Caspar David Friedrich stele on the Bächelweg in Krippen
Caspar David Friedrich spent the most productive time of his life in Saxony.
Friedrich came to Saxon Switzerland several times to hike and draw. From spring to summer 1813, the painter with the distinctive moustache even lived here for several months at a time. In the tranquil village of Krippen on the Elbe, in the house of his friend Friedrich Gotthelf Kummer, he sought refuge from the war and Napoleon, whom he hated. Saxony is the main theater of the Wars of Liberation. Prussians, Russians and French take it in turns to march through Dresden. The fateful Battle of the Nations near Leipzig is imminent. Creating peaceful landscape impressions in a year of war: This is difficult for the sensitive and melancholic artist, who also sees himself as a patriot and takes a passionate interest in political events. "I've been out of Dresden for more than 14 days and live here in a very pleasant area. My stay here could be very useful to me if the events of the time had not so completely upset my mind and made me incapable of starting anything," he wrote in a letter to a friend on March 31.inspired by the mystical rocky world of Saxon Switzerland, he collected inspiration for later works in his "Krippener Skizzenbuch", including "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog".
This new monument to the artist on the Bächelweg in Krippen is a reminder of this. Based on historical signpost pillars, as they once gave the Romantic painters orientation in nature, the one and a half meter high sandstone stele will in future mark the Caspar David Friedrich Trail beginning in Krippen.
The monument was created by stonemason Jan Lorenz.
Hiking suggestion: Caspar-David-Friedrich-Weg
On narrow paths to the Kohlbornstein
The Caspar David Friedrich Trail has been nominated as "Germany's Most Beautiful Hiking Trail 2025". You can vote here until 30.06.25.
Friedrich came to Saxon Switzerland several times to hike and draw. From spring to summer 1813, the painter with the distinctive moustache even lived here for several months at a time. In the tranquil village of Krippen on the Elbe, in the house of his friend Friedrich Gotthelf Kummer, he sought refuge from the war and Napoleon, whom he hated. Saxony is the main theater of the Wars of Liberation. Prussians, Russians and French take it in turns to march through Dresden. The fateful Battle of the Nations near Leipzig is imminent. Creating peaceful landscape impressions in a year of war: This is difficult for the sensitive and melancholic artist, who also sees himself as a patriot and takes a passionate interest in political events. "I've been out of Dresden for more than 14 days and live here in a very pleasant area. My stay here could be very useful to me if the events of the time had not so completely upset my mind and made me incapable of starting anything," he wrote in a letter to a friend on March 31.inspired by the mystical rocky world of Saxon Switzerland, he collected inspiration for later works in his "Krippener Skizzenbuch", including "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog".
This new monument to the artist on the Bächelweg in Krippen is a reminder of this. Based on historical signpost pillars, as they once gave the Romantic painters orientation in nature, the one and a half meter high sandstone stele will in future mark the Caspar David Friedrich Trail beginning in Krippen.
The monument was created by stonemason Jan Lorenz.
Hiking suggestion: Caspar-David-Friedrich-Weg
On narrow paths to the Kohlbornstein
The Caspar David Friedrich Trail has been nominated as "Germany's Most Beautiful Hiking Trail 2025". You can vote here until 30.06.25.
