The Congress of Erfurt, 1808
From 27 September to 14 October 1808 Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in Erfurt with the princes of the Rhine Confederation — and on 6 October the congress came to Weimar.
The Congress of Erfurt brought Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I together in Erfurt from 27 September to 14 October 1808, with the German princes of the Rhine Confederation gathered around them for more than two weeks of receptions, excursions, hunts and theatre every evening.[1] It is the moment Erfurt and Weimar shared one stage: in Erfurt Napoleon received Goethe in the governor's palace, and on 6 October the two emperors came to Weimar for a stag hunt on the Ettersberg, a performance by the Paris actors and a court ball, and Goethe spoke with Napoleon a second time that day.[2] Anyone touring both towns can still follow it on the ground — the Kaisersaal and the Statthalterei in Erfurt, the lime trees in the forest on the Ettersberg above Weimar.
Why Erfurt, 1806–1808
Erfurt was occupied by the French without a fight on 17 October 1806, the day after the double battle of Jena and Auerstedt, and a decree of Napoleon's on 4 August 1807 declared it an imperial domain — a town where the emperor himself could play host.[3] By 1808 he needed such a stage. His army had suffered a heavy defeat at Bailén in Spain in July, Austria was preparing for war, and the alliance with Russia made at Tilsit in 1807 had cooled. He invited the Tsar to a congress in Erfurt, then a French exclave in Thuringia, and because the German princes of the Rhine Confederation came in large numbers, the meeting also served as a display of power in front of his Russian partner.[1]
27 September – 14 October 1808: the stage in Erfurt
Napoleon entered Erfurt on the morning of 27 September 1808 and received the Tsar near the town the same day.[3] For the whole congress he lived and worked on the first floor of the Statthalterei, called the Imperial Palace for the occasion and fitted out with tapestries, bronzes and chandeliers lent from Paris: his study for the negotiations lay in the Renaissance wing, his bedroom and audience rooms in the Baroque wing. The monarchs dined each evening at six and went on to the theatre in the old university Ballhaus in the Futterstraße.[4] There the Comédie-Française, ordered to Erfurt by Napoleon, played tragedies by Corneille, Racine and Voltaire around François-Joseph Talma, the most celebrated actor of his day, with the plays chosen by the emperor himself; at Voltaire's Oedipus on 3 October Alexander rose and embraced Napoleon to roaring applause.[5] The violinist Niccolò Paganini also played before the two emperors.[1]
2 October 1808: Goethe meets Napoleon
Goethe came over from Weimar on 29 September at the duke's call, took his usual quarters in the Geleitshaus, saw several performances and on 1 October attended the imperial lever, the morning reception open only to a chosen few.[3] The next day, at about eleven, he was summoned and found Napoleon at table with Daru and Talleyrand.[6] The audience took place in the bay-window room of the Baroque wing of the Statthalterei and lasted a full hour.[4] In Goethe's own account the emperor looked him over closely and said "Vous êtes un homme"; the more widely repeated version is "Voilà un homme".[1] They talked about French theatre and literature and above all about Werther, which Napoleon, as Goethe later put it, had studied through and through, and the emperor invited him to Paris to write a Caesar drama better than Voltaire's. Goethe set down his report of the conversation on 15 February 1824.[5]
6 October 1808: the emperors in Weimar
For the emperors' visit Duke Carl August settled on a banquet, a court ball and a great stag hunt on the Ettersberg for the first day, and a second hunt in the hills towards Jena for the next.[2] The hunt of 6 October brought together Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I, King Friedrich August of Saxony and many German and European dukes, princes and counts; on a clearing in the forest stood an open, festively decorated tent hall carried by 26 posts.[7] In the evening the French actors gave a guest performance in Weimar at Napoleon's command, which Goethe organised with the French intendant.[2] After the hunt and the dinner came Voltaire's "La Mort de César", and after the play the great ball, to which Goethe and Wieland were both invited.[8] It was on this day in Weimar that Goethe had his second conversation with Napoleon.[2]
6 October 1808: Wieland at the ball
Wieland, 75 years old, had meant to stay away from court and ball. But Napoleon had seen him at the play in a box close to his own seat and asked for him twice; the duchess sent word and a court carriage, and Wieland appeared in the ballroom in his everyday dress — a skullcap, unpowdered, without a sword and in cloth boots.[8] The Swiss historian Johannes von Müller introduced him to the emperor, who called Wieland "Germany's Voltaire".[6] Napoleon talked with him as if they had known each other for years, and when the old poet could stand no longer he asked to be dismissed, a request the emperor granted kindly.[8] Wieland wrote down the conversation that same evening and ended with the sentence that it seemed to him he had conversed with a man of bronze.[6]
7 October 1808: the battlefield of Jena
The next morning, soon after ten, the emperors arrived on the Landgrafenberg above Jena, where Napoleon had drawn up his battle plan in the night before 14 October 1806. On the plateau stood a small Doric temple with a portico modelled on the Roman House in Weimar's park, and in front of it Napoleon explained the battle to Alexander on a map held by Carl August. He granted the University of Jena a substantial donation from his Erfurt domain and the town an indemnity of 300,000 francs; then the emperors rode across the battlefield, and the afternoon belonged to a hare hunt on the dukes' old hunting ground near Apolda. The whole setting was Goethe's work, a task the duke had given him only on 30 September, while Goethe himself stayed in Weimar that day.[2]
12–14 October 1808: a treaty and two decorations
On 12 October the emperors concluded a treaty of alliance.[1] The Erfurt Convention, in fourteen articles, called on Britain to end its war against France, recognised Russia's conquest of Finland, and committed Russia to help France if war with Austria came; the two emperors left for home on 14 October, and Erfurt remained their last meeting.[9] On 14 October Napoleon awarded Goethe and Wieland the Légion d'honneur,[5] together with the physician Professor Stark and Mayor Vogel of Jena.[3] Alexander honoured Goethe with the Russian Order of St Anne[2] and gave Wieland the same order.[8]
What remains, 1813–today
In 1813, after Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig, an Austrian general quartered in Goethe's house made him take off the French order.[10] On the Ettersberg Carl August had 26 lime trees planted in 1817, one for each post of the great hunting tent, and a plain limestone inscribed only with the year 1808 — the Napoleonstein — marks the clearing.[7] The Kaiserlinden stand a short way west of the Ettersberg settlement on the Großer Ettersberg.[11] In Erfurt the university theatre in the Futterstraße has carried the name Kaisersaal since the emperors' visit; rebuilt with its classical façade in 1831, it is a culture and congress centre today.[12] The Statthalterei, where Goethe met Napoleon, has been the seat of the Thuringian State Chancellery since 1994.[4]
Questions visitors ask
- When did the Congress of Erfurt take place?
