Revolutionary poets - Romantic painters

Oberwesel on paper and canvas

Oberwesel, romance's most beautiful retreat

"Greetings to you, Romanticism! Dreaming, I move into your most beautiful refuge on the Rhine", sang the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath about Oberwesel. Around 1840, Oberwesel was a "refuge on the Rhine" for many poets. They liked to stop off at the "Zum goldenen Pfropfenzieher" inn, where they could discuss their progressive political ideas. It was there that Hoffmann von Fallersleben sang the "Song of the Germans" for the first time in 1843, a revolutionary song at the time, as it called for political change. The third verse of this song is our national anthem today. The City Museum keeps the memory of this important event in German history alive.

English court painter creates refuge in Oberwesel

Not only famous poets sang about the beauty of the little town, but also the then famous painter Carl Haag discovered Oberwesel and created a romantic home for himself in the Red Tower. Some of his works as well as interesting information about the life, work and reception of the artist can be admired in the museum.

The city in the mirror of Rhine Romanticism

A large number of views of the town show Oberwesel during the so-called Rhine Romantic period. The first Rhine tourists were Englishmen who came to the Rhine in droves at the beginning of the 19th century. They raved about the picturesque castle ruins and the old gray towns. Many painters brought landscape paintings home with them and produced inexpensive steel engravings there.