Of Walking in Ice

A classic meditation on life, death, and a remarkable journey on foot from Munich to Paris by the legendary filmmaker and author Werner Herzog

In late November 1974, Herzog received terrible news: his mentor Lotte Eisner, the film historian and critic, was severely ill and close to death. She was in Paris and he was in Munich, but he decided then that he would begin walking toward her—an act of determination to keep Eisner alive through sheer force of will. He carried with him only a jacket, a compass, and a duffel bag of essentials, and set off on the three-week pilgrimage from Munich to Paris, trudging through snowstorms.

He walked, “in full faith, believing that she would stay alive if I came on foot,” and recorded every sensation: from the physical discomfort to moments of immense rapture. Part pilgrimage, part meditation, this hypnotic book presents the boundless mind of a great artist in defiance of the contemporary world, and includes Herzog’s 1982 afterword “Tribute to Lotte Eisner,” written upon her receipt of the Helmut Käutner Prize.