In summer 1814, Goethe accompanied Boisserée on a visit to the unfinished Cologne Cathedral, which reminded him of his early enthusiasm for Strasbourg Cathedral. Many years earlier, in November 1772, Goethe had published the essay On German Architecture – a paean to the genius of the master builder Erwin von Steinbach. In 1824, he reprinted it in his journal On Art and Antiquity, in which he also promoted Boisserée’s book on the cathedral.