful subjects to draw, only they are a bit far apart and difficult to reach. Wherever one can get by horse I ride, and others I reach by climbing and scrambling." Can you guess why it was Kraus who made the title page for Trebra the following year? It was a thank-you for his hospitality and the good lunches. You don't push yourself forward with your own drawings when a colleague of your host has also drawn something.

Georg Heinrich Crola, The Schnarcherklippen near Schierke with the Brocken in the background, 1843, watercolour, 28.2 x 38.3 cm, inscribed lower right “Schierke. 1843 Crola”, Cultural Foundation Wernigerode 

Schnarcherklippen, Crola
© Kulturstiftung Wernigerode

Almost 60 years after Goethe’s visit, Georg Heinrich Crola depicted both Schnarcherklippen in a watercolour. He shows the surroundings bare after deforestation. A charcoal burner’s hut, sheltered by the smaller Schnarcher, hints at why this happened. Nature is in constant change, and painters’ perspectives help us to see this. Even now, it’s easy to identify the painter’s viewpoint. Do you notice that the artist slightly rotated the two rocks towards each other—so that they seem to lean towards one another like two beings?

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