Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place vs. home

Posts tagged ‘Oberes Mittelrheintal’

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 )

Deutsche Bahn, IC 2218, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, fotoeins.com

The nebulous transition

I’m racing past kilometer 554.

The simple black and white sign on the east flank of the river counts down to the end, to the river’s mouth where the mineral-rich mud and silt enter the North Sea. Another sign tells me what this famous rock-face landmark is.

There’s barely enough time at Loreley to detect the hint of a siren’s call, as the train marches to the next bucolic town. Though small in size, the town and its buildings seem to stand fast in a “group hug” of the river bank in a futile attempt to hold back the rush of the Rhine.

This feels like routine, a journey in western Germany which I’ve repeated many times over the last 15 years. With heavy heart, I’ve departed my adopted hometown of Heidelberg for the umpteenth time. I’m traveling north to meet with friends I haven’t seen in a couple of years.

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Jesuitenplatz, Altstadt, Koblenzer Weihnachtsmarkt, Koblenz, Germany, fotoeins.com

Koblenz: Christmas markets in the Old Town

Someone once said to me: “when the weather gets cold and crappy, it’s never too early for Weihnachtsmarkt.”

I replied that depends how early into opening week it is, how many people are aware the markets are open, and how many people are around.

It seems early, but I’m having Glühwein at one of Christmas Market stalls in the southwest German city of Koblenz.

Markets have been set up at six plazas in the city’s Old Town:

  1. Jesuitenplatz (J)
  2. Liebfrauenkirche (L)
  3. Münzplatz (M)
  4. Am Plan (P)
  5. Willi-Hörter-Platz (W) and
  6. Zentralplatz (Z).

At the intersection of the Mosel and Rhine rivers, within this special wine-growing region, it makes sense to have a ‘white’ Glühwein: it’s hot, it’s got alcohol, and it’s goin’ down somethin’ awful smooooth, like throwing on warm tonic to ward the late-autumn humid chill.

What’s also important is how all of this fuels the remaining two of my four weeks in the country.

( Click here for more )