Jägerstraße 51

I am a most horrible person and I have been neglecting my blog. These pesky things like "visiting family" and "my birthday" kept getting in the way of writing along with things like "cleaning up my room" and "getting my walls painted" and a hundred other things that have barely even let me out of the house let alone given me time to sit down and write.
To add to how absolutely awful I am, instead of posting in the right order or everything I've done in the last little while, I'm only going to post what I did today (I will definitely eventually get to the other stuff, though, but I still have a lot of photos to go through and plan things out et cetera et cetera).

But anyway!

Today I did something special and went to visit the Embassy of Ireland!


Oh hey, coincidentally that also happens to be Jägerstraße 51, which was the Mendelssohn & Co. Bank headquarters, what luck, eh?

Now, I've already posted a few pictures of the outside before right over here, but here are a few more, just for the sake of having them:


The building its self



The street, which is surprisingly empty and peaceful considering just how close it is to


The Gendarmenmarkt, remember this place? (by the way, I happened to hear possibly my favorite music piece today there, the second movement of Mozart's ‪Clarinet Concerto. Achjaaa.) ‬

Anyway, back to the building!



There's a little interior courtyard("innenhof", I don't care if there's a better translation) before you get to the actual exhibition which used to be the bank's carriage house which looks awful pretty all things considered



They even have a little fountain.

The exhibition takes up only one room and there isn't terribly much there, but what is there is pretty damn neat. The place is also used for concerts, Sonntagsmusiken like Fanny Hensel held in the Leipzigerstraße or just... Muisken on days besides Sundays. Tomorrow they're playing Fanny's "Das Jahr" (plus a presentation) which I wish I could go to buuut alas, I am seriously lacking in fonds right now... For some unexplainable reason. Yup.

Either way, here are some pictures of the room






I'm going to be completely honest now, I didn't take nearly as many photos as I usually did. I'm not quite sure why. Well I am but saying "I was in a state of awe" sounds so dumb. Basically though, there are a lot more neat things than I am able to post here. But I'll show what I managed to photograph anyway:


Painting of Fr. Fanny Hensel with her son, Sebastian by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel(in Italian manner for the record)


This is Pauline Felicia Henriette Mendelssohn Bartholdy or just Pauline, the first (living) child of Paul and Albertine. She died when she was 19 of, more or less unknown causes. Even the date and place, or maybe especially the date and place are uncertain. The church register states she died on the 22nd of June in Berlin her grave on the other hand says the 23rd of June in Dresden.
Either way, shortly after her death this painting was made and, as one can see in this portrait of the family, given a rather prominent place in the living room of the family

(in case anyone is as interested as me, left to right: Fanny(Paul's daughter, not Fanny Fanny), Ernst, Paul, Albertine and Gotthold - the picture was probably for their daughter Kätchen's wedding, hence she isn't on it but the letter is probably from her).

And then there was this:


Which made my year. I might possibly have mentioned before that I kind of have a bit of a thing for Paul and I've always been terrible fond of this picture. Though of course up until now I thought it was only to his shoulders and not thissss much. Ach ja, I am so very lucky I was alone in that room, I had a major fangirl moment.



Just so no one thinks I've completely abandoned Felix, they also had this wonderful bust of him which I really want to steal one day. Ach ja. They had a lot of other busts but I, being the horrible and lazy person I am only got a photo of Felix and Moses:




They also had, as mentioned before, a lot of other neat things like

(it was pretty, okay?)


Fanny (Hensel) brought this with her from her second trip to Italy in 1845 and kept it in her music room.


And these are copies of the Baptismal certificate of Fanny, Felix, Rebecka and Paul, which I found neat as well.

There are, again, a lot more things in the exhibit and it is definitely worth a visit just to be in that building (and, you know, giant Paul picture).

Here's the website!



And yes. Now that school is, basically back I'll probably write even less somehow... Or not, because I have a lot of Mendelssohn related things planned and I'm quite sure I'll somehow be able to fit in some free time to write.

Day 4 - MendelssohnHaus Leipzig + Thomaskirche

So, I haven't written in ages which is mainly because of the heat. Not only does 34+°C make it somewhat harder for me to go out and run around the city it also makes it awfully hard for me to concentrate on writing things, but since the temperature seems to be staying more in the high 20s now I should be able to get out a lot more- I just so happen to be sick now, so yeah, just my luck.

Buuut, yesterday I did go out!



Yesterday I went to Leipzig to the Mendelssohn Haus, which is the house in which Felix lived from late August 1845 till his death in 1847 and is also the only remaining Felix residence.
It's now a museum about him, a few of the rooms have been redecorated as they would have looked when he lived there based on paintings and other rooms just have... Things relating to him, like letters he and other people wrote, some of his painting, etc etc. I have pictures, they do better at explaining than I do.

The Mendelssohnhaus also has concerts every Sunday (hence going on a Sunday- I'd go any and everyday, but I actually need to get there somehow and since it'd cost me over 80€ to go there alone by train I prefer to go with my father) and if you eveer so happen to be anywhere near Leipzig I would highly recommend going to one- there is something wonderful about hearing music live, let alone how extraordinarily amazing it is to hear it in Felix Mendelssohn's house. Yesterday was, as usual, wonderful and they played piano+violincello works by Robert Schumann, Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and Freddo (I'm sorry "Frédéric") Chopin. But enough of that, on to the photos:


This is the building(his apartment is on the end of the building, right)

And here are a few more photos for good measure:


I don't quite know why I was against getting a good shot of the place, though it might just because there are so many trees blocking the view I had to take rather awkward shots.
Before the gate... Thing there's also this:


( Felix Mendelssohn spent the last years of his life here. He died on the 4th of November 1847 in this apartment)

Annnd this is what it looks like inside:





There is a map of how the place was set up, which room was which, but I figured that wouldn't have been interesting if you didn't happen to be there at the time- in retrospect it might actually have been nice but hey, next time I go I can get a picture of it too.

