Blogs from Nuremberg (aka Nürnberg), Bavaria, Germany, Europe - page 5

Please excuse the delay in posting this, and its length. As you can imagine, it involved a lot of reflection and a lot of work. I hope it is worth your time reading it, it was definitely worth my time writing it. Remembering a thing like the Shoah, or the genocide of American Indians, requires a decision (or a series of decisions) not to turn away, not to retreat to a less disturbing narrative that omits or glosses over the really hard parts. That is, in fact, forgetting, erasing the parts of the story that are too painful or too challenging. Erase enough parts, often enough and for long enough, and the whole story changes, becomes a different story. At the heart of remembering is the conviction that it is better to know the truth, however ... read more

Nürnberg was the emotional heartland for National Socialism. A city for nearly a thousand years when it was adopted by Hitler and his movement as its spiritual home, Nürnberg has been a center of culture, commerce, and imperial power for most of its history. Designated by Hitler as the ‘world capital of Germania,’ architect Albert Speer designed and began construction on the 2700 acre Nazi Party Rally Grounds in the southeast corner of historic Nürnberg. Incorporating several existing structures, Speer set out to raise additional monumental structures to create a grand stage on which to enact the ‘morality play’ of German superiority under the leadership of the National Socialists. None of the intended structures were ever completed (a metaphor for the entire National Socialist program?). Today most of what existed at the end of the war ... read more

The snow lying on the ground was a disturbing development. The joys of lower league football for that afternoon were clearly in doubt. We returned to Nurnberg, where the other half had aspirations to visit the Castle. The city centre was still quiet by UK standards, where all the shops are pretty much universally open. We climbed behind the Albrecht Durer House, which is possibly the most visited location in Nurnberg. It wasn’t on our list though, as we had already seen the works of art in the German Nationalisches Museum. An American couple were frantically asking for English speakers in their bid to the Tunnel Art Gallery. As we had just walked past it, we were able to assist on both counts. The guy shook me the hand, as though we had performed something akin ... read more

A meeting was called and all delegates of the adventure gathered around the majestic dining table in Claude's east wing. The question put to the intrepid travellers was " where shall we go next?" Immediately your correspondent suggested we all go to the campsite bar as there seemed to be an endless supply of very cold beer available. Cusco the Chief Spaniel suggested going for a swim in the river as he found that rather refreshing, but then Wendy the Navigator said " let's go to Nuremburg" and that dear readers, is exactly what we did. The journey from Wurzburg passed without incident, apart from the issue of your correspondent trying to remember if he or Cusco was driving, and we arrived in a town called Roth. Now, there was a very good reason we stopped ... read more

Saturday 30 May: Today Rainer was our tour guide, showing us around Darmstadt. We travelled to the city centre on foot, walking through some nice gardens on the way. The Hoffmann home is on the eastern edge of the city and has some nice green space. I was quite excited to see a fox cross the path in front of us. Zachary saw it also, but Heather’s attention had been diverted elsewhere. After walking through these gardens we ended up at the “Five Finger Tower”, so called because that it was it looks like. We went up to the top (7th) floor where very nice views were to be had. It was a clear day so we could see Frankfurt clearly also. From there we had a look at the impressive Russian church but a service ... read more