Kochberg Palace and Park
About This Site
The country seat of the von Stein family, some thirty-five kilometres south of Weimar, and the house Goethe kept riding out to. He was a regular guest between 1775 and 1788 — the years of his closest attachment to Charlotte von Stein — and the visit is still the reason to come.
Dates inked on a writing desk
In his room in the castle there is a writing desk on which he recorded his visits in ink, which the house calls its most valuable piece of furniture. It is a strange and rather moving thing to look at: not a manuscript or a portrait but a man's own tally of how often he made the journey. He put the feeling more directly in a letter — his soul, he wrote, sought her in Kochberg and often hurried over to her.
A theatre that still plays, around 1800
The estate has an amateur theatre of around 1800 — the Liebhabertheater — and it is still in use, which makes Kochberg one of the very few places in this story where a room built for the period's private theatricals is doing the thing it was built for rather than being pointed at.
Six hectares, rearranged
The park runs to six hectares and was turned from a baroque layout into a landscape garden, with grottos, a tower ruin, a bathing lake and a flower garden the house singles out. Entry to the whole is modest and it closes for the winter. It is a long way out of Weimar and that is the point: this is where the town's most documented friendship actually took place.
Questions visitors ask
- What is the connection to Goethe?
- He was a regular guest between 1775 and 1788, the years of his closest attachment to Charlotte von Stein, whose husband's family owned the house. He inked the dates of his visits onto a writing desk in his room there.
- What is the writing desk?
- A desk in Goethe's room where he recorded his visits in ink — the house calls it its most valuable piece of furniture. He put the feeling behind it in a letter: his soul, he wrote, sought her in Kochberg and often hurried over to her.
- Can I see the Liebhabertheater in use?
- The estate's amateur theatre of around 1800 is still played today.
- Can I visit, and what does it cost?
- Wednesday to Monday, 11:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays and closed in winter. €7 adults, €5 reduced, €2 for pupils aged 16–20, free under 16.
Connected Historical Figures
lady-in-waiting • author
Her husband's family seat, where she kept her own household and where Goethe was a guest for thirteen years.
writer • statesman • naturalist
A regular guest from 1775 to 1788, who inked the dates of his visits onto a desk here.
Visit Information
€7 adults; €5 reduced; €2 pupils aged 16–20; free under 16
Wed–Mon 11:00–17:00; closed Tue; closed in winter
Im Schlosshof 3, 07407 Großkochberg
Events held here
Events
Four days over Pentecost weekend, in May
A free rally for families runs here across the days.
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
The private half of the classical decade, thirty-five kilometres from the court that gets the credit.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.