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The fourth room is dedicated to trees – another motif often found in Friedrich's paintings.

In his early oil painting Dolmen in the Snow, there are three gnarled oak trees set on a wintry hilltop, standing like a little group of mourners around the tomb in the title of this work.

But to read this painting from 1807, you need to know the political situation at the time. In 1806, just one year before, Saxony and Prussia suffered a disastrous defeat against Napoleon and his troops at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt. For a while, French troops occupied Saxony, Friedrich’s adopted country. After victories in other battles, Napoleon’s troops also occupied much of Prussia.

Friedrich’s highly symbolic winter landscape stands for a world in a state of siege – or more precisely Germany under siege. The oak tree had a long tradition as one of Germany’s national symbols, while megalithic dolmens or portal tombs testified to prehistoric cultures on German lands.

Despite the chill and frosty air, the trees and tomb stand resolute and steadfast. You can even find the first small signs of a coming spring in little patches of green shimmering through the covering of snow on the hill. And while the landscape is still dark over the hilltop, wrapped in thick fog, the sky, with its soft shades of pink far above, is starting to clear.

Shortly before painting this work, Friedrich said full of hope: “The German soul, it will emerge, struggling out of the storm and the clouds.“