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| Rothenburg from the Wall |
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the ‘Red fortress
above the Tauber’ is a small German town with many of its buildings preserved
from medieval times. Rothenburg has long been valued as a prime example of a
‘German Home Town’. During Nazi rule followers were brought from all over the
Reich to see the ‘the most German of German towns’. And during World War II, the
U.S Assistant Secretary of War knew the historic importance and beauty of the
town, thus ordering the army not to use artillery in capturing Rothenburg. A US
military leader was sent to the local German military commander to negotiate
the surrender and save the town, in spite of Hitler’s decree that all towns
would fight until destroyed. After the war ended the residents, with the help
of funds from around the world, rebuilt what had been damaged during the war. More
lately, the traditional buildings of Rothenburg have appeared in several movies.
In the 1940 Walt Disney movie Pinocchio
it was the model for the village. The
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| Medieval Rothenburg |
Wonderful World of the Brothers
Grimm (1962) movie featured Rothenburg in the trailer with the camera flying
over the town from the valley towards the Town Hall. It has also been used for location
shots in Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1 in 2010 and Part 2 in 2011). Dave
noted that pretty much every medieval community from Prague west could have
been in the Harry Potter movies; he’s not nearly the fan I am.
