An Afternoon with Friedrich von Schiller in Jena - May 26, 1789

The Saale River lay languidly in its bed as I walked across the Camsdorf Bridge into Jena in the early afternoon. It was one of those days in late May when the light falls so generously over Thuringia that even the most modest alleyways take on a festive air. And festive it was; you could feel it immediately. Students in dark coats thronged the narrow streets, stood in small groups in front of the university building, talking amongst themselves. There was an excitement in the air, the kind that rarely grips small university towns.