Between 1777 and 1799, the various estates met for merry-making at the Drehberg: the Prince with poets, artists, philos-ophers, educators and economists with whom he was on friendly terms and with the peasants from the villages in the Wörlitz area. Every year, on the birthday of Princess Luise, Prince Franz would invite people to take part in a festive competition based on the Olympic games of antiquity. As a kind of »parlor game«, the day's events were supposed to exemplify life in perfect harmony in the future, when princes no longer played a role. A »social contract« such as formulated by Rousseau may have provided a point of reference for the Drehberg festival.
The pantheonic circular structure at the center of the Drehberg, demolished in 1826, was erected on a burial mound. In uniting the opposites of »life and death«, the Drehberg symbolizes - within the realization of the Dessau Wörlitz reform

project - the humanist message of antiquity involving the practical use of the countryside in creating a society based on solidarity as well as aesthetics, an aim which is still seen as a challenge today. The monument's cultural impact is demonstrated by the evolution of a festival culture related to the everyday life of the inhabit-ants and the novel social aura resulting from it.