- From 27 September to 14 October 1808. Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in Erfurt, then an imperial French domain, with the princes of the Rhine Confederation;[1][3] on 6 and 7 October the programme moved to Weimar and Jena.[2]
- Where did Goethe meet Napoleon?
- In the Statthalterei in Erfurt, on 2 October 1808 at about eleven, in the bay-window room of the Baroque wing; the audience lasted about an hour.[6][4] A second conversation followed on 6 October in Weimar.[2] The Statthalterei is the seat of the Thuringian State Chancellery today.[4]
- Did Napoleon really say "Voilà un homme" to Goethe?
- In Goethe's own account the words were "Vous êtes un homme"; "Voilà un homme" is the version repeated more widely.[1] Goethe wrote his report of the audience in 1824.[5]
- What happened in Weimar during the congress?
- On 6 October 1808 Duke Carl August received the emperors with a stag hunt on the Ettersberg, a guest performance by the Paris actors organised by Goethe,[2] a dinner, Voltaire's "La Mort de César" and a court ball, at which Napoleon talked with Wieland.[8]
- Did Goethe and Wieland receive the Légion d'honneur?
- Yes. Napoleon awarded both poets the Légion d'honneur on 14 October 1808,[5] and Alexander I gave each of them the Russian Order of St Anne.[2][8]
- What can a visitor see of the congress today?
- In Erfurt the Kaisersaal in the Futterstraße, where the French actors played, and the Statthalterei, where Napoleon lived and received Goethe;[4] above Weimar the 26 Kaiserlinden and the Napoleonstein on the clearing of the hunt of 1808 on the Ettersberg.[7]
Sources (12)
- Erfurter Fürstenkongress — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- »… eine wunderbare Aussicht zur Vereinigung deutscher und französischer Vorstellungsarten.« Goethe und Weimar im Rheinbund — Gerhard Müller, Jahrbuch der Klassik Stiftung Weimar 2008, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Goethes Audienz bei Napoleon — Erfurt-Lese, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Kurmainzische Statthalterei — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Die Franzosen in der Stadt – Fürstenkongress, Napoleon und Goethe (1806–1814) — Literaturland Thüringen (Detlef Ignasiak, Das literarische Thüringen), retrieved 13 September 2026
- Erfurt 1808. The Emperor honours German literature — Fondation Napoléon, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Napoleonstein auf dem Ettersberg — Weimar-Lese, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Napoleon in Weimar — Weimar-Lese, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Congress of Erfurt — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Vortrag über die Verbindung zwischen Goethe und Napoleon — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Kaiserlinden (Weimar) — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Kaisersaal Erfurt — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
Historical figures
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
Goethe met Napoleon in the Erfurt Statthalterei on 2 October 1808 and again in Weimar on 6 October, and received the Légion d'honneur on 14 October.
1733–1813 • writer • poet • translator
At the Weimar court ball of 6 October 1808 Napoleon asked for Wieland and talked with him at length, and the congress ended with the Légion d'honneur for him.
1757–1828 • duke • grand duke • patron
Duke Carl August hosted the emperors in Weimar and Jena on 6 and 7 October 1808 and called Goethe to Erfurt for the congress.
Historic sites
Historic sites
Petersberg 3, 99084 Erfurt
During the Congress of Erfurt in 1808 Napoleon visited the fortress on the Petersberg, accompanied by Tsar Alexander I.
Period
1775–1832
The congress brought Napoleon face to face with Goethe and Wieland, the two great poets of classical Weimar.
Stay and eat nearby
Around Weimar
20 km West
Erfurt, a French imperial domain since 1807, hosted the congress from 27 September to 14 October 1808 in the Statthalterei and the old university theatre now called the Kaisersaal.
19 km East
On 7 October 1808 Napoleon showed Tsar Alexander the battlefield of 1806 from the Landgrafenberg above Jena, in a setting designed by Goethe.
Northeast
The hare hunt of 7 October 1808 was held on the dukes' old hunting ground near Apolda.