AUERBACH’S KELLER RESTAURANT – LEIPZIG
Goethe’s Faust Inspiration - the Fasskeller
Barrel Ride
Just before the beginning of the First World War, 1912 to 1914, expecting a bright future for his business, a wealthy Leipzig leather manufacturer had a shopping arcade designed and built by Architect Theodor Kösser in the bustling center of the city next to the town hall. The Mädler Passage arcade would have to include one of Leipzig’s most famous landmarks, the Auerbachs Hof, the inn and restaurant where many famous figures had come to stay or dine. The medieval inn part of Auerbachs would have to go, but the restaurant would stay, and be expanded with additional dining rooms. This is the Auerbachs Keller of today, the historic dining establishment made famous by the mention of its Fasskeller (barrel cellar) in Goethe’s play of Faust, but though the restaurant is recognized mostly for its place in literature, it was well known before as a must stop in Leipzig. As the old saying goes “he who travels to Leipzig without visiting Auerbachs Yard…proves he has not seen Leipzig” Well, I have seen Leipzig. I have dined, too.
Goethe's Faust Inspiration
In 1525, Dr. Heinrich Stromer von Auerbach, a wealthy doctor, the personal physician to the Elector of Saxony, a philosopher and a merchant, began to secretly sell wine to university students in a cellar near the trade market square on Grimmaischen Gasse, and so began the story of Auerbachs Keller. One of the students who enjoyed his wine and a meal in the rowdy cellar establishment was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, studying law in Leipzig (see Goethe House Frankfurt). As most writers who use familiar ground as inspiration, in his first play based on the legend of Dr. Faustus, the doctor and philosopher who sells his soul to the devil, Goethe drew upon his surrounding and made the Auerbach wine cellar the first stop on his journey with Mephistopheles when he rides a wine barrel out of the cellar.
Dining Rooms at Auerbach's Keller
The Auerbachs Keller is actually several dining rooms in the basement spaces of the Mädler Passage and one ground level bar in the arcade passage. The historic wine rooms dating back to Goethe’s time and another famous regular guest religious reformer Martin Luther are in the historic rooms section, with the notorious Fasskeller, the Goethe Room, the Lutherstubchen and Alt Leipzig. The Grosserkeller is the main large dining room added in 1914 with wall paintings illuminating the legends of history and Faust connection, and the Mephisto Bar is upstairs, opened in 1986 offering coffee specialties and desserts in daytime and a cocktail and live music bar in the evenings. The historic rooms are smaller and seating is at a premium in the very popular restaurant, some of the rooms only bookable as groups. The historic rooms can be toured before dining begins. The menu at the Auerbachs Keller is traditional Saxonian cuisine.
Goethe makes a number of references to Auerbachs in his letters and his plays. But no-one knows where his favorite seat was. Maybe he moved around, but undoubtedly his seat had a view of the paintings in what is now the Goethe Room. In 1625, an owner of the establishment commissioned artist Andreas Bretschneider to paint a series of wood panels in the vaults, with a scenes depicting Dr Faust drinking with carousing students and then riding a wine barrel out of the cellar. This was from a street pantomime of the legend of Dr. Faust already performed in the market square of Leipzig, and perhaps inspired the young student Goethe to write his own version of the story. In the main dining room, a present day Mephisto sits astride one of the giant wine barrels, watching over the dining guests of the boisterous hall.
Visiting Auerbachs Keller of Leipzig
The Historic Wine Rooms at the Auerbachs Keller are open Monday to Saturday 6 pm to midnight, closed on Sundays and public holidays. The Großer Keller is open daily 11:30 am to midnight, and the Mephisto Bar is open daily from 11 am until - well until they decide to close, in the true carousing student and soul selling debauchery tradition. Entertainment performances are held at the Auerbachs Keller from a regular special Mephisto drinking ceremony to rock opera, check the schedule. © Bargain
Travel Europe
Find best hotel and vacation deals in Leipzig on TripAdvisor
Web
Info
Auerbachs Keller
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
See Also:
YOUNG RICHARD WAGNER 1813-1834
BATTLE OF NATIONS MONUMENT - LEIPZIG
SOPHIENKELLER BAROQUE RESTAURANT - DRESDEN
GOETHE RESIDENCE & MUSEUM - WEIMAR
ROCHLITZ CASTLE - SAXONY REFORMATION
