A DIET OF WORMS AND DOCTOR PEPPER (XV of ‘A Tale of 2 Continents’) By R.J.Fensterman
XV
A DIET OF WORMS AND DOCTOR PEPPER
We both had rather fond memories of Heidelberg from back ‘in the day’ – December of 1962, the first snow-fall, our first trip out of Frankfurt on the train. We walked from the train station to a picturesque gasthaus at the foot of the schloss mountain. Inside, were picnic-styled wooden benches in a large hall with wrought-iron chandeliers. We hadn’t eaten at all that morning; but we decided to have our first tankard of German beer before ordering food. The beer was rich and foamy, but not cold. And very strong, and a lot of it. When the waiter came back to take our food order, we were lying face-down on the tables, fast asleep.
Willkommen auf Deutchland!
Here is the old bridge we walked across from the train station almost fifty years ago, still looking exactly the same as then. And pretty much the same as when it was built in 1788…
You can see the famous schloss (castle) on the other side of the Neckar river on the wooded hillside; it was first constructed as a fort in 1294, and then many additions were made to make it into an imperial castle. Architecture changed from Gothic to Renaissance, and work on the castle ceased around 1900.
Heidelberg is one of the oldest settlements in all of Germany. Celtic tribes established a habitation there in the Fifth Century Before Christ. The Romans placed a permanent fortified military garrison there in the year 40 A.D. And in 1907, the skeletal remains of a pre-historic man were discovered near Heidelberg, whose origins were many thousands of years old.
Our tour bus labored up the steep road that lead to the castle (In ’62, we had walked up this road in the snow in short order; today, we were very glad to be on our bus.) Once the bus was parked in the visiting area, we were able to look-out over the city of Heidelberg, and see this awesome view of the Neckar River valley…
Much of the castle is in ruins – some of it over-grown with ivy — giving the place a Romantic ambiance that Wordsworth and Goethe would have relished. It certainly provides for a very attractive and dramatic picture…
Our local guide for the castle was a young man named Hans, who was doing graduate work at Heidelberg’s famous old University. His English was quite good, and he was the most truthful and friendly guide we’d encountered on this trip to Western Europe. He took us inside the Castle grounds, to the courtyard, facing the beautiful Friedrich Building — one of the few structures in the castle complex where the interior rooms are restored and inhabitable…
We were all wearing nametags to identify our group tour; Hans noticed mine, and remarked: “You have a German name.” “Yes. ‘Window Man’,” I replied. “But my grandparents came to America from Belarus.” “Ahh,” was his reply.
“You know,” he went on. “There are a lot of people in Germany who do not really like Americans. But for me, I like them a lot.”
“Have you visited America?”
“Yes. In California.”
“Did you like it?”
“Very much. There I could get all the Dr. Pepper I could drink. Here they do not sell it. So I have to get my American friends to buy Dr. Pepper for me at the U S Army Commissary.”
I pointed to the broken and hollowed-out brick structures opposite the Friedrich Building. “Did the Americans do this in The War?”
“Oh No. This was done by King Louis the Fourteenth of France. In 1693, during the War of the Palatine Succession. The Americans did not bomb Heidelberg, and the city was taken without a battle. Many of your generals had studied here at our University before the War; they knew how beautiful it was. So they did not want it destroyed. In fact, they would make it their headquarters after the War, and there are still many American Army people here now. Besides, it was of no real industrial, transportation or military importance during the War.”
“I’m certainly glad of that,” I said.
After touring the restored palatial rooms inside the Friedrich Building, Hans took us back down to the KoeningSaal (King’s Hall) which was added in 1934 as a Nazi banquet hall; the dark oaken pseudo-Gothic look was Hitler’s favorite style. The Hall, unchanged from the Thirties, is still in use today for various performances, celebrations and special events…
Hans remarked “Now-a-days, people almost never speak about Hitler; it is as if he had never existed here. But I think we must admit that he did. It is only by facing our past that we can put it behind us for good.”
We then visited the Apothecary Museum for a few minutes, and then the old Chapel that was very popular for local weddings. By now, it was about 1:30 P:M, and time for us to get back to the bus. Lunch was ‘on-our-own’; the bus let us off at the town square. Here is the old gasthaus where we ate and drank on that snowy December day….
But on this day, we had neither the time nor the patience (nor the exchange) rate) that we had in ’62. Instead, we managed to find our old stand-by; a little different than the American original, but quick and inexpensive. And Hans was right – they didn’t even have Dr. Pepper at McDonald’s…
We were picked-up by the bus at 2:30, and continued our journey northward to our penultimate destination: Worms.
***
In 1521, at the Chancellery Palace of the Archbishop of Worms, Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms (the imperial assembly). Earlier that year, he had been excommunicated by Pope Leo X for heresy. The confused political situation of the Holy Roman Empire at this time allowed Frederick III, Prince Elector of Saxony, to grant safe passage for Luther to defend his theses before Emperor Charles V and the political administrators of the
area, as well as the representative of the Pope. It was here that Luther established himself as a hero to millions of Germans, and a symbol of individual conscience for all time. “I will not, I cannot recant. Here I stand. I can do no other!”
The actual building has long since been demolished. But in its place, in 1868, Emil Reitschel designed and constructed the Reformation Memorial, the largest memorial to Protestantism in the world. It was totally restored in 2008. We would be visiting it in this city on the Rhine. We crossed the river in the rain (of course) to enter Worms…
On the way to the Memorial, we passed a lovely small park, protected by this whimsical creature, the Red Dragon…
He appears on the coat of-arms of the city (along with a Key) as a symbol of armed vigilance. In the Nibelungen legend (made very famous by Wagner’s opera series), Siegfried slays the red dragon under the linden tree. In early folk-lore, he also appears, and threatens to crush the city unless the widowed-queen is sacrificed to him. But a locksmith goes in her stead, clad in a suit of armor made of sharp-edged steel; when the dragon tries to devour what-he-believes is the queen, he is cut to death. As a reward, the locksmith gets to marry the queen. An interesting story…though totally unrelated to Luther
Here is the impressive Reformation Memorial to Martin Luther, farther down the boulevard…
The tallest figure, on the center pedestal is Luther, holding a Bible, and dressed in his preaching robes. In the foreground, is Frederick III, Prince of Saxony, Luther’s protector; seated around Luther’s pedestal are the forerunners of the Reformation: Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola. They were not as fortunate as Luther, who died of natural causes in his old age; they were all burned at the stake as heretics.
At the other end of the memorial park stands a much more recent memorial. This one is to the Wehrmacht defenders in World War II, who were totally outnumbered by the U S 12th Armored Division and would die there. There is something particularly poignant about memorials to losing combatants. I remember visiting Concord Bridge in Massachusetts many years ago, and being very moved by the small monument there to the Hessian troops, who had come so far, only to die on the wrong side of a very important event…
And here is the lovely central park, with its precise symmetrical beauty so typical of Germany, with its great full trees, and in bloom with Spring flowers…
It was late afternoon, and it was time for us to re-board the bus. We would now travel to the terminus of our tour – the second largest airport in all of Europe: Frankfurt am Main.
(Chapter XVI will follow shortly…)
