Goethe in the Garden Realm

Goethe and the Garden Realm

On May 14, 1776, Johann Wolfgang Goethe traveled to Wörlitz for the first time—and returned enthusiastic. "The English try to imitate what has long been perfected here with their parks," he judged. Indeed, the Garden Realm of Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau was a European pioneering achievement: the continent's first consistently designed landscape park, a manifesto of the Enlightenment in the form of park avenues, garden pavilions, artificial volcanoes, and palace complexes. Goethe visited Wörlitz a total of seven times, and his admiration shaped later Weimar.

Themed Day in the Garden Realm Summer 2026

On the 250th anniversary of this first visit, the Garden Realm Summer 2026 dedicates an entire themed day to the relationship between Goethe and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm. On August 28—Goethe's birthday—there will be readings, tours, and exhibitions in Wörlitz and Dessau. The Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz, together with the Anhaltische Goethe-Gesellschaft, is the organizer.

Special Exhibition at the Eichenkranz

The centerpiece is the special exhibition "Goethe in the Garden Realm" at the Historischer Gasthof zum Eichenkranz in Wörlitz, which opens as early as July and runs until the end of August. Letters, prints, and contemporary documents are shown here—combined with readings and a lecture series. On the themed day itself, guided tours through Wörlitz Park, gondola rides to places visited by Goethe, and a literary evening program will complement the day's offerings.

World Heritage Region Anhalt-Dessau-Wittenberg

The Wittenberg district, where Wörlitz is administratively located, is a cultural-historical treasure trove of Saxony-Anhalt. UNESCO World Heritage in triple form (Garden Realm, Bauhaus Dessau, Luther Memorials), the Goethe era, early Romanticism around Friedrich von Schlegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust—hardly any other region in Germany combines so much intellectual history in such a small area. Anyone in the state of Saxony-Anhalt on this day should mark August 28.