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In me there are two souls, alas, …

What attracted him with all might was a high light blue flower that […] touched him with its wide, glossy petals.
Another famous personality of its times, Novalis, became student of the admired Professor Werner in 1797. Novalis’ unfinished novel “Heinrich von Ofterdingen” is a memorial for his professor. One of the essential symbols of Romanticism, the blue flower that represents the human yearning for something unattainable, eternal, has been first used in this novel.
Novalis, also known as Friedrich von Hardenberg, pursues geological explorations with the same vigour as his poetic endeavours. The discrepancies between exact scientific observation and poetic romanticisation are stunning. As saline assessor he describes in few mater-of-fact words the work process of shaping coal, the measurements of the worpiece, how hard this work is, how long the shifts are and how much wage is paid. The mining scientist in him is committed to technical improvement while the soul of the poet suffers from this objectivity and the constant need to progress.