And, another thing I managed to forget to take a photo was was the Blue... Room... That's at very least it's actual name in German. So, to give basically an idea of what it looks like here's a photo I took of a photo of the blue room:

(Please don't sue me, Mendelssohn-Haus)

This was their dinning room and, very important (it's mentioned on the back of the postcard even) the chairs were how Felix's chairs would have looked like. They are also rather uncomfortable after a while...

Seriously lacking in the photo is what else is in the room, though:

This is some of Felix and Cecile's silverware and I might be odd but I find it hilarious. But Felix ate with those, so there's that.

And then there's this

The portrait is really quite hard to see because of the lighting (and thus even harder to get a good photograph of) but it's lovely all the same, of course. I also love to imagine he really did have that in his dinning room and had all the guests stare at it.

Underneath the portrait is a guestbook and, for whatever reason, yesterday was the first day I actually wrote in it (or, in this case, drew)

You don't know how hard it was for me not to draw a whole page full of Felix. I deserve some kind of medal.

The next room is green and there's a piano in it and some portraits...



Here's Felix


And, somehow, I managed to miss this portrait every time I had been there before

Hiya Klingemann! (there's also a picture of Ignaz Moscheles
but I am horrible and didn't take a picture of him. Go check it out yourself.)




The next room is more just a bunch of his stuff/stuff having to do with him






The fancy "EherenBurger" diploma

This is a page out of Carl Klingemann's diary

And this is his son Karl's little jacketthing

Following that, we have to return to the hallway since 1.) the next room is closed off to visitors and 2.) Mr. Mendelssohn Bust



I really love the bust there and it brings up at least one question... See, they do sell two different busts at the MendelssohnHaus but, dare I say, neither of them look all that hot. But THIS bust, I would buy it in a heartbeat. So I wonder, why on earth don't they make nice ones like this? Oh well, woe is me.

Either way


This is Cecile's little room, is it not darling?


And this is a traveling trunk


(and this is a better shot from one of my books, please don't sue me)
The case was given to Felix by some of his English friends, it is unknown if he ever actually used it and it was made sometime in 1840. And you can buy a postcard of it for 75¢ at the Mendelssohn Haus!

The next room is my favorite in the house, of course

Felix's office. In which he, as EVERYONE says "wrote Elias". I actually have a much more fun time imagining him, for example, writing a letter to Klingemann in that room. Or writing to the king that works too. Or, even more fun, scribbling around and goofing off...
Or, you know, writing Elias I guess that's neat too.

Now the room is off limits for most people but if you're superspecialawesome* you can actually go in there and stand in his room. I don't think I need to mention how awesome standing in that room is. I didn't do it this time around, but last time I went, and yeah. Dream come true right there. Siiigh.



Anyway!

Right next to Felix's office is the living room:


And then there are a few rooms with things like a model of the Gewandhaus, some of his paintings (which, no, I didn't take a picture of and I'm much too horrible to go through my old photos to find some pictures of his paintings. Instead I'll just say you should go to Leipzig because the paintings are much neater live anyway)

Annnd there is the alcove, which is a tiny little thing where Felix and Cecile slept and where Felix died. It's such a cheery part of the house!




As you can see, a bunch of things surrounding Felix's death from a paper article about his death, a program to what they played at his funeral, a lock of his hair, a letter his wife wrote after his death and his death mask


To end the house on a nicer note, there is also the musiksalon


This is were Felix and whoever happened to be visiting would have played and where they hold the Sonntagsmusik now as well.


There is also a very nice little garden to the house and this fellow:

(assuming you can see any roses there, they're also "Felix Mendelssohn" roses.)


Annnd that was his house.




The next place I went in Leipzig was the Thomaskirche, which is also a wonderful place to go if you happen to be a Bach fan (both for the historical importance as well as all the gift shops and the likes).

Felix also had a fair bit to do with and around the Thomaskirche, he preformed works fairly often there and even preformed the Matthäuspassion there, the first time in Leipzig since Bach's death (Mendelssohn had a thing for doing that)

Outside the church they have this nifty advertisement for the MendelssohnHaus

Which calls Felix the guy who "rediscovered Bach" (which is, actually, as I have been informed, a weeeee bit of an exaggeration...)

This is the inside of the church

And there are stained-glass windows to

Bach

annnnd



Mr. Mendelssohn, of course.

Outside, at the back of the church is (but, do not fret, directly at the street) there is this


Which is one of the reasons I want to live in Leipzig. I want to live in a city that has a statue of Felix. (Well, and it's supposed to have some decent schools).


The original statue was actually built in 1892 buuut of course, when the Nazis came into power they couldn't actually keep a statue of the "Vollbultjude" Mendelssohn, now could they? They removed the statue on the 9th to 10th of November in the year 1936, no one is quite sure what actually became of the statue. There are actually a lot of interesting things surrounding the statue, enough that they even wrote a whole book about it, but either way, in October 2008 they remade the statue based off of the old one for Mendelssohn's 200th birthday in 2009.





and, as a wee bit of an injoke

The statue has an awfully nice back.