5 September

Born in 1774 – Caspar David Friedrich, German artist

Above: Der einsame Baum (The Solitary Tree), 1822

Also, born in 1942, German filmmaker Werner Herzog.

It is my firm belief, and I say this as a dictum, that all these tools now at our disposal, these things part of this explosive evolution of means of communication, mean we are now heading for an era of solitude. Along with this rapid growth of forms of communication at our disposal— be it fax, phone, email, internet or whatever— human solitude will increase in direct proportion.

-from Herzog on Herzog (2002)