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Posts tagged ‘Mosel’

Koblenz: 1st and 2nd Deutsches Eck (German Corner)

Above: West view to Deutsches Eck from Ehrenbreitstein. 2015 photo by Taxiarchos228 (Wladyslaw Sojka). I’ve added the following labels: (1) Seilbahn/Gondola, (2) St. Kastor Basilica, (3) Deutschherrenhaus, (4) first Deutsches Eck, (5) Memorial to German Unity (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial), (6) reclamation in the late 19th-century, (7) second Deutsches Eck.

Many will know, have seen, or have read about the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) in the German city of Koblenz. The river city has plenty to provide: visitors wander into the vineyards to sip on crisp white wine from local grapes, vacation on long cabin-boats to enjoy the river scenery, or explore the surrounding Upper Rhine River Valley.

But Koblenz is also well known by virtue of its name after the junction where the rivers Moselle and Rhine meet. By the first-century AD/CE, the Romans had built for strategic protection a fort1 called “Castellum apud Confluentes“, Latin for “the castle at the confluence”. What most commonly acknowledge as the Deutsches Eck (German corner) is not the original location. Half concealed among the trees some 200 metres back near the Deutschherrenhaus is the first location of the Deutsches Eck.

What follows:

  • a map to the area and my photos from the present-day,
  • a short history of the “Deutsches Eck,” and
  • archival images from the mid-16th century to early 20th century.

( Click here for images and more )

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal, Rhine river, Rhein, Moselle river, Mosel, Deutsches Eck, Koblenz, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Koblenz’s Deutsches Eck at night

Koblenz lies at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers, which respectively are at the far-left and -right in the picture above. The present-day Deutsches Eck or “German Corner” includes the towering Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial (at centre in the picture above). Flags placed at the Deutsches Eck represent the Federal Republic of Germany, each of the 16 German federal states (Bundesländer), the European Union, and the United States of America (in place since late-2011). The monument and surroundings are a part of the designated UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Upper Rhine River Valley.

However, this city landmark is the second version of the Deutsches Eck, and that’s the subject for subsequent explanation.

Thanks to Koblenz Touristik and Romantic Germany for their advice and support. Koblenz is one of the cities in the Historic Highlights of Germany. I made the above photograph on 25 November 2015 with the Canon EOS6D, 24-105 zoom, and the settings: 1/10-sec, f/4, ISO25600, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7Kd.

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