Goethe-Museum-Düsseldorf

	Goethe worked on Faust almost to the end of his life, so it is appropriate that the next and last room is devoted to his final Years. A portrait in oils by Gerhard von Kügelgen shows the poet’s face at the age of sixty-one; the busts by Christian Friedrich Tieck and Christian Daniel Rauch depict him when he was seventy-one, and the portrait by Heinrich Kolbe conveys the sorrows and cares of the seventy-seven-year-old.
Two cases with mementos of his visits to Frankfurt in 1814 and 1815 contain the most precious fruits of these journeys along the Main and the Rhine:Goethe’s manuscripts of poems for the “Buch Suleika” (Book of Suleika), one of the twelve books of the West-östlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan), among them a fair copy of the poem “Vollmondnacht” (At Full Moon) and “Gingko biloba”.
	The poems addressed to Suleika were for a lady from Frankfurt, Marianne von Willemer, whom Goethe met for the last time in September 1815 at the castle of Heidelberg. Goethe depicted the scene of their parting in a watercolour,which is exhibited next to the Suleika poems.
On the first of these two journeys along the Rhine and the Main, Goethe met the composer Zelter, who was later to become the most intimate friend in old age. Zelter was the first to whom Goethe showed his poem Marienbader Elegie, which he wrote in 1823 after the painful parting from Ulrike von Levetzow, whose coloured relief can be seen next to the poem.
	The friendship with Zelter is documented by a showcase containing the composer’s manuscript settings to several Goethe poems. The visitor will also see a portrait of Zelter by Johann Eduard Wolff. Goethe’s publication of his extensive correspondence with his friend was largely intended to provide a source of income for his family after his death. It was for the same reason that he published a new edition of his collected works in 1828. The last showcase is devoted to this edition and preserves the memory of the faithful companions who assisted with it.
The family portraits are by Joseph Friedrich Raabe and Louise Seidler. The last case offers the visitors a small watercolour of the room in which Goethe died. The moving sight of the dead poet’s head, crowned with laurel, is conveyed in a drawing by Preller. A schedule of January 1832, partially written in Goethe’s own hand, is no less touching, as the poet does not live long enough to carry out some of his plans. Opposite the schedule lies the manuscript of Goethe’s contract with Eckermann concerning the posthumous edition of his works, particularly Faust II, which was published in its entirety shortly after the poets death.