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Ice flowers on the Baltic, 2026-02-21

Myles Byrne @neuroplastic.bsky.social · 22h Pargas, Southwest Finland, Finland

Wilhelm von Kaulbach's spirited re-imagining of the skating episode in Book 16 of Dichtung und Wahrheit . Kaulbach takes poetic licence to its extremes in portraying the tall, dashing Goethe skating effortlessly across the ice under the delighted eyes of his female tribe: his adoring mother, his sister Cornelia (with the snowball) and Maximiliane von La Roche (muse and friend of Goethe's and mother of Bettina von Arnim).
Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874), The young Goethe on the ice , 1867

Here Goethe is recognisably Goethe and not the god Apollo with curly locks;

the ladies in the party remain in the carriage (on the left); Goethe is shown prominently holding the train of his mother's coat, a feature which was only contained in Bettina's letter.

- Goethe auf dem Eise, Ludwig Pietsch (1824-1911)

The endless debate in German romanticism whether ice flowers (‘eisenblumen’) are alive or not:

Novalis: they are alive
Goethe: no they are dead

.. this carried on for some time.

- from a brilliant comment on ice flowers by Lucy Mercer https://www.instagram.com/p/DTKl0LjgNKm/

samsung SM-N950U

26mm · f/1.7 · 1/930s · ISO 50

Ice flowers on the Baltic, 2026-02-21