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Posts tagged ‘Deutschland’

Wittenberger Marktplatz, Rathaus, Lutherdenkmal, Stadtkirche Sankt Marien, Marktplatz, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Deutschland, UNESCO, World Heritage Site, Welterbe, Weltkulturerbe, fotoeins.com

The Saxony-Anhalt 5: Luther & Bauhaus

(October 2016)

As motivation to trace Martin Luther’s footsteps for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 and to learn more about the impact of the Bauhaus art and design movement for the centenary in 2019, I embarked on a press-trip in the autumn 2016 to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt.

(( The description of this trip would be a continuation of a consecutive annual streak going back to 2001. I’ve set foot inside Germany at least once every year since 2001. I’d already claimed another consecutive year with a short stint at “home” in the HD earlier in the spring, but autumn in-country^* solidly confirmed a 16th consecutive year in the country. ))

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Spinnerei, Leipzig, Sachsen, Saxony, Germany, fotoeins.com

Leipzig Spinnerei: from cotton mill to arts centre

The Leipzig Spinnerei is a former cotton mill (Baumwollspinnerei) in the western industrial suburb of Plagwitz. The massive site at an area of 10 hectares (over 1 million square feet) with rows of factory buildings began operation in 1884 and eventually became the largest cotton mill in Europe with thousands working and living on-site. After the site ceased to produce spools of cotton thread shortly after reunification, artists took advantage of the cheap empty space, and transformed the area into studios, galleries, and exhibition halls. Much has been written about the impact and examples of art and space on Leipzig as the “new Berlin” as well as the “New Leipzig School.” The site as art and culture space opened its doors in 2005.

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Juedischer Friedhof, Heiliger Sand, Jewish Cemetery, Holy Sand, Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, fotoeins.com

Worms’ Holy Sand: The Rabbi and the Patron

From Worms to Rothenburg, and back to Worms.

Located near the entrance to Worms’ old Jewish cemetery are gravestones of two important figures in medieval Jewish-German history. The cemetery is also called “Holy Sand”¹, and is one of many places of interest in the medieval ShUM league of Jewish cities. The gravestones for Rabbi Meir ben Baruch (centre) and Alexander ben Salomo (right) are shown in the picture below.

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ShUM, SchUM, medieval Jewish cities, Speyer, Shpira, Worms, Warmaisa, Mainz, Magenza, Germany, Ashkenaz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Rhineland-Palatinate, fotoeins.com

ShUM, Jerusalem on the Rhine: Speyer, Worms, Mainz

When threats of destruction to property and life follow and linger over a group of people through no fault of their own over centuries, there’s something to be said about an eternal need to keep a watchful eye. Words like Verfolgung, Vernichtung, and Vertreibung¹ have been etched into memory. I have all this in mind as I explore Jewish history in Germany as part of my need to answer the following question:

How did a nation of people which fostered composers Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Strauss; and writers Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, Heine, Hesse, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, and Schiller sink to the worst depths of human atrocity and depravity in the first half of the 20th-century?

It’s easy to forget Jewish people have lived in what is now Italy and southern Europe since the middle of the 2nd-century BCE and inhabited southern Germany from the late 10th-century AD/CE². During the High Middle Ages, three important bishopric (and cathedral) cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz along the Rhine river formed an important league or federation of Jewish communities (Kehillot) from the end of the 10-century to about the mid-to-late 14th-century. The word שו”ם or ShUM (SchUM in German)⁴ is an acronym consisting of the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three cities:

• Shin (ש), Sh for Shpira (שפירא) → present-day Speyer;
• Waw or Vav (ו), U for Warmaisa (וורמש) → present-day Worms;
• Mem (ם), M for Magenza (מגנצא) → present-day Mainz.

The ShUM cities became centres for learning, training, religion, culture, and trade within medieval Germany (Ashkenaz³) and throughout Europe. Today, the three ShUM cities establish key destinations for historical travel, provide rich examples for continuing research on medieval Jewish life, and add up to a comprehensive project in recognizing an important chapter of the history of Jews in Germany.

The ShUM/SchUM was inscribed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO at the 44th meeting of the World Heritage Committee in July 2021. ShUM is Germany’s 1st all-Jewish world heritage site, a big acknowledgement to the centuries-long presence of the Jewish community along the Rhine river.

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Karlsruhe: Fächerstadt (fan-shaped city) in Baden-Württemberg

Above/featured: Karlsruhe Palace.

You won’t likely find another German city in the shape of a fan.

Sitting pretty near the Rhine river in southwest Germany, Karlsruhe is known as the “Fächerstadt” (“fan city”) for its very specific shape.

