Germany: Roots & Remembrance

One of Germany’s National Museums is in Nürnberg. It houses some amazing stuff. After visiting cemeteries of my dead relatives and thinking and talking about the Nazi period, it was nice to think about earlier centuries.

Perspective is important. Cultures, countries, people, all come and go. Humans’ written and artistic record dates back millennia.

In 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Nürnberg-born cartographer Martin Behaim created a globe based on writings by Pliny, Ptolemy and Marco Polo. Columbus was still at sea so America isn’t shown!

South America showed up on a globe in 1520.

The museum has Albrecht Dürer paintings, prehistoric tools, 15th century sandals, Roman coins, etc. Our era, our lifetimes, are just bits of lint on history’s fabric.

During WWII, Nürnberg was destroyed by the British and American air forces. In the Church of our Lady, we saw photos of the rubble. It reminded me of photos of German synagogues after the November 1938 pogrom called Kristallnacht.

Poetic justice.

Nürnberg was rebuilt to look old. It is charming today.

Good luck is said to come from turning the golden ring on this fountain. The fountain survived WWII bombing because it was encased in protective concrete.

In a week, we will return for the laying of a Stolperstein (“Stumbling Stone”) for my great aunt Karoline Lehmann born Freund. Herr Doktor Pascal Metzger arranged it. He and his lovely family joined us for dinner and conversation.

Pascal’s wife, Nicole, an opera singer who teaches music theory, will bring her student choir to sing Hebrew memorial songs when I return next year to dedicate Stolpersteine for two more of my relatives.

To read prior essays, click HERE.