I’m guessing that most people have heard of  of Friedrich Schiller. One of Germany’s favourite literary sons, friend of Goethe, was born right here in Württemberg (before it got joined to Baden) on this day in 1758 in the pretty town of Marbach am Neckar.In celebration of his life a few events are happening this week, and on Sunday the shops will be open! (there aren’t a huge amount of shops but who cares when it looks like this)

Schillerwoche 2016 As you can see there is plenty of chocolate box fachwerk to wander amongst, the city wall and tower are also open at the weekends. Schillers’ birth house, is now a museum and the town also houses the German Literature Archive where you can find the Museum of Modern Literature and the Schiller National Museum.

This afternoon the town children took flowers up to the Schiller memorial and… well you can see what happened there…

Tonight is Martinstag so I’m expecting St Martin and his horse followed by the towns smaller children carrying lanterns to pass by the house any minute, I really hope the weather isn’t too bad for them.

I’ve been reading a lot about Schiller the man lately, hey it’s Schiller week it would be rude not to, and though some lose something in translation, these are a couple of my favourite Schiller quotes.

Happy Schiller week to Marbach am Neckar!