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Small Town Germany
By Nancy & Eric Anderson Photography by Authors
The ones in central Germany with stories that go back to the Middle Ages all give the visitor a bonus: they were involved in some way with the unassailable Father of the Reformation, Martin Luther. Luther famously nailed his 95 complaints about one aspect of the Catholic Church on a church door in 1517 and "Luther Country" is currently celebrating the 500 years of Luther in events lasting from now until 2017. But although Luther's 95 Theses are seen as the start of a new church, literally a Protestant one, his criticism in the initial stages was only against the appalling commercialization and complete corruption of "indulgencies," what TIME Magazine once called: "the equivalent of a get-out-of-purgatory-free card. Partial indulgences simply shorten your stay." So yes, small towns like Weimar and Wittenberg have, inevitably, connections to that famous man who ultimately challenged the power of the pope, this priest who translated the New Testament into vernacular German - and who, of all things, married a former nun. But the most interesting of Germany's small towns is they have that extra something beyond Luther: they can stand on their own with other charms that appeal to visitors. What really appeals to visitors include the marvelous town public transportations and the efficiency of the DB German train system that makes a German Rail Europe pass a significant and worthwhile investment. The towns we're talking about are all within a 15 minute to two hour distance from each other by rail. And the connection between the German trains and the towns' public transportations is seamless - and guess what? Deutsch delights! Its transportation runs on time!
Weimar population 63,000 Yes Luther came here but who didn't! This has been a popular and successful little place for many centuries. Luther apparently got his medications at the little pharmacy on the square. For what ailment? Who knows? Perhaps for indigestion He famously said about Weimar, "I feel well here. I eat like a Bohemian and drink like a German!" But this was Goethe's home for most of his life and his presence is everywhere from his statue (with Schiller) to his very home. Weimar has the historical Hotel Elephant whose frequent famous guest in the 1930s was Adolph Hitler. We think about that as we sit in the equally famous restaurant, the Alt Weimar, that Hitler frequented. Attractions in Weimar (one of our favorite German towns) include the Goethe home and the Schiller, the Bauhaus art and architecture museum, the City Palace and the Belvidere Palace - and, of course, the magnificent Anna Amalia Library. The library has, among a cornucopia of treasures, the largest collection of stammbuch (autograph or friendship books) in the world. Illustrated is one written by Johann Carl Wilhelm Voigt in 1773, a hand-drawn travel diary by the famous German mineralist who challenged the theory of sedimentary rock formations. The library itself is perhaps the most beautiful one sightseers could visit in Germany.
There is no beauty, of course, in the former concentration camp Buchenwald a few miles from town. A vast hall previously used to store supplies is now a museum that lays out painstakingly the details of what took place in this God forsaken place. The gate bears the message Jedem das Seine (translated as To Each His Own, meaning "you get in life what you deserve"). The imprisoned metalworkers who crafted the sign knew Hitler intensely disliked the Bauhaus Modernistic architectural style. In creating the sign on the gate, the workers chose the outlawed Bauhaus font, believing, correctly, the choice of the hated script would not be noticed by their captors. It was their gesture. Their last laugh. The spark of the human spirit. Wittenberg population 47,000 This city is famous for its celebrated university as you see when you walk along its Collegienstrasse and read all the proud notations on the walls of the street. Famous though those scientists were they pale in contrast to the priest whose statue stands in the town square and whose tomb lies in the Castle Church at the end of the street. Luther's former Augustinian monastery, now the Luther House, is the world's largest museum on Reformation history. Yes, Martin Luther dominates Wittenberg and the church lying ahead has the door where he allegedly nailed his 95 Theses. Allegedly because a few historians challenge he actually nailed his complaints there though no one disputes his issues were printed and sent to the Pope.
The wooden door burned down in one of Europe's inevitable and unconscionable wars and was replaced with one of black bronze. The tourist office is opposite the church and has many suggestions about what you might want to do in town. Eisenach population 44,000 We've mentioned this before but this town has an additional hero to Luther, one who came 200 years later, Johann Sebastian Bach. Luther had lived here when he was a youth but was brought here, secretly, later by his protectors as a priest condemned by the Pope. He was taken to the Castle Wartburg nearby. There he spent his time translating the New Testament into German possibly the most important achievement in his entire life.
Eisenach could have become stultifying stuffy because of all the important people and significant events that happened around here, so it's rather fun to walk into the main square and find a statue of a cow gracing it. We don't ask our guide why that is there, she gets plenty of other questions from visitors we are sure. Meissen population 29,000 At the age of 31 Luther was appointed Augustinian vicar for Meissen and Thuringia. He was put in charge of eleven area monasteries, a monstrous task that almost overwhelmed him.
Meissen, the oldest town in Saxony, is not one of the major stops for those searching for Martin Luther but fortunately it has many attractions beyond that, including the famous Meissen porcelain factory, a medieval Old Town center - and a restaurant that would captivate any tourist: the Vincenz Richter restaurant, a former clothing company's guild house dating from 1523. It lies just off the Marketplace.
Meissen is a perfect town to vacation in; it is in the center of the Dresden countryside and within a quick S-Bahn (local intercity) rail trip to that city. It is close to the wineries, palaces and fortresses of Saxony Switzerland, (so called because some of the earliest Swiss rock climbers to tackle its terrain saw a resemblance to their country). And it has access to the paddle steamers on the river Elbe that can give an idyllic component to any vacation. Eisleben population 20,000 Those visiting the little town of Eisleben in the next four or five years may find themselves bumping into tourists who are not necessarily looking for porcelain souvenirs or exquisite meals in an authentic Saxon restaurant. Most visitors in Eisleben these days are here because it was the birthplace of Martin Luther in 1483 and -- in a strange turn of fate (for a man who traveled around Germany so much and even walked the 1000 miles to Rome in his earlier days) -- also where he died in 1546. He had come to town to try and mediate a disagreement amongst the landowners in the area and collapsed suddenly during his visit. Says our guide, "Martin Luther's Birth House introduced the world's first 'heritage tourism': Back in the 17th century visitors paid money to see the bed where Luther was born, drinking glasses his family used and even touching 15th-century soot in the chimney!" The home he was born in was for a time indeed a tourist magnet. The house burned some in 1689 but has been rebuilt and next door is a busy Luther House museum with a lot of information about Luther's parents and his early life. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1996. The house long thought to be his "death house" and which had been purchased to be developed as a museum is now recognized as wrongly-identified. His statue, of course, stands in the square near the St. Andrew's Church where he preached his last sermon before he died. The subject was Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The St. Peter and Paul Church (where he was baptized the day after his birth) lies around the corner from where he was born. It has been beautifully rebuilt for its current congregation showing that life goes on - even if the restoration makes the church lose its medieval identity. The lane leading to the St. Peter and Paul church, however, has not been gentrified; ancient faded illustrations of Luther's life hang on its walls showing how far back in time this Reformationist has been acknowledged.
In an almost mirror image, a more recent event in Eisleben has also been acknowledged. Our feet click on markers on the bricked sidewalk. "They are called 'stumble stones,'" says our guide. "They are meant to catch your feet and remind you of the atrocities committed here and in other places. The door behind those markers was the front door of the house of Dr. Ludwig Konigsberger and his family. They were taken from their house in 1942 and executed the same year. Their crime? They were Jewish -- and their stumble stones are so we never forget." Related Articles: |
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