Out of the city and across the river: Jörg Jacob invites you to follow in Seume’s footsteps

Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar: Zum deutschen Artikel.

Get out of the city for a change – even if it’s just a Sunday outing. There are plenty of worthwhile destinations in the area around Leipzig. And next Sunday, 26 July, from 11.00 am, there’s a special event starting on the banks of the Mulde near Grimma Abbey Church: a literary and musical walk with the Leipzig-based author Jörg Jacob, who – at the original starting point – invites you to follow in the footsteps of Johann Gottfried Seume, who set off from here in Grimma to walk to Syracuse.

In 1802, Johann Gottfried Seume (1763–1810) set off on his famous ‘Walk to Syracuse’ from Grimma, where he worked as a proofreader for the publisher Georg Joachim Göschen, who was also his friend. Seume covered 6,000 kilometres on foot to reach Syracuse in Italy. The result of this journey on foot was his book *A Walk to Syracuse*, which is still widely read today and which inspired many other authors, not only in the 19th century, to write similar ‘walking’ books from their own unique perspectives.

The book also inspired the Leipzig writer Jörg Jacob to write ‘Twelve Essays on Walking’, which were subsequently published by Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung under the title ‘Out of the City and Across the River’. In 2023, he was awarded the 12th Seume Literature Prize for this work. In cooperation with the International Johann Gottfried Seume Society “ARETHUSA” e.V., this literary and musical walk along the River Mulde is now taking place.

Together, we will set off from the meeting point at the Grimma Monastery Church into the countryside of the Mulde Valley. At several listening points and stops along the way, excerpts from Jörg Jacobs’ book will be presented alongside improvisations and compositions by Maria Schüritz (winner of the 2024 Saxony Pop Music Competition, interdisciplinary projects category). The sound artist uses her ‘upcyclophones’ for this – homemade instruments made from rubbish and discarded items, along with her voice, a loop station and effects units; all of which are suitable for a walk thanks to battery-powered technology.

The musically accompanied literary walk lasts about an hour. And it takes you through the enchanting Mulde landscape that Johann Gottfried Seume always had before his eyes from 1797 onwards. The shoemaker Heerdegen had made him a good pair of shoes. The boots lasted the entire journey – he only had to have them resoled twice.

In his book, Jörg Jacob also encounters other famous walkers – Petrarch and Joseph Roth, for example. And he recalls moments from his childhood when his mother’s sewing patterns seemed to him like maps, invitations to embark on great walks out into the world. The day in Grimma is likely to inspire Mhance to once again indulge in the pleasure of walking and to share the author’s joy in discovering the world on foot.