Here am I free, here do I belong

Our title Here am I free, here do I belong is well-chosen by us artists these days. Goethe himself used this expression in his Easter Walk under the protection of Duke Carl August, who was brought up in an enlightened spirit and in his service. For us today, in January 2025, it is an expression of freedom for creative artists and all people who live in a liberal democracy today and want to continue to live freely there! Find your own here I am human, here I am free to be!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Up to his death in the year 1832 Goethe continued focussing on his creative work. His literary remains have still a great impact on today's thinking and especially on drama. His works are read, played and researched in schools, universities, theatres, the Internet or on Television. So most people know about the key characters in his dramas like Werther, Faust, Mephistopheles etc., which have helped form our moral and intellectual understanding of the world. His prose work is, one might say, ever-present. What about his lyrical work? Do we find there anything which may rouse our interest, we may love reading, that can stir our imagination, which addresses feelings that touch our own life? To find answers to these questions we have started this project of editing some of his best known poems and ballads hoping they may cause reactions like »Oh, yes! I remember them« or »It's great to read them again«. Further reading & information about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his complete works: The German Romanticism Museum in Frankfurt am Main: https://deutsches-romantik-museum.de/en/ The Frankfurter Goethe House in Frankfurt am Main: See Website above The Goethe National Museum in Weimar: https://www.klassik-stiftung.de/en/goethe-national-museum/ Albrecht Kienow: Albrecht Kienow, an anglicist and former teacher at a grammar school has begun, after his retirement, to engage himself in adapting selected lyrical works of romantic poets using the English language. He started with the songbook of Theodor Storm, which is already available on the market. When he realized that he could do such translations successfully, he chose Goethe as the next poet and on careful deliberation he decided to discuss with me if it made sense to present also this new adaptation of Goethe's poems to a larger public. In the end he and I thought that we should venture the step of going public with his adaptations. Peter Schulte: Peter Schulte lives and works as a poetry editor in Kronberg i. Ts. As a translator, Mr Schulte has translated several standard works from English into German. Mr Schulte has worked as a private university lecturer in Germany and abroad for several years.