Talk:Frankenstein Castle

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The use of the term castle isn't correct if the German name for the place is Burg Frankenstein. The German word for castle is schloss. The word burg is a fortress. Thus the English name should be changed to Fortress Frankenstein.

No, surely not, Fortress is "Festung" in German, never "Burg". Castle is the correct translation for "Burg". Although "Schloss" is often translated with "castle" either, a proper translation would be "palace". 79.216.211.191 (talk) 09:59, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

but la sirena tiene pipi mide dosmetros docientos cincuenta aihh huputa yo me asuste y coji un machete y se lo corte —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.156.186.134 (talk) 01:36, 21 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify the above. There is no hard and fast rule, but:
Burg usually refers to a fortified medieval structure, usually translated "Xxx Castle"
Schloss usually refers to a later, typically renaissance structure, sometimes a mansion, often not fortified (or with earlier fortifications removed) and should normally be translated "Xxx Palace" or "Xss House" depending on the status of the owner and the scale and grandeur of the structure. It can sometimes be translated "Xxx Castle" if it is, or was, fortified, but this translation should be used sparingly as it is often wrong.
Festung is a later, more elaborate fortification, usually translated "Xxx Fortress". --Bermicourt (talk) 13:59, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]


Connection to Novel[edit]

The beginning of this article states "Modern claims of the castle having an influence on the work of Mary Shelley are not grounded in facts." Based on the statements in Frankenstein there seems to be at least an ongoing debate if and how Mary Shelley's work was influenced by the existence of Castle Frankenstein. I think a more accurate sentence in the beginning of this article would be Modern claims of the castle having an influence on the work of Mary Shelley are subject of an ongoing debate. Comments welcome! (Cyberroach (talk) 17:41, 10 January 2010 (UTC))[reply]

There's a debate, but there are no facts to it. Shelley didn't mention the Castle in her diaries or anywhere else, there's not even a castle in the book, at least not as part of the story, and the story does not take place in this region. The only thing is the name, but Frankenstein is a quite common name, in Shelleys time there were at least half a dozen places by that name and more than a thousand people going by that name. So there are no facts to it. That people are speculating that she might have known the castle are not facts, but speculation. 79.240.206.7 (talk) 18:28, 13 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Look for: http://www.eberstadt-frankenstein.de/content/066_Any_monster_at_home_English_version.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.167.165.105 (talk) 17:06, 14 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Goethe/Darmstadt Society/Florescu, etc.[edit]

I've erased the portion about Goethe and the Darmstadt Society, because it is nonsense. The Society of Forty was formed in the late 1840s, Goethe died 1832. Furthermore he left Darmstadt as a young man, when none of the Society of Forty was even born! There is absolutely no way that he could have been reading "portions of his then work-in-progress Faust to members of the society while they sat in the castle's ruins". I am really baffled how impossible things are considered as likely or even true just because someone like Radu Florescu is claiming it. I know Wikipedia is not the place for theory construction, but that does not mean, any rubbish should be included, just because someone wrote it in a book. 87.157.223.180 (talk) 10:44, 26 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure who initially wrote this bit about the Forty, but I do know that Christopher Frayling, in his book Nightmare: The Birth of Horror, confirms that Goethe did read portions of his Faust to friends in his writing circle in the Frankenstein ruins. That's not Florescu's theory at all. Frayling cites his sources. His Faust was published in 1806, so its potential connection to Mary Shelley is at the very least possible - since we also know that Mary Shelley was a big fan of Goethe.

I do not know Fraylings book, so I can't say anything about the reliability of his sources as long as I don't know to whom he is referring. But obviously things got mixed up a little bit. Goethe read portions of the so called "Urfaust" (the first version of Faust which differed a lot from the final one) to the so called "Kreis der Empfindsamen", a literary circle who met in Darmstadt from 1769 to 1773. Goethe was a member of them. But they got nothing to do with the Darmstadt Society of Forty, which was founded about 70 years later. And they never met at Frankenstein Castle (both of them).
Fact is that there is one quote of Goethe in which he mentions Castle Frankenstein (although he's only referring to it as "the old castle") It is in his diary, dated Oct. 30th, 1775, a time in which he was already estranged from the "Kreis der Empfindsamen". He spent the afternoon in an inn from where he could see the castle. From the way he writes about it, you can assume that he knew the castle well (not a big surprise as he spent a lot of time in Darmstadt for quite a while). And of course it is likely that he visited it somewhen. But that he read portions of Faust to friends in the ruin is fabrication.
And, no matter how much Shelley liked Goethes writings, the first (partial) English translation of Faust was published in 1821 (see Wikipedia entry of Faust), three years after Frankenstein. From the diary of Shelleys journey through Germany in 1814 you can see that Shelley barely spoke German then. Therefor her Frankenstein was not influenced by Faust, simply because Shelley was unable to read it before 1821. 79.240.207.41 (talk) 16:56, 12 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Reference link broken[edit]

Hi, just wanted to mention that the link of reference [14] goes to 404 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.76.29.70 (talk) 14:08, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Overlooking Darmstadt???[edit]

Okay, I don't think anyone is watching this article anymore, but... The lede comment that says the castle "overlooks Darmstadt" is way off. The castle is miles (kilometers) away from D-stadt and there's no way you can see one from the other. The comment is unreferenced and not cited. Should we delete it? --TadgStirkland401 (TadgTalk) 19:01, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]