Hiding out in Heidelberg, Germany

For some reason Heidelberg always makes me think of Hummel

Forested area near Heidelberg

figurines. But rather than ceramics, this is the seat of Germany’s oldest university and the cradle of the German Romantic movement. Which leads me to another misconception: I never think of romanticism in connection with Germany. However, the city has been a center for the arts throughout the centuries causing UNESCO Creative Cities Network to designate it a ‘City of Literature’. What I do correctly associate with Heidelberg, and particularly its university, is scientific research and especially the Max Planck Institutes of Biology and Medicine, Chemistry, Physics and Technology, and Human Science.



‘Heidelberg Man’ made this part of Germany his home some 600,000 to 200,000 years ago, at least according to the scientific tests conducted on his jawbone. But of course there wasn’t much evidence of life in the area until the Celts began building a fortress and a place of worship sometime in the 5^th century BC on the ‘Mountain of Saints’ or Heiligenberg. The

Old arch

24^th Roman cohort wandered in some time in 40 AD and hung around until the German tribes ousted them about 200 years later. Although Valentinian I built a permanent camp on the banks of the Neckar River, along with a wooden bridge, modern Heidelberg didn’t become a town until sometime in the 5^th century AD. And this wasn’t really Heidelberg but a village named Bergheim, or ‘Mountain Home’, until 769 AD. Bergheim still exists in the center of the modern Heidelberg. Organized religion in the form of Christianity showed up, leading to the construction of the St Michael Monastery in 863 AD followed much later, in the mid-1100s by the Neuburg Monastery in the Neckar valley, along with the Schönau Abbey. The town’s founding date is considered to be same as the date the Abby was constructed; the first reference to Heidelberg is in a document dated 1196, which was found in the Schönau Abbey.

Castles were constructed with Dukes and Counts ruling the area for two hundred years. The old city of Heidelberg still holds its medieval allure

Top L to R: Heidelberg Castle, Sun dial, Huge keg
Bottom L to R: Portico with spiked gate, Statue of
Frederick III, Gargoyle rain spout

with the castle overlooking the river and the Old Bridge. On the day we visited it was windy and cold but the sun was shining. I think I’m still looking for the Disney version of castles, because the one we saw looked more like a grand hotel – or perhaps hotels look like castles. In any case, the most interesting things in the castle were the giant kegs of wine. These were larger than any I’d seen previously. In 1386, Rupert I, Elector Palatine, founded Heidelberg University; it’s the oldest seat of higher education in Germany. The university played a leading role in calming the conflict between Lutheranism and Calvinism during the fourteen and fifteen hundreds. Almost 100 years later, Heidelberg gave rise to what is now the oldest public library in Germany. And it was in the city if not at the library that Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were defended by the author. The University of Heidelberg was also the site of the composition of a new ‘Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the Churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate’ commissioned by Elector Frederick III. This was Frederick’s bid to calm the conflict between believers in his highly Lutheran territory that was within the primarily Catholic Holy Roman Empire. The peace held for a while, but in 1621 the Thirty Years’ War, basically a holy war, began. By 1634 the French army laid siege to Heidelberg, taking the castle and driving off Catholic forces. But the war didn’t really end; the French and Germans, in conflict because of their religious beliefs (Protestant versus Catholic) nearly destroyed the area. By the 1700s, thousands of Protestant German Palatines fled the area, and with the help of England’s Queen Anne, emigrated to New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. In the 18^th century, Heidelberg was rebuilt in the Baroque style on the old medieval layout. By 1803, it was ruled by Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden who re-founded the University, naming it Ruperto-Carola and attracting notable scholars back to the institution. This ushered in a time of conservation and renovation that saved historical collections and preserved the palace ruins.

 The 19^th century began with a sunny outlook in that Heidelberg University attracted distinguished physicians Vincenz Czerny, Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, and Ludolf von Krehl; and humanists Erwin Rohde, Alfred Weber and Friedrich Gundolf. Unfortunately, this golden period didn’t last; in 1933 the Nazis wormed their way into power and Heidelberg was a

University of Heidelberg

stronghold of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The non-Aryan professors at the University were ejected within one month of Hitler's rise to power. Within six years, one-third of the university's teaching staff had been forced out for racial and political reasons with many of their names added to lists for deportation. What followed over the next two decades were the darkest days for Heidelberg and for the world. Although they had been targeted before, Jews became the focus of the Nazi atrocities; synagogues were burned on the night of November 9, 1938. The next day, 150 Jews were rounded up and deported to Dachau concentration camp. On October 22, 1940 6000 local Jews were sent to Gurs concentration camp where 1000 died of hunger and disease. On March 30, 1945 the U.S. 63^rd Infantry, 7^th Army rolled into a nearly abandoned city; the civilian population surrendered. Because Heidelberg was neither an industrial center nor a transport hub, it was not bombed during World War II. This meant that with the infrastructure still intact, it could be used as a garrison base. Anti-Nazi professors Alfred Weber, Karl Jaspers, and surgeon Karl Heinrich Bauer got the University reopened in short order. I would have liked to have had a tour of the University itself – another reason to return to the area!

L to R: Heidelberg from the Castle, Old Bridge, Commemoration to the Humanistic Savant 

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