According to tradition, before the renovation, this is where the room was in which, in 1755, Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born. „Am 28. August 1749, mittags mit dem Glockenschlage zwölf, kam ich in Frankfurt am Main auf die Welt“.

This is how Johann Wolfgang Goethe begins the story of his life in Poetry and Truth and reports further that the birth was very difficult. Only after long efforts could the half-dead newborn be revived. As a result, Goethe’s grandfather, the town mayor Textor, had the Frankfurt midwives trained in obstetrics.

During the refurnishing of the Goethe House in the 19th century this space was made into a memorial room. Today there are no beds in the furnishings of the Goethe House. Beds with curtains on all sides were typical of the 18th century, but there were also simple models. Also absent today is a toilet, which was located in the courtyard.

Goethe’s Poetry and Truth. From My Life begins with a glance at the stars:

It was on the 28th of August, 1749, at the stroke of twelve noon, that I came into the world in Frankfurt on the Main. The constellation was auspicious: the Sun was in Virgo and at its culmination for the day. Jupiter and Venus looked amicably upon it, and Mercury was not hostile. Saturn and Mars maintained indifference. Only the Moon, just then becoming full, was in a position to exert adverse force, because its planetary hour had begun. It did, indeed, resist my birth, which did not take place until this hour had passed.

Goethe: From My Life. Poetry and Truth, part 1 , book 1