Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Day 6 – Nuernburg

The little town of Nuernberg (also spelled “Nuremberg” in The States), is known for several things. For one, it has the best little sausages in Germany. I had six little sausages along with my first Bavarian Pretzel here, and this seems to be most certainly true. Both were ausgezeichnet!

It is also the home of the famed artist Albrecht Duerer, who painted several pictures and made several wood cuts, but is best known for The Praying Hands. In 1945, it was also the site of the infamous Nazi War Trials. Of the 24 who were on trial, 12 were convicted of War Crimes. 10 were hanged; one (Hermann Goehring) committed suicide; one escaped to South America and died not too long ago.

But there are other stories, too. We went to the St. Sebald Church, which was another sacred space bombed and destroyed during WWII. St. Sebald lived in the 8th Century and it is said that when he died, he asked that his body be placed in a wagon led by 2 oxen, and when they stopped walking, that’s the place where he wanted to be buried. That is where the church stands today. His tomb is in the middle of the nave, but the altar has been moved in front of it. There are snails underneath the structure that holds his grave. The snail is a symbol of resurrection in Germany, in the sense that the snail retreats into its shell (tomb) and then re-emerges (resurrection). They do not appear to be the “pests” that they are in our culture.


There is also a big church on the Square, Die Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady). It is said that the King of Bavaria, Max Joseph, was in town and the people complained to him because they wanted to Jews out of that particular area. The King did not want to be bothered with it and told the people to figure it out. So the people burned the Jewish part of the village during the night, killed several people by burning them in their beds. They then built the Market Square and erected a huge golden fountain over the well. The Glockenspiel on the Church Tower is a golden figure of Charlemagne, and early in the morning when the bells chime, his court comes out and toots their little horns in tribute to him.

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