After our pleasant evening and day in Nordlingen, we drove on to Nuremburg, another Bavarian city we had somehow never gotten around to. Nuremburg of course is famous, and infamous. On the main trade route to Italy in the middle ages, it became an important center and was often the host of the Imperial Diet and the Holy Roman Emperor. Culturally it was the home of poet and musician Hans Sachs, immortalized in Wagner's
Mastersingers of Nuremburg. With Durer, it became the center of the German Renaissance. It was also the heart of Germany's soul, according to Hitler. The Nazis held rallies there in the 1920's and 30's, immortalized, so to speak, in Leni Riefenstahl's
Triumph of the Will. The antisemitic Nuremburg Laws were promulgated there is 1935. During WWII, it was pulverized, both from the air and on the ground. Reportedly, 90% of the old city was destroyed in an hour during one particularly effective combined British/American air strike in early 1945. What hadn't been destroyed from the air was destroyed on the ground in house-to-house fighting between the Germans and the US 3rd Infantry. The heart of Germany's soul was, by no accident, the site of the Nuremburg Trials, in which dozens of surviving Nazi political and war leaders were prosecuted, imprisoned, or executed. Today it is an apparently thriving regional center, with half a million residents, and many more in the surrounding area. Although we might have been interested in any of the matters recounted above, our main interest in Nuremburg was the German National Museum, and its new special exhibit, "The Early Durer."
Oh yes, we stayed overnight in another free municipal stellplatz, in a park in the near suburbs. Not one of the nicest, however.
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| Old entrance to the GHM |
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Present-day entrance; it is the largest museum in the German-
speaking world; comparable in size and scope to the V&A |
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Our interest, as I said, was the special Durer exhibit; the line
waiting to get in, after buying tickets, can run up to two
hours; the exhibit was the largest and best special exhibit of
art I have seen; it was nearly elbow to elbow throughout;
dozens of Durer's early works and those of his teachers and
contemporaries; photos were not permitted, nor even
possible given the throng; we lingered a couple hours, had
lunch, then continued the rest of the day in a few of the
GHM's regular collections, paintings, musical instruments,
household stuff, religious art, etc.; one could spend a week
there...maybe next time |
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We spent the rest of the daylight hours strolling the old
city and taking in a few more of the Durer high-lights; here,
Vicki demonstrates proper form in consuming a pizza slice
served German-style in a neat little envelope |
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| Main downtown church |
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| River Pegnitz |
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| Scores of beautiful "old" buildings |
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| Durer statue |
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| Durer medallion |
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| Durer house |
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Main square, Schonbrunn (beautiful fountain), and another
major downtown church |
