Apfelweibl – the brass face that inspired Hoffmann (11 photos)

In the old town of Bamberg, where Gothic spires pierce the sky and the cobblestone streets remember the quiet footsteps of medieval craftsmen, an unusual guardian guards the peace and security of one door.





This door handle, cast from brass in the shape of an old woman's whimsical face, is not just a decorative element, but a tribute to one of the city's most famous residents—the writer and composer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann.



Bamberg

Several years before his Nutcracker conquered the world, Hoffmann lived in this Bavarian city from 1808 to 1813. The spirit of Bamberg, with its mysteries and Gothic aesthetics, permeated the writer's work. Today, traces of his stay can be found everywhere, but the most charming and literary of them lies on the doorstep of his friend and later publisher, Karl Friedrich Kunz.





Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

This pen, with its sly and mocking face, has become a literary monument. It has found immortality in the pages of Hoffmann's novella "The Golden Pot." In it, a young student, fleeing headlong from an old apple seller whose basket he accidentally knocked over, sees her grimacing face reflected in the gleam of the doorknob. He faints. Thus, the brass face became a bridge between the reality of the city and the phantasmagorical world of its great citizen.



You won't be able to touch the authentic legend here. The handle that adorns the door today is a skillfully crafted copy. The original, bearing invisible traces of Master Hoffmann's own fingertips, is carefully preserved within the walls of the Bamberg City Historical Museum to prevent theft or damage.



Apfelweibla

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Original At the museum







Glass ornaments in the shape of the famous pen