UMGEBUNGSENTDECKER
TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS OF AN ART AND HISTORY LOVER
and my experiences as a teacher in China
From Wendland via the Altmark
to Ballenstedt
CONTENT
The Elbe - Border River between Saxons and Wends
The Wendland - Of Slavs and Opponents of Nuclear Power
On the Outer Border of East Francia - the Altmark
Where the Baumkuchen was invented - Salzwedel
Renewable Energy has always been - The Greed Cable Ferry at Werben
A Church like a Fortress - Havelberg
Metropolis of the Altmark - Stendal
Stendal's most Famous Son - Johann Joachim Wickelmann
For a while Brandenburg's Capital - Tangermünde
The Legacy of Otto the Great - Magdeburg Cathedral
Beginning of Brandenburg History, Albrecht the Bear
The Elbe - Border River between Saxons and Wends
This time my wanderlust took me to the Middle Elbe, always along the river from Wendland to River Saale. This area was particularly interesting in the Middle Ages, around 1200 to 1000 years ago.
At that time, the Rivers Elbe and Saale were border rivers between the Christianized and the pagan world. Monasteries, churches and palaces were built on these rivers and their surroundings in order to spread and secure Christianity there and from there to advance into pagan areas further east.
On the map below, this border runs along the blue and white territory, along the River Elbe from Hamburg via Magdeburg and further along the River Saale to the Thuringian Basin.
This was the eastern border of the East Francia.
The Frankish Empire after the Treaty of Verdun , anno 843
Germanic tribes lived on the western side of the Elbe and Saale, and Wends, or Slavs, lived on the eastern side. However, the area of the Germanic and Wendish tribes was not as clearly separated from each other as this border line would suggest. There were settlements of both ethnic groups on both sides of the border. Border regions at that time were characterized by being sparsely populated and settlements of the respective tribes were less common than in the core area of each group.
Nevertheless, there was a need for a clear, linear border. The Romans had already done this 1,000 years earlier by setting the rivers Rhine and Danube as the border between the Roman Empire and Germania. Centers were founded to secure this border. They also pursued the goal of pushing the empire's development border further into Germanic territory by advancing from the Roman fortifications into the unknown eastern territory. However, the Romans were unable to establish themselves there permanently. This was only achieved several centuries later by Charlemagne, who had himself crowned successor to the Roman emperors. ( If you are interested in Charlemagne's conquest of the area on the right bank of the Rhine, click here . It is explained in more detail there. )
900 years after the Romans , in the 10th century, things were similar, only this time further east on the Elbe, on the border between Christian and pagan as well as Germanic and Slavic cultures.
Saxon- Ottonian rulers founded castles and monasteries there to secure their territory and as starting points for the further settlement and missionization of the eastern, Slavic territory, such as the construction of Tangermünde Castle (in 925 by the Ascanian margraves), the castle of Meissen (built in 929 by King Henry I (father of Emperor Otto I)) or the foundation of the monastery of St. Mauritius in 937 by Emperor Otto I, which became the nucleus of Magdeburg.
The Elbe is drawn in red. Important fortifications on the west, east Franconian side are Tangermünde, Magdeburg and Meißen.
The Wendland,
of Slavs and Anti-Nuclear Activists
The Wendland
Source: https://wendland-elbe.de/wp-content/uploads/Übersichtskarte_Wendland.Elbe_NEU_2020-1024x814.jpg
My journey began in Wendland, the northernmost point of the trip. The area used to be the westernmost extension of the Slavic cultural area in Europe, which also extended west of the Elbe. To this day, the area is characterized by Slavic village structures, by circular villages , whose farms with their gabled facades face the central village square.
The radial structure of a circular village is clearly visible, with the gable sides of the courtyards facing the central village square.
Für einen Besuch der Rundlingsdörfer startet man am besten in Lüchow, fährt die Bundesstraße 493 Richtung Uelzen und kommt irgendwann zur Ausfahrt nach Lübeln, einem Rundlingsdorf, in dem man sich im Rundlingsmuseum Wendland näher über diese Dorfform informieren kann. Von dort geht es in ziemlich kurzen Entfernungen weiter zu Orten mit exotischen Namen wie: Gühlitz, Satemin, Jabel.
The Wendland is better known for the town of Gorleben.
Nuclear waste storage facilities, Castor transports and mass demonstrations against the opposition made Gorleben a synonym for resistance to nuclear energy. As an expression of this movement against the nuclear waste storage facility, the "Free Wendland Republic" was proclaimed by opponents of nuclear power in 1980 and a hut village was built on the site where a deep drilling site was being used in the search for a final storage facility. For several months, this village became the centre of resistance until it was cleared by the police and the Federal Border Police.
To this day, the inhabitants of Wendland react seismically to issues concerning environmental protection.
At the same time , Wendland attracts people who are looking for other ways of life and who try out and live alternative projects from arts and crafts to organic farming.
