Frankfurt Leisure Diary | Visit to Goethe House

Central Station and Transportation

During these days in Frankfurt, it feels like I’m just wandering around nearby. It takes about half an hour by transport from the central station to the attractions, making it a very relaxed trip!

Central Station has various modes of transportation, and the ones we use most often are U-Bahn and S-Bahn, although I still don’t quite understand the specific differences between them (?

Arrival at Goethe House

After exiting the station, it takes about a five-minute walk to see the sign for Goethe Haus, but you actually have to turn a corner and walk a bit more to reach the entrance. Goethe House perfectly embodies the German tendency to make entrances quite discreet; the entrance is very inconspicuous, and if it weren’t for Google Maps, I might not have found it…

This also led me to believe it was a small museum, but in fact, the exhibition hall is divided into several parts, and it takes about 2-3 hours to explore completely.

This is also not the entrance… Hehe

Admission and Visit

After entering, we first bought tickets and stored our backpacks. I really like places with lockers~ and here, they are almost free! Wandering through the exhibition with empty hands is truly one of life’s great pleasures, although I often still carry an audio guide or something similar.

There is even a thoughtful Chinese version~ Finally, I don’t have to look at the English explanations and feel half-understood.

Exhibits and Interesting Discoveries

• There is a planetarium on one floor (although I didn’t take a photo, I recorded it in a vlog).
• The “instrument” above is actually a clothes folding machine! I originally thought it was a photocopier, but it was completely different. It also mentioned the introduction of Frankfurt cabinets: “The wardrobe is very large and can hold the clothes of an entire family; they probably wash their clothes three times a year.” I was completely shocked; did ancient people really not care about cleanliness…?
• The garden’s flow design requires you to return the same way, unlike other museums that have another exit.

After exploring the garden, I returned to the building where the ticket office is located. There is an inconspicuous staircase, and going up reveals a new world; I never expected Goethe House to be so large…

Most of the exhibition areas are about Romanticism writers, and each writer has an introduction postcard that makes you want to collect them all! But be careful not to take duplicates.

• It resembles the miniature paintings of the Chinese Treasure Pavilion, similar to the paintings in art textbooks.
• The Frankfurt Historical Museum also has many such miniature paintings.
• Many buildings have spiral staircases, which are dizzying to walk but look great in photos.
• The way exhibits are displayed is very unique; some are in cabinets that require pulling a handle to see.

Interactive Experience: Typewriter Translation of Poetry

There is a great interactive experience in the exhibition: Typewriter Translation of Literature.
It provides poetry in French (and other languages), and visitors can try translating it themselves, and in the end, they can print their own translations.

The left screen displays the poetry, and the highlighted parts have German annotations elsewhere on the screen.
If you don’t know German, that’s okay; there are already translated versions available to view.
(I just wish there were English translations!)

I originally wanted to try translating, but since I don’t know German at all, I gave up. After randomly trying to translate a sentence and finding it too difficult, I abandoned it (12:50).

Exhibition Reflections

I think despite the inconvenient flow, German exhibitions are still very worth learning from.

• The exhibits are rich and interactive.
• The display methods are meticulous, allowing for immersion.
• Every time I see a portrait, I envy the Westerners’ prominent noses XD

Conclusion

Let’s conclude the review of Goethe House here~ See you at the next attraction!