Gabelbach Castle

The Gabelbach Hunting Lodge is a small hunting castle in the Thuringian Forest not far from Ilmenau. It was built in 1783 and is now a Goethe Museum.

Location
The hunting lodge is located on the Gabelbach stream about three kilometers south of Ilmenau. In its vicinity are the Berghotel Gabelbach and the Kickelhahn. The Gabelbach Hunting Lodge is a stop on the Goethe Hiking Trail Ilmenau-Stützerbach. It can be reached via the road from Ilmenau to Frauenwald and Neustadt am Rennsteig.

History
The Gabelbach Hunting Lodge was built in 1783. The builder was Duke Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. It bears late Baroque features but is a rather simple building. At the beginning of the 19th century, the house was often visited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, among other things, conducted scientific studies here. Karl Ludwig von Knebel was also a frequent guest at the hunting lodge during his time in Ilmenau.

During a visit by Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in 1852, the idea arose to build an observation tower on the nearby Kickelhahn, which was realized three years later.

The building later also served for meetings of the Gabelbach Community, to which writers such as Joseph Victor von Scheffel, Friedrich Hofmann, Rudolf Baumbach, or Theodor Fontane belonged or were close.

Until 1920, the house belonged to the State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, then to the State of Thuringia, from 1952 to the district of Ilmenau, and finally, since 1964, to the predecessor organizations of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, which made it accessible as a museum in 1969. In 1995, the building was renovated.

Museum
The museum displays Goethe's scientific studies, as well as those of other scientists and forestry studies. It is open on weekends and is still under the patronage of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, which, however, intends to divest itself of the house.

In front of the building are several memorial stones of the Gabelbach Community.