Visiting Albrecht Dürer and the “Barefoot Man”
By Lothar. Filed in Germany |
We are now beginning our travel (with the 26 students plus 4 adults) through Germany, and Gabi and I are putting in 18-hour days.
On Wednesday, April 16, we are up at 5:30 AM and have a quick breakfast at the McDonald’s(!) in the
Köln-Deutz train station. ICE 525 is right on time, leaving Cologne at 6:44, and all the students are accounted for (after one of many “group checks”). We travel south through the foggy “Westerwald” and low mountains of the “Taunus”. I explain to the kids, that we travel on a high speed section of the German Rail network, with a top speed of 300km/h. We are leaving the cars on the Autobahn next to us in the dust. I go to the front of the train and watch the driver in his glass-enclosed cockpit. It is a little scary to go through the fog at this speed, when we can see only a short section of track zooming by and disappearing under our feet.
Later the fog lifts and I recognize the fortress at Montabaur and the Romanesque towers of the cathedral “Limburger Dom”. We continue through the “Spessart” mountains, crossing the river “Main” several times. Gabi and I are in the restaurant car as we travel through “our city” Würzburg, site of our years as students, our wedding and many good memories. From our train, we catch a glimpse of the fortress “Marienberg” and we probably have the same thought: jump ship(train) and stay here, just the two uf us!
But this is work, not play and we arrive in Nürnberg at 9:59. Gabi is teaching her students how to travel independently, picking up info at the tourist office next to the train station. We walk through town, climb up to the “Burgberg” and check in to our youth hostel, located in the massive “Kaiserburg”.
This is a historic site from the Middle Ages, one of the residences of the Emperors of the ” Holy Roman Empire”, who stayed within these walls between 1050 ( Emperor Heinrich III) and 1571. Our rooms are in the former quarters for the Emperor’s horses (Kaiserstallung) and the beds are hard, but the view of historic Nürnberg from our room on the top floor under the roof is “top”.
Next we visit the “Albrecht-Dürer-Haus”, built in the 15th century. The painter Dürer lived and worked here from 1509 to 1528. The audio guide gives us a tour through the eyes and voice of his wife Agnes.
Dürer was very wealthy and he traveled and sold his artwork all over Europe, while his wife and manager organized everything from her home base here. One of his most famous paintings is the very “alive-looking” rabbit (Der Hase). Dürer was very interested in the proportions of the human body. He took multiple measurements, trying to find and depict the “ideal human body”!
After all this culture and education, it is time for a break. Gabi lets the students roam the city on their own and they tell her later, how much they appreciated this unknown “freedom”. They are just not accustomed to being trusted and being responsible for their actions, being brought up in our overprotective and “control-freak” society. It is too sad, that most people in responsible positions in the US live with this constant fear of liability and lawsuits.
Gabi, Joe and I enjoy a lunch break in the underground restaurant “Barfüßer”, the basement of the customs house. This was originally built in 1498 ( 6 years after Columbus discovered our students’ home country) and it was used as a storage building for grain, salt and wine. Today, I have the traditional dish: “Nürnberger Rostbratwürste” and “Barfüßer Blonde”.
The afternoon is spent with a tour of the “Dokumentationszentrum”, the site of Hitler’s Nazi Party Rallies (Reichsparteitage). The exhibit is in Hitler’s partially built “Congress Hall”, a meeting place planned for 50 000 followers. There is also the Rally Grounds, planned for Military Parades and Albert Speer’s (Hitler’s architect) model for the “German Stadium”: Hitler’s megalomanic stadium with 400 000 seats, planned to be the biggest in the world. It is an excellent exhibit, analyzing the Nazi phenomenon and leaving you with the uneasy question : Could this happen again?
My answer : yes. Keeping the voters uninformed and seducing the masses for political purposes, creating the threat of an “enemy” will, under the right circumstances, be possible in any country, not just Germany. On the contrary, on this journey through Germany, we are constantly reminded of the horror of the Nazi politics. There are Holocaust memorials and museums in every city we visit and the Germans are constantly reminded and discuss this darkest part of their history. I wonder which country will be next in the long line of countries allowing genocide.
After this depressing afternoon, we all re-assemble for dinner in the youth hostel, followed by a birthday celebration for one of the students, with candles and 4 birthday cakes.
Afterwards, the kids are allowed to go out for the evening, while Gabi, Joe and I retreat to the small restaurant “Am Burgwächter”, which is glued to an outside wall of the “Kaiserburg”. We discuss how the trip is going, with rules for the common good, for every student to enjoy the experience. Gabi had to lay down the law in a stern speech to the group that afternoon, after some individualistic transgressions and disregard for the rest of the group. Some more planning of the next day, organizing an early breakfast in the youth hostel, as well as taxis for the trip back to the train station tomorrow. It is midnight by the time we retire to our rooms. Does any reader still believe that this is a vacation?