Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany
Nuremburg I hear you all say ? Where’s that and why go there ? Well, I will attempt to answer those questions, but first a little on the place itself.
Nürnberg in the local lingo, is a city on the river Pegnitz and on the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It has a population of about 500,000. The waterways here, especially the canal, allows river transport to interconnect the major rivers (Rhine, Danube etc) and thereby accessing many parts of Europe. The river cruise boats that I have made mention of regularly, use these to move between Budapest and the cities west, like Rotterdam etc. Equally, commercial goods etc are moved via this water network. The canal system was a combined European initiative many years ago. It would have paid itself off well and truly by now.
Although our location while being some 7 Underground stops from the centre of Nuremberg, it was quite close, just less than 10 minutes into “town”. We had planned initially to visit the top end of town by visiting the Konserburg and Burggrafenburg.
Both of these being part of the Kaiserburg Castle complex which sits high on the western rock end of town. Typically, the highest point in the locality and a rather imposing structure which appeared very well fortified. This castle area being one of the most important castles of its time back in the early 1200s AD. It remains intact today from those times.
Again, rather adept usage of the underground and tram systems gets us to our little exit point at Tiergartnertor. Along with “maid Marion”, I walk into the castle through and over the moat like opening to a high point thus being able to look over the old town of Nürnberg. It reminds us of the scenes from Dubrovnik although no where as extensive. Here there is a lot of modern development inside the city walls. Which (in our view)) spoils the medieval character of the old town. The wall cannot be walked upon like in some other places to which we have been. As we walked around and became a little more familiar with Nürnberg over these 2 days, we came to realise that a great deal is not necessarily maintained if the local authorities feel that there is no use to it.
In this case, the Nürnberg wall would be a great tourist feature if maintained: the Croatian tourist industry certainly benefited from this. There are other examples of this laissez-faire approach
Still, not for me to judge, but this wall was not the only aspect contributing to this rather worldly and most profound observation. I am available for any consultation process should the locals wish to have some “Parno input”. Fred reckons that this is another “daylight dreaming exercise” of mine. I guess on this occasion, she could not gauge the level of sophistication involved !!
We had then planned to catch our tram up to what was a major attraction to us being in Nürnberg: the Dokumentations-zentrum Reich parteitegsgelunde. Yep, try spelling that after a glass or two of Riesling. This centre, is the museum and “living” evidence of the Nazi party uprising in the early 1900s and up to and including the Second World War. Adolf Hitler being very involved with this area. Indeed from what we have read, Nürnberg was seen as “fertile ground” for the uprising of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitonpartei NSDAP - Nazi Party.
This had been a long held view prior to Hitler’s rise to prominence from a national and international perspective.
This complex, locally referred to as the “parade grounds”, is a massive combination of living history and a museum. I guess the size of this place is complimented by the length of its name.
The Nazi Party spent heaps of money, time and effort in this part of Nürnberg to establish massive rally areas (Zeppelin, Erhenhalle and Luitpoldhain etc) .... these still remaining almost intact and the unfinished Kongresshalle complex which emulates the Colliseum in Rome. These along the expansive 2 kilometre 60. Metre wide Grobenstrabe, make this area a testament to the power, influence and strategic evidence of the Nazi Party. Everything here being big and integrated.
Massive rallies of the Nazi sympathizers or “community members” as the party preferred to refer to them as. Typically, some 200,000 attending and participating in areas like the Zeppelin Parade grounds. It takes you about 2 hours to walk around all of these massive areas.
Again, I would have thought would have been National monuments and so would have been maintained. Fred and I decided to divide this visit into 2 sections: today and tomorrow.
Our initial focus being on the museum that is now housed in the Kongresshalle complex. A rather interactive and informative dissertation of the politics of the early 1900s and into the War. The Germans certainly provide you with heaps of information and none of it sympathetic to the Nazi cause. In fact, quite the contrary.
All of the displays being housed inside this conference centre that was to be the centre piece of upcoming Nazi rallies: it remains unfinished as the Second World War broke out and so construction efforts were put on hold. It is really hard to explain the feeling you get when at the end of the museum displays, you walk out onto this suspended platform which hangs across the Kongresshalle some 30 metres above the ground.
I have been involved in some large sporting fixtures and cannot compare the massiveness of this place.
It left my involvement and the experience from, the refereeing the under 6 Grand Final at Tibooburra West back in the 1990s for dead.
Had this complex been finished, it would have rivalled anything that exists today. Although from a capacity perspective, it was to only house some 50,000 Nazi devotees. On the next day when we returned to complete our inspection of the area, Fred and I stood down at ground level. I looked around and it spooked me more than standing at the centre of the Olympic Stadium in Sydney on Grand Final days when I was lucky enough to be appointed to those games. Even my (ground level) Melbourne Cricket Ground experiences were overshadowed. Big breathes and sighs as I spun around looking up at the 40 metre high walls from which the cascading support structures which were to hold the seated audiences were to spring. The Fuhrer was to present from a small rostrum about where I would stood. No great claim to fame in this, I thought, but this is where history was and was about to be made !! I will return to our land reconnaissance aspects of the area later, as we needed to get back on our horse and get to the “Nürnberg Palace of Justice”.
