In the early 19th century Heidelberg experienced a second heyday. In 1803 the University had been renewed, and this refounding attracted students and lecturers to Heidelberg.
Among them were Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Görres and Joseph von Eichendorff, who studied here in 1807 and looking back on this time wrote, "Heidelberg itself is a magnificent romantic city; there the spring entwines the houses and courtyards and everything ordinary with vines and flowers, and castles and forests tell a wonderful fairytale of times past, as though there were nothing evil in the world (...)".
The pressure of the Napoleonic rule and the political necessity of the age strengthened the will to concentrate on the inner renewal of national life. In contrast to the Jenaer early Romantic period, the Heidelberg Romantic age assumed more conservative characteristics and emphasized the ties of the people to the nation, state and church. The awakening national consciousness and the pride of the national inheritance, which was preserved in collections of folksongs and fairytales, deepened the love of nature and the homeland.
Romantic transfiguration is primarily apparent in Heidelberg's most famous building - the Palace. The marvelous ruin filled with history located in the middle of the green mountain slope animated young romantic fantasy. Heidelberg Palace was never rebuilt, however since the Romantic era it has experienced a second period of splendor as one of the most famous palace ruins in Europe.
A permanent exhibition open to the public since December 1999 in the Ruprechtsbau (Ruprecht Building) of Heidelberg Palace is devoted to the romantic adoption of the structure in art and literature. A large variety of exhibition objects await visitors, including paintings, watercolors, prints, manuscripts, books, the first travel guides and early souvenir articles. They serve as proof of the attraction of the moods discovered in the Romantic Period and continuing until today.
(...)
Und gieng auf meine Herberg zu.-
Und wie ich gen die Brücke schaut,
Hört´ ich den Neckar rauschen laut,
Der Mond schien hell zum Tor herein,
Die feste Brück´ gab klaren Schein,
Und hinten an der grüne Berg!
Ich gieng noch nicht in mein´ Herberg
Der Mond, der Berg, das Flußgebraus
Lockt´ mich noch auf die Brück´ hinaus.
Da war so klar und tief die Welt,
So himmelhoch das Sterngezelt,
So ernstlichdenkend schaut das Schloß,
Und dunkel, still das Tal sich Schloß,
Und ums Gestein erbraust der Fluß,
Ein Spiegel all dem Überfluß,
Er nimmt gen Abend seinen Lauf,
Da tut das Land sich herrlich auf,
Da wandelt fest und unverwandt
Der heil´ge Rhein ums Vaterland,
Und wie ans Vaterland ich dacht´
Das Herz mir weint, das Herz mir lacht (...)
Clemens Brentano, aus: Lied von eines Studenten Ankunft in Heidelberg, 1806