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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.

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Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien, St. Mary's Town and Parish Church, Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, UNESCO, World Heritage, Luther Country, Luther 2017, Germany, fotoeins.com

Wittenberg UNESCO WHS: St. Mary’s Church

Above: West side illuminated by afternoon sun, 30 Oct 2016 (HL).

The Stadtkirche Sankt Marien (St. Mary’s Town and Parish Church) is the oldest building in Wittenberg, and is one of four sites in town as part of the town’sasx inscription as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Not only is this the location where Luther preached, the church also contains important relics by the Cranachs highlighting the young Reformation movement. The Cranach and Luther families were close, as well as contemporary colleagues.

The east chancel (near the main altar) was part of the original St. Mary’s chapel built around 1280. By the early 15th-century, the chapel was incorporated into a triple-naved structure with two towers in the late-Gothic style at the west end of the new church; the Gothic tops were removed and replaced by octagonal shapes by the mid-16th century. The original pulpit from which Luther delivered his sermons has survived the centuries, and is now located in Wittenberg’s Luther House (Lutherhaus).

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Eisleben: Luther’s birth and death sites, UNESCO WHS

Above/featured: Luther monument by Rudolf Simmering at Eisleben’s market square. The monument was inaugurated in 1883 to mark the quatercentenary of Luther’s birth year (1483). At left and upper-right are the Hotel Graf von Mansfeld and St. Andrew’s Church, respectively.

With a population over 25-thousand people, Eisleben is a quiet town in central Germany in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. But the South Harz region holds a special place in German and European history: Martin Luther came into the world in Eisleben in 1483, spent his childhood years in Mansfeld, and, on a trip home from Wittenberg to negotiate a local dispute in Mansfield, died in Eisleben in 1546. As shown in the map below, a number of important locations in Eisleben are associated with Luther and the Reformation, including the Luther monument in the town’s market square, St. Peter’s Church, St. Andrew’s Church, and St. Anne’s Church. Specifically, two sites in town constitute a part of the inscription for UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996: (1) the house where Luther was born, and (2) the museum on Luther’s death.

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My Germany: 47 (of 55) UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Above: Cologne at dusk: that Dom (cathedral) again, at left; Colonius telecommunications tower at centre, and the Hohenzollern rail and pedestrian bridge at right. Photo, 26 May 2016 (6D1).

Every year UNESCO-Welterbetag (UNESCO World Heritage Day) in Germany is celebrated on the first Sunday in June. Highlighted below are my visits to 47 of 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) in Germany for a modest completion rate of 85%.

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Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland, where tiny rules large

Above/featured: Miniature Hamburg with Heinrich Hertz tower at left, and Dammtor station at lower-centre.

Our family couldn’t afford the purchase of (or the space for) miniature railway sets. Christmas was a special time and with my nose pressed against shop windows, I’d dream of the world of the railroad set.

Hamburg’s Miniature Wonderland is big on wonder, has plenty of extensive miniature sets, and does not skimp on discoveries for people of all ages. Very little on the outside tells anybody passing by that there’s another world inside. Many aren’t fooled nor are they turned away. Miniature Wonderland was voted the most popular of 100 attractions in Germany in 2016, after 40-thousand international visitors were polled by the German National Tourist Board.

Built from 1883 to 1927, Hamburg’s Speicherstadt or Warehouse District was an important place in an increasingly busy port for the storage of dry goods from around the world. The Miniature Wonderland museum opened in the building called Block D on 16 August 2001. The historical Speicherstadt was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Miniatur Wunderland, MiWuLa, Miniature Wonderland, Speicherstadt, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Welterbe, Weltkulturerbe, Hamburg, Germany, fotoeins.com

Modelleisenbahn Wunderland (model railway wonderland); Block D, from street-level at Kehrwieder 2-4.

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