Sleeting in Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg is a lovely city blended from both German and French

Dockside in Strasbourg

cultures, and I was anxious to walk through its old section with Dave since he hadn’t seen any of it. Even better, we were going to have a tour then time to wander, shop, grab a bite to eat, and finally make our way back to the ship. It’s a lovely place with pretty houses, nice gardens, and picturesque canals. The last time I’d been here it had been sunny, warm, and entirely delightful; this time, not so much.








The town that is now Strasbourg celebrated its 2,000 anniversary in 1988, making it one of the oldest organized settlements in Europe. Although it was mentioned in records as the Roman camp of Argentoratum 12 BC,

Historic house with wisteria arch

because it sits on the Upper Rhine Plain between the Rhine and the Ill Rivers, this fertile area had been inhabited since the Middle Paleolithic Era. Like Basel, it was governed by Bishops from the mid-4^th century until the mid-13^th century. In 1262 the Battle of Hausbergen saw the citizens rebel against the Bishop’s rule and, with their victory, Strasbourg became a free, Imperial City. And like Colmar, it bounced back and forth between German and French occupation until after World War II, to the irritation of the local citizenry. When Louis XIV conquered Alsace in 1681, Strasbourg became French. The outcome of the 1871 Franco-Prussian War gave it to Germany, which retained the city until the end of World War I; in 1918 it was given back to France. However, Germany snatched it back in 1940, World War II, but was made to return it to France in 1944.



During all this upheaval other important things were occurring in the city

Square near the Cathedral

and not all of them good. From the beginning, Strasbourg’s location on two rivers and a fertile valley made it a place to be acquired. As early as 357, with the Battle of Argentoratum, the area was the prize fought for by the people of the city (Alemanni) and the forces of Julian, who became the Emperor of Rome. Five hundred years later in 842, brothers Louis the German and Charles the Bald, rulers of East and West Francia respectively, pledged their loyalty through the Oaths of Strasbourg against their eldest brother, Lothair. Lothair was ruler of Middle Francia, emperor of all the Carolingian Empire Frankish kingdoms, and if that weren’t enough, a Holy Roman Emperor. What is remarkable about these oaths is that they are written in three languages: Medieval Latin, Old Gallo-Romance and Old High German. Although the Bishops were no longer in control of the politics, that didn’t stop plans for construction of a grand cathedral in Strasbourg; in 1015 construction began on the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg. In the 14^th century, while the Strasbourg was an Imperial City, Johannes Tauler began supporting German Mysticism by preaching in German rather than Latin or Hebrew to make religion accessible to the laity. Although more people had an understanding of the Christian religion, it was during this period that the guilds decided that the Jews, by causing the Black Death, were harming the city; this anti-sematic belief led to the Strasbourg massacre (1349), in which several hundred Jews were publicly burned to death, and the rest were expelled from the city. In 1518 something very odd occurred in the city; several hundred people contracted The Dancing Plague which caused them to dance until they died of exhaustion. Even though Strasbourg was still considered an Imperial City in 1529 and because of the previous Bishop’s rule, it was predominantly Catholic; Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Wolfgang Capito, Matthew and Katharina Zell supported a new form of Christianity: the Protestant Reformation. Education was on the rise, and in 1538 the University of Strasbourg was established. Once people are educated, they want to know what is going on in their community; this curiosity gave rise to the creation of the world’s first newspaper which was printed in 1605 by Johann Carolus. In 75 years (about 1680), Pietism, preached by Philipp Spener, brought yet another form of Christianity; in this philosophy dogma isn’t as important as personal piety and devotion. A year later, Strasbourg became part of France.

Strasbourg did well for many years as a city in France. However, in 1789 this changed dramatically with the beginning of the Reign of Terror. The Storming of the Bastille scared and appalled inhabitants of Strasbourg

Top: Historic buildings near the European Parliament
Bottom: Motto of the European Parliment 

when in support of this act part of their citizenry devastated the City Hall; and in 1792, France declared war on Prussia and Austria. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle was so moved by this act of aggression that he wrote what was to become the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise. With France’s loss of this war, Strasbourg became German. But coming into German hands didn’t protect the city from more devastation. During the Siege of Strasbourg in 1870, France tried to reclaim the city from Prussia and although they occupied the city, they were out-manned and out-gunned. The Prussian siege resulted in loss of property and life plus a sound defeat of the French forces. The following uneasy peace allowed Oscar Minkowski and Joseph Von Mering to conduct research to determine what caused diabetes; and in 1889 they found that the pancreas was where the disease originated. After the end of World War I, when Strasbourg was French, again, another religious sect came to the city. Albert Schweitzer introduced his philosophy centered on the Reverence for Life. In short, Schweitzer thought ‘Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil.’ The humanism and freedom of religion that graced Strasbourg came to an abrupt halt with Nazi occupation and the accompanying atrocities. The occupation led to the bombing of the city by Brittan and America, leaving the city in ruins. However, by 1949 the city had recovered enough to become the first of the International Commission on Civil Status and of the Council of Europe; later that commission included the European Parliament, the European Science Foundation, and more lately Eurocorps.

Before the temperature plummeted and the sleet started we got to see

Top L to R: External view of the Cathedral, Romanesque
Arches
Bottom: Stained glass windows

one of the most interesting cathedrals of this trip. What piqued our interest was the blend of French and German cultures as they played out in the architecture and furnishings of the Cathedral of Strasbourg. The structure was begun in 1015 and progressed in fits and starts through wars, changes in government, and disasters producing a mishmash of styles from Romanesque to Gothic. The west front of the edifice is adorned with thousands of carved figures telling religious and historical stories as well as paying tribute to individuals important in the development of the church. For a while, from 1647 to 1874, it was the tallest building in Europe, only surpassed when Hamburg’s Saint Nikolai Church was completed. Along with the history of its construction comes a history of social and religious change that follows the political variations in the city. Sermons from Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg preceded those by John Calvin with the cathedral becoming a protestant house of worship. It was here, in 1539, that the first Christmas tree was used to celebrate Christmas. Just more than 100 years later, the cathedral had passed back into the Catholic faith with a mass celebrated before the prince-bishop Franz Egon von Fürstenberg; this called for a redesign of the interior, emphasizing Catholic liturgy. In the 1940s, Hitler wanted to secularize the structure, making it into a monument to the Unknown German Soldier. It was during this time that the stained glass windows were removed, stored in 74 cases, and hidden in a salt mine; they were returned by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the United States military after the war. By 1988 the windows were back in place and Pope John Paul II celebrated mass to mark the 2,000^th anniversary of the city.

Another function of the cathedral was to house the official clock. This

Top L to R: Clock and windows, Death
Bottom L to R: 'Cock's Crow', Time's Chariot

astronomical clock, restored to a working condition, dates from the mid-1800s. At its onset it had a mechanism that could compute Easter following the Gregorian rule (‘the Sunday that follows the fourteenth day of the moon that falls on March 21 or immediately after’). There are all sorts of carvings that go with the striking of the hour and the parts of an hour; all of these are designed to remind viewers of the brevity of life and the wages of sin. Our guide gave us a short lecture about the clock, but there was a lot more to learn about each decoration as well as the education and skill needed to build the mechanism.

Helper and Chef with flat-bread

We really wanted to spend more time exploring Strasbourg, but worsening weather sent us back to the ship for a warmer, dried place to spend the afternoon and to see what the chef was preparing – today it was a variety of flat bread.

Houses along a canal

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