Caspar David Friedrich created extraordinary landscapes that still fascinate people from all over the world today. Yet they are more complex than they appear at first glance. Although they appear to be a realistic depiction of nature, we know that Friedrich ‘composed’ his depictions in the studio. They were prepared on the basis of sketches he made during his travels. His paintings were created during the Romantic period - a time when artists were focussing their inner emotional world. Friedrich was a master of depicting suggestive moods, which were easy for viewers to grasp and were intended to appeal to them emotionally. At the same time, the artist often added a symbolic layer of meaning to the landscapes with Christian-religious or patriotic content. One example of this is ‘Morgen im Riesengebirge’, painted around 1810. It is one of nine paintings by Friedrich that are on display today in the New Pavilion in Charlottenburg. In the morning mist, a mountain landscape stretches as far as the horizon. A young woman stands at a summit cross, which is to be understood as the personification of faith. She is pulling a hiker up to her after his arduous ascent. The artist uses the cross to symbolise religion and the hope of eternal life in the afterlife. Caspar David Friedrich himself occasionally commented on the question of symbolism in his works. He wrote about the ‘Kreuz an der Ostsee’ in a letter in 1815: ‘On the bare, stony seashore, the cross stands erect, a consolation to those who see it, a cross to those who do not see it.’ For him, the cross thus embodies the Christian religion, faith and hope. However, he is aware that this message is only perceived by those who are receptive to it. Friedrich liked to depict transitional situations: from civilisation and the world of the mind to nature, from day to night, or from this world to the hereafter. This is also the case with the harbour view. Then as now, looking at Friedrich's works invites us to perceive more than just the pure depiction of nature and its atmospheric moods.