On 17 June 1715, Margrave¹ Karl Wilhelm (Charles William) of Baden-Durlach celebrated breaking ground and the first laid stone for his new residence, palace, and seat of power. The story goes that after a vivid dream, Karl Wilhelm decided to build his new home of “rest and relaxation” (“Karls Ruhe”) in the middle of a nearby forest. A planned city would surround the palace, an appropriate symbol for the question of “who ruled whom.” The palace sat at the central hub of 32 “rays” or streets radiating outwards: 9 streets to make up the new city, and 23 for the palace gardens. Emerging from the palace was the “Via Triumphalis,” the north-south central axis road into the city. Karl Wilhelm moved the margraviate seat from nearby Durlach to the “new shiny city” of Karlsruhe upon completion of the new palace in 1718.

In the spring of 1788, Thomas Jefferson, while serving as America’s chief of mission (Minister Plenipotentiary) in France, embarked on a tour of Holland and the Rhine river in what is now Germany. He stayed in “Carlsruh”² on 15 and 16 April 1788. Impressed by what he saw throughout his trip, he sent a letter and sketches³ to Pierre Charles L’Enfant⁴ who was charged by George Washington with the design and construction of a new American capital city. Jefferson wrote to L’Enfant on 10 April 1791:

“…in compliance with your request I have examined my papers and found the plans of Frankfort on the Mayne, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam Strasburg, Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin and Milan, which I send in a roll by this post. They are on large and accurate scales, having been procured by me while in those respective cities myself. …”

With copies of European city plans in hand, these plans provided inspiration for L’Enfant’s eventual design for Washington, DC.

The Badisches Landesmuseum has occupied the palace since 1921, and the city of Karlsruhe celebrated its 300th anniversary⁵ in 2015.

What would Thomas Jefferson have seen?

Dated between 1739 and 1779, the following four maps from Stadt Karlsruhe city archives would have been representative of the young city at the time of Thomas Jefferson’s 1788 visit.

Historische Stadtpläne, Bilderbogen, Stadt Karlsruhe

1739 city view with south at top; coloured copper engraving by Christian Thran.

1739 city view with north at top; the “fan” consists of 9 streets; coloured copper engraving by Christian Thran.

Map dated 1745 of “Carlsruhe” (Karlsruhe), Durlach, and surroundings, with west at top, towards the Rhine river (Rhein Fl.).

1779 city map: north at top, Schloss (palace) at circle’s centre. Note how palace “wings” extend south into a “fan” of 9 streets into the young city.

Panorama from the Palace Tower

Even in the dreary days of late-fall and early-winter, there are sweeping views of the city and surrounding area from the top of the Schlossturm (Palace Tower); even the tower’s stairs are themselves a highlight of geometry. It’s also important to realize 14 kilometres to the German-French border isn’t far at all.

Schloss Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, fotoeins.com

Up the palace tower (HL).

City view, Schlossturm, Schloss Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, fotoeins.com

South view, along Via Triumphalis through Schlossplatz (palace square). The hills in the background are about 10 kilometres distant (HL).

Wide south view with the Via Triumphalis north-south axis at centre. Note palace “wings” at far-left and -right, making the “fan” into the city (HL).

Southwest, to Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) at centre-right, just beyond the palace (HL).

Northwest, towards Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe at upper right (HL).

North-northeast to Schlossgartensee (palace garden lake) at centre-left and Wildparkstadion (stadium) at right (HL).

Northeast: Wildstadion at left, Grossherzogliche Grabkapelle at centre in the distance (HL).

Facing east; Grossherzogliche Grabkapelle at far left in the distance, Kirche St. Bernhard at right to the southeast (HL).

Facing southeast; Kirche St. Bernhard at left, and beyond Schlossplatz at centre is Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Campus Süd (HL)

Return to the south-facing view of Schlossplatz, or palace square (HL).

Down the palace tower (HL).

Notes

¹ A “margrave” was a hereditary title for a prince in the Holy Roman Empire; their territory was called a “margraviate” (Markgrafschaft). Margraviate Baden-Durlach and neighbouring Margraviate Baden-Baden reunited in 1771 to form the Margraviate of Baden. After dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Grand Duchy of Baden was created as a member state within Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine.

² “Notes of a Tour through Holland and the Rhine Valley, 3 March–23 April 1788,” Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-13-02-0003. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 13, March–7 October 1788, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956, pp. 8–36.]

³ “XII. Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, 10 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-20-02-0001-0015. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 20, 1 April–4 August 1791, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, pp. 86–87.]

⁴ More about Pierre Charles L’Enfant appears at the US Library of Congress.

⁵ Wulf Rüskamp wrote this article for the Badische Zeitung (in German).

Thanks to Karlsruhe Tourismus and Hotel Rio Karlsruhe for a warm welcome and access to venues and services. Old city maps are from Stadt Karlsruhe’s archives. I made all remaining photographs on 17 November 2015 with a Canon EOS6D mark1. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-8Cv.