This latter place is renown for the holding of the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 where the German War Criminals were placed in an International Court of Law. We were able to stand in Court Room 600, the actual court in which these trials unfolded. This rather ornate room has been slightly modified since these trials as it is in use today. Again, a sense of history not escaping us. We sat in the benches and listened to audio about the trial. This along with a walk through the adjacent museum, giving us both a sense of “presence”. To look at actual footage of the 21 German Senior Officers (Rudolf Hess, Hermann Gerring etc), stand in front of the International bench and pleaded “not guilty” (“nicht schuldig”), was somewhat galling. They were most arrogant !! Prior to this, they greeted each like long lost friends do. Bastards !!
Fred was so engrossed in the whole place, she had to be chased out by the officials as closing time approached. I assisted in this process, apologising as we passed through the ausfarht aperture. We had noticed that we were not all that far from ”home”, so we decided to walk. Just some minutes later, arriving at our destination.
Fred is doing “just fine”. She doesn’t appear to be in much pain or discomfort, just restricted by the brace she has to wear. We are generally seeing what we want and going to where we want to be. Another day back in town tomorrow to finish off the inspection of Dokumentations-zentrum Reich parteitegsgelunde and to look around the old town.
Again, movement around Nürnberg is easy and cheap. Day passes on all forms of transport costing about €5 each. Food remains expensive however: in fact, throughout the whole of the United Kingdom and Europe. A restaurant meal typically $AUD 25 for mains and generally these are the generic type meals, nothing out of the ordinary.
On our second full day, we started at the Nazi parade grounds. A walk around to see the expansive Zeppelin ground at which some 200,00 people used to attend was also an interesting experience. I stood on the podium upon which speakers at these rallies (“community experiences”) orated. Even Hitler stood at this point, whipping up the masses. It reminded me of the many school assemblies that I fronted. I stood there and thought, I could speak now and it wouldn’t be any different from that of the past. Nobody here to listen to what I’d have to say: whereas at school 1500 people gathered, but nobody caring to listen. Same, same !!!
People from all over Germany flocked to Nürnberg to be part of these rallies prior to the WWII outbreak.
From what we had seen and heard, the process of aligning the masses was very effective. No wonder in War, the Germans were formidable opponents.
Now this rather expansive area is public space (which is not necessarily all that well maintained) and a large recreational area centred around a lake (Dutzendteich). The number of times I thought to myself, ..... that we are treading in the “City of Party (Nazi) politics”, fertile ground for the formulation of some of the most despicable acts known to man-kind. Certainly a big location: and I do not just refer to its size.
From here we plotted our path to go back to the centre of town (on a different tram route) and finish off our old town viewing. We had also received an email from a fellow Aussie traveller we kept on bumping into while down in the Western Front battlefields, a fellow from Wollongong, James. He was in Nürnberg and so we arranged to meet up.
Our walk around the old town started after we made a strategic decision to change our travel plans. More about this in the next chapter.
Suffice to say, that some news about our pending Prague transfer by train and Fred’s condition, contributing to this. Costly, but we felt, necessary.
Nürnberg old town, is a medieval one. It does not “rate” in the Dubrovnik and Rothenburg-ob-der Tauber category though. Disappointing if you were wanting a total medieval experience. Perhaps we have been spoilt from what we saw in these two locations ? Fred expressed her view (as she is known to do on the odd occasion), ....”I think that I am over medieval town experiences “. I agreed with her, but reminded her that Prague and Budapest were yet to come.
We met up with James and had Franconian meals at a restaurant he had eaten the night before. Pork knuckle and sauerkraut rather nice thank you. Fred preferring a beef meal local style. Franconia is the region in which Nürnberg is located: a very old and traditional part of Germany with its own culinary characteristics.
We walked back to the Underground station of Lorenzkirche which was just a few stops from our Eberhardshof station.
It was now dark and the town’s lights illuminated many of the sites. Not many people around now, which surprised us somewhat. Trains like the trams, arrive every few minutes. You don’t need timetables, just front up and wait at most, a few minutes.
A couple of days here which took us back into history, providing us with the exposure to the seeds of Nazi Germany, something we had been immersed in with our battlefield experiences over the past few weeks. Had we come here 2 years ago, our initial plans only allocated 1 day. This would have been far too short a time to explore what we have just done. Hopefully the change of plans that we have made, will work to our benefit.
Goodbye to Germany for our second time in 2 years. Germany certainly does do things well. The transport systems in all of the places we have been to on this trip and previously, being nothing short of outstanding.
Northern
2018-05-04
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time,glad you are feeling better Gay. Keep enjoying your holiday xx
Mich and Phil
2018-05-06
Nuremburg is such ans interesting place. Some of your observations are so similar to ours when we were in Nuremburg some 9 years ago. The huge unfinished buildings, the lack of maintenance (grass growing though the concrete). Our guides told us of the many Hitler Youth rallies that took place on the very grounds on which we stood. Senior Nazi officers would travel by train from Berlin to generate enthusiasm for 'the cause'.