38) Rousseau Island

Jean-Jacques Rousseau dies in the park of Ermenonville on 2 July 1778. His days there are otherwise perfect, where he walks around and collects plant specimens that he dries out for his book of herbs. When he dies he is placed in a tomb surrounded by poplar trees on an island in the lake at Ermenonville.

Rousseau’s tomb is a topos, an ubiquitous thing, recurring in many islands around Europe. The one in Tiergarten stands on a very small island that until the mid ’80s is brilliant and lush, bursting with birds making sounds and 48 poplar trees. Nightingales, swans and others nest here regularly. In 1987, in occasion of the 750 Years Berlin Anniversary, a sculpture of a column is commissioned to properly re-represent Rousseau’s tomb, and the island of Rousseau is quickly zeroed out of its trees and all the rest.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau dies in the park of Ermenonville on 2 July 1778. His days there are otherwise perfect, where he walks around and collects plant specimens that he dries out for his book of herbs. When he dies he is placed in a tomb surrounded by poplar trees on an island in the lake at Ermenonville.

Rousseau’s tomb is a topos, an ubiquitous thing, recurring in many islands around Europe. The one in Tiergarten stands on a very small island that until the mid ’80s is brilliant and lush, bursting with birds making sounds and 48 poplar trees. Nightingales, swans and others nest here regularly. In 1987, in occasion of the 750 Years Berlin Anniversary, a sculpture of a column is commissioned to properly re-represent Rousseau’s tomb, and the island of Rousseau is quickly zeroed out of its trees and all the rest.