Irrhain Memorial Grove

Mystical place, then the mysterious order 👍

Originally, the circle of poets around Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and Johann Klaj, who founded the Order of Flowers in 1644, met in the so-called Poetenwäldchen near the Weidenmühle, a peninsula formed by an old river in the Pegnitz. After the owner of the property had made this place inaccessible by putting up a fence, the members met in the house Zum halbe Mond, which belonged to Andreas Ingolstätter. In order to be able to cultivate poetry close to nature again, the pastor of Kraftshof, Martin Limburger, suggested to the then head of the order, Sigmund von Birken, in 1676 to create a new meeting place in an overgrown oak grove near the village of Kraftshof. Limburger developed the concept of a talking garden, understanding the "mad forest" as a symbol of the "world-mad forest", which corresponded to the contemporary pietistic spirit. The work was completed in 1678, and in 1681 the Forest Almonry Office on the Sebalder side of the city confirmed to the Order of Flowers that it had received the "Irrhain" as a perpetual fief. The original labyrinthine idea was finally completely abandoned. In 1796 the snake path was abandoned because it was too costly to maintain, in 1802 further simplifications followed and in 1878 the route was changed so that it was no longer possible to get lost. In the following years the Irrhain became more and more a place for the preservation of tradition. In 1855 the Bavarian King Maximilian II visited the Order's Irrhain Festival. The entrance portal that still exists today was built in 1894 to mark the 250th anniversary. In 1944 the Irrhain was damaged by the effects of war, temporarily became overgrown and was only used for private purposes. In the Irrhain there are memorial stones from the 18th and 19th centuries dedicated to members of the order, for example an obelisk for the honorary member Christoph Martin Wieland. Of the more than thirty memorial plaques that were once attached to trees, only one remains. After 1996, four new plaques were added. In 1992, the social hut was rebuilt. Every year on the first Sunday in July the "Irrhainfest" took place, during which an "Irrhainspiel" was performed on the natural stage. The plays were mainly by Hans Sachs. (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrhain)

The Irrhain was created around 1680 as a meeting and recreation area for the members of the Pegnesian Order of Flowers. This association, founded by Georg Philipp Harsdörfer and Johann Klaj in 1644, was one of the most important Baroque language and literature societies in Germany. (The Order of Flowers still exists today, albeit with lesser significance). As the name suggests, the Irrhain was initially designed as a labyrinth; however, this was later abandoned as it was too complex - the "Don't be mistaken" on the archway thus lost the concrete meaning that it (also) had previously.
Plans to renovate the now rather overgrown complex have so far failed due to objections from the nature conservation authorities (muskrat beetle?). However, the memorial stones for Harsdörfer, Klaj, Birken and Wieland, some memorial plaques and the Schiller monument erected on the 100th anniversary of his death can still be viewed in the fake cemetery.