Goethe Dwelled Here

“Ich irrer Wandrer
Fühlt erst auf dir
Besitzthums Freuden
Und Heimats Glück.

Da, wo wir lieben,
Ist Vaterland;
Wo wir genießen,
Ist Hof und Haus.”

(As a crazy wanderer
Only here I felt
Joy of possession
And bliss of home.

Where we love
Is fatherland,
And where we enjoy
Are house and yard.)

As a young man, Goethe used to visit his friend Merck, walking over from Frankfurt (some 17 miles), in the early 1770s. 

To commemorate his relationship to Darmstadt a small pond two miles southeast of the city is named after him. And on its shore this massive plaque was installed.

The wooden ship is one of the exhibits at nearby International Forest Art Trail, Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany.