On the trail of the Staufer
Trip Start
Jun 22, 2008
1
2
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Trip End
Aug 13, 2008
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Stuttgart,
Baden-Württemberg,
Germany
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
To answer the second question first (I just love chiasm, don't you?): Part of the reason I stopped in Stuttgart - in addition to visiting friends and "family" - was to do research for my advanced German class at Pacifica. In German 4/AP we spend a significant amount of time on the Middle Ages, and I am working on upgrading my materials. As part of that upgrade I'm writing my own "biography" of a fictional character. I've put him in Swabia during the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, and I needed to check out some places he might have been. There are still a lot more places to check, but they will have to wait for another time. At this point, my "hero" will be Gottfried von Lichtenstein. Burg Lichtenstein is documented from about 1150, and a couple of names associated with the castle are known, but there is enough that is not known for me to be able to create my fictitious character and weave a lot of history into his lifetime. I've got lots of ideas; we'll have to see how well they "flesh out".
The Staufer were the ruling family in the Holy Roman Empire at this time. Gottfried will grow up during the reign of Friedrich I Barbarossa and accompany him on the ill-fated Third Crusade. (In case you didn't know, Barbarossa was about 69 years old and still leading his army through Anatolia [Turkey] when he died in the Saleph River in southeastern Cilicia; exact cause of death: uncertain, was it drowning or a heart attack from the shock of cold water?) There will be plenty of opportunities for other adventures, not least of which will involve meeting the emperor for the first time.
Die drei Kaiserberge
I'm trying to tie Gottfried's age and activities with Barbarossa's known movements at certain points. Although the King of the Germans was technically elected, the election usually went the way the old emperor wanted. Then, to become emperor, the king had to be crowned by the pope. Most of the time this meant a trip to Rome. As a result some kings never became emperor. During particularly difficult times there might be rivals for the throne. This happened after Heinrich VI's death because his son (later Friedrich II) was so young. Heinrich's brother Philip was elected king in an attempt to protect the Staufer interests, but the Welf faction elected Otto, son of Heinrich of Bavaria. Incidentally, a key Staufer city was Waiblingen. The battle cries "Hie Waiblingen" and "Hie Welf" gave their names to the Italian factions of Ghibelline and Ghuelf.But enough medieval history. On Tuesday Franz, Arlene and I drove to Hohenstaufen. This was the home castle for the Staufer dynasty, although in Germany at the time the emperor didn't stay in any one place for very long but moved around the empire constantly to take care of things and make certain the nobles and high nobles didn't acquire too much power. We stopped at a restaurant with a wonderful view of the Fils valley and the Swabian Alb beyond. After lunch Arlene relaxed and enjoyed the view while Franz and I hiked to the top of the hill (a volcanic mound, long extinct) to see the ruins and the view. Along the way we stopped at the local museum to look at the exhibit on the Staufer.
Stauferberg
I also realized that Long Beach is much flatter than Swabia!When we had looked around a while we returned to the restaurant and headed for Kloster Lorch, where some of the Staufer are buried. On the way we made a detour to Schoenblick, a center for the "Altpietisten", a pietistic movement in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It was quite impressive.
At Kloster Lorch we went to the cloister Church of St. Peter and Paul and saw the sarcophagus of Irene, Philip of Swabia's widow. She was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II. After Philip was killed in 1208, Irene died in childbirth. She was well loved both by contemporaries and subsequent generations. Walther von der Vogelweide called her a "rose without thorns, dove without guile".
Just outside the monastery was a tower for the Limes Line. (Pronounced LEEM-ess) This was an attempt by the Roman Empire to keep the barbarians (i.e. Germans) out. It was similar to the later Maginot Line - and just about as effective. The Limes stretches for thousands of kilometers across southern Germany and into Austria, connecting the Rhine and Danube Rivers, then following the Danube east. Naturally I had to go and take a look at the tower - not an original, of course, but marking where the Limes Line used to be.
On Wednesday I took a break from the Staufer for more modern pursuits. We had lunch with Andri, Franz and Arlene's youngest son. He's a pastor in the Freie Evangelische Kirche. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking a small lake and then went back to Andri's for "dessert". In the evening we went to Dan's house. He's the eldest son and holds a position in the Synod of the Landeskirche (Lutheran Church) in Baden-Wuerttemberg. We watched the Germany-Turkey game. The most exciting part was the last five minutes, when Germany won. The real heroes of the game were Schweinsteiger, Klose and (especially) Lahm, who kicked goals - and Podolski and Hitzlsperger who assisted. The captain, Ballack, didn't contribute much. The win put Germany into the Euro2008 Europe Cup Soccer Final. The final was in Vienna, and I'll talk about it in another post.
I still have a couple of days left in Stuttgart, but I'll tell you about them in my next post. Until then moege Gottes reichster Segen bei Euch sein.
Comments
Put yourself in the pictures
Hey. Glad you made your flight out of LA. Have a wonderful time. Be sure to take a picture of you and post it. That way we can be sure you are there. God Bless John
Re: Put yourself in the pictures
Thanks John! Hope the choir is doing well. Who's standing at the organ to help people down? Do you mean that you don't believe I'm here just because I have pictures? I'll see if I can corral some unsuspecting tourist to take my picture. See you in August! Robert