Karoline von Günderrode takes us to distant lands and fantastic spheres. She was an extremely prolific and cosmopolitan author who combined myths from different cultures. In the poem Adonis Todtenfeyer, she combines an ancient Greek tale with a reflection on the pain of love.

The station shows the biographical background, the relationship with Friedrich Creuzer, who prevented the publication of Günderrode's Melete collection. However, the poem Adonis Todtenfeyer contained in it can also speak for itself. You don't have to relate it to the author's life. It revolves around the prototypical most beautiful of all men: Adonis. Günderrode's poem is a reaction to two Adonis sonnets by Creuzer. In them, he thematizes the death of Adonis, who is transformed into a rose by the tearful lament of his lover Aphrodite. Creuzer's sonnets show that grief can be overcome through poetry. Günderrode, on the other hand, sets a brilliant poem of lamentation that never lets the pain of love end. Also, she shows that this lamentation is not purely a female issue. According to her poem, all people can mourn equally.

Günderrode's interpretation also shows her precise knowledge of ancient literature. This is because she artfully ties in with a late Hellenistic author named Bion of Smyrna. In his work, it is not just Aphrodite who laments, but an entire community along with her. Günderrode picks up on this by calling on all people to mourn together. Her innovative play with ancient myths was and is all too often obscured by biographical readings. Her texts are often reduced to a depiction of (supposedly female) love-pain and intimate longing for death, not least because her work was edited and commented on by men and their perspectives. The diversity and virtuosity of her literature is thereby neglected.