The “Good Luck Stone”
Altar der Agathe Tyche
The «Good Luck Stone» or «Altar of Agathe Tyche», that is the name of the monument that at the beginning of the year 1777, Goethe had erected in the meadows along the Ilm outside Weimar: Its shape was rather simple: a sphere atop a massive square stone. The monument still stands here today very near the summer house where Goethe lived at that time. The monument was very special for the 28-year-old Goethe: one year before he had moved from Frankfurt to Weimar and here he had met a wonderful woman: Charlotte von Stein. She was his «soul mate», calming her restless friend who felt like «a ball being thrown by one hour to the next». The monument was a birthday present for Charlotte von Stein. Its meaning derives from the dedication to «Agathe Tyche», the «Goddess of Accident», who was often venerated as the patron of a town’s fortune in antiquity.
Dr. phil. Karen Michels, Hamburg