Noteworthy is the annual "Cultural Country Tour" between Ascension Day and Pentecost, the largest self-organized
Northern Germany's cultural festival, where artists, musicians and artisans living in Wendland open their studios, farms and workshops to show how they live and work.
During the division of Germany, the Wendland was on the border of the German zone and was surrounded on three sides by the GDR. It was a structurally weak area somewhere in the outskirts. Reason enough not to invest there, which meant that the original character of the villages and the landscape was preserved. In comparison, villages in the west of the Federal Republic of Germany have often changed beyond recognition .
In Wendland you are far away from the industrialized, sprawling urban areas of the West and time seems to have stood still. No noise of civilization, not even the sound of airplanes, disturbs the idyll. Unless a tractor or car is passing by, there are virtually no unnatural sounds.
T he inhabitants of the villages are mostly getting on in years. Sometimes a man over 60 years old with a leather vest, white ponytail and belly sits on a bench in front of one of these houses and stoically endures the tourists who change the character of the circular villages with their presence. The number of visitors is likely to increase, because the circular villages have
applied to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Incidentally, Wends existed not only in what is now Wendland, but also in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, i.e. everywhere east of the Elbe.
The former Slavic influences of eastern Germany can still be clearly seen today in place names such as Eutin, Rudow, Wandlitz and countless others that have similar Slavic endings such as -in, -ow or -litz. Street villages with village greens were also common in the Slavic part of Europe and have survived to this day in the less industrialized areas of the east. Slavic origins are even clearly visible in some Berlin districts, such as in Berlin-Lichtenberg on Möllendorffstrasse and Am Anger, as well as in the south of Berlin in Alt-Mariendorf or Alt-Marienfelde, etc.
Because the Wends lived everywhere in the east, the name "Wendland" is inaccurate for the area in what is now Lower Saxony. The area around Lüchow is therefore more precisely called "Hanoverian Wendland".
River Elbe at Wahrenberg
The Elbe runs about forty kilometers east of Lüchow. As I like evening moods, I drove late to the town of Wahrenberg, which is located directly on the banks of River Elbe. The ride was tranquil and after I left the federal highway 190 near Leppin and drove towards Wahrenberg, I hardly saw any other car. Golden, intensive light let the fields of corn shine in he evening sun, tiny villages, quiet streets, churches with lonely cemeteries. That's how I imagined the landscape and that's exactly how I found it there.
The street village of Harpe
The Elbe lies just behind the dyke at Wahrenberg . From the top of the dyke , the landscape looks as if it had not changed for centuries. The Elbe flows leisurely through the lowlands, with no road or brick embankment forcing it into its riverbed .
Although the Elbe was regulated in the 19th century so that the river does not constantly seek out a new bed, and there are dikes, the overall impression is astonishingly natural.
I sat down in the grass and watched the day slowly draw to a close. A few anglers stood on the bank, swallows flew around chirping, the call of the cuckoo rang out in the distance and a stork circled above the rooftops.
On the Outer Border of the Reich
The Altmark
South of Wendland lies the Altmark.
Since the introduction of the march system by Charlemagne , territories that lay on the outer borders of the empire were called "Mark".
The Altmark was a border territory on the Elbe at the time of the East Frankish Empire .
The Altmark, border region of the East Frankish Empire. The Elbe, marked here in red, ran in the east and separated the Germanic and Slavic areas from each other.
The Altmark is located in the north of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Where the Baumkuchen (Tree Cake) was invented, Salzwedel
Salzwedel is located in the very north of Saxony-Anhalt, so it belongs to the Altmark and borders directly on Lower Saxony, i.e. on the Wendland. The city was a Hanseatic city in the Middle Ages and has had the Hanseatic city name in its name since 2008.
Apart from a very beautiful old town that remained undestroyed during the war, Salzwedel's unique selling point is the invention of the Baumkuchen (Tree Cake) around 1800. At that time, a lady named Luise Lentz baked the first Salzwedeler Baumkuchen. However, the year 1808 is historically attested when the father of the Salzwedel tree cake guild, Johann Andreas Schernikow, obtained his master craftsman's certificate.
In 1841, Baumkuchen became acceptable when King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia testified to the quality of Salzwedeler Baumkuchen. Shernikov became the royal purveyor to the court in 1865.
In 2015, Café Kruse, which has been making Baumkuchen since 1842, set up a glass Baumkuchen factory where you can see the production.
In the time of the GDR, Baumkuchen was primarily baked for export.
By the way, almost everyone knows the Baumkuchen with a chocolate coating, but the original is covered with white icing. You should try that. Maybe some people like me find the icing version better than the chocolate one.
Salzwedel Baumkuchen
Renewable Energy has always been:
The Cable Ferry at Werben
The next morning my journey continued from Salzwedel to Havelberg on the other side of the Elbe.
The cable ferry at Werben, which is only powered by the river current, took me to the other bank in complete silence and without any noticeable movement. The crossing was so smooth that I hardly noticed that we had already set off. The ferryman confirmed my impