Faust: From Auerbachs Keller to the Brocken

Mephistopheles takes Faust to a tavern, where Faust is bored and disgusted by the drunken revelers. Goethe knew the place well: he studied in Leipzig from 1765 to 1768 and loved this wine bar, where he saw paintings of the legendary Johann Georg Faust drinking with students. Today the restaurant lies below the Mädlerpassage, and sculptures of Mephisto and Faust and of Bewitched Students stand at the entrance.

Visitor guidance: Still a restaurant below the Mädlerpassage, Grimmaische Strasse 2; the sculptures mark the entrance.

To distract Faust, Mephistopheles takes him to a Witches' Sabbath on Walpurgis Night. Folk belief says witches gather on the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains, and in the play they sing: "The witches ride to the Brocken's top." The peak rises 1,141 m near Schierke in Saxony-Anhalt, and Goethe may have drawn on two summit rock formations, the Devil's Pulpit and the Witches' Altar. Today the narrow-gauge Brocken Railway runs to the summit station, and the Goethe Way trail leads up.

Visitor guidance: Take the Brocken Railway, or hike the Goetheweg trail to the summit.

Faust II carries the story from German hills to ancient Greece. Homunculus, the artificial human created by Wagner, leads Faust and Mephistopheles to the Classical Walpurgisnacht, a night of gods and monsters from Greek antiquity. Goethe's scene is titled "Pharsalische Felder", and the witch Erichtho opens it, speaking of the "Schauderfeste", the feast of horror, of this night. Faust is still searching for Helen of Troy. Modern Farsala lies at the southern edge of the Thessalian Plain.

Location precision: The play sets the scene on the Pharsalian Fields in ancient Thessaly; the pin marks modern Farsala on the Thessalian Plain.

The third act opens before the palace of Menelaus at Sparta, with Helen's arrival. The hideous Phorkyas, at the hearth, warns her that Menelaus means to sacrifice her and her attendants, and Helen begs to be saved. Phorkyas then carries them to Faust's fortress. The pin marks the Menelaion, an archaeological site on a ridge about 5 km from Sparta; the Spartans dedicated this shrine to Menelaus and Helen.

Location precision: The palace is Goethe's stage setting; the Menelaion, a shrine to Menelaus and Helen near Sparta, is only a traditional stand-in.

After Faust defeats Menelaus' army, the play moves to Arcadia, which Goethe sets "in Spartas Nachbarschaft", next to Sparta. There Faust and Helen have a spirited son, Euphorion. The wild boy grows bolder in his flight and falls to his death, and Helen disappears after him. Real Arcadia occupies the highlands at the centre of the Peloponnese, so the pin marks the region rather than one place.

Location precision: Goethe only places Arcadia next to Sparta; the pin marks the region in the Peloponnese highlands, not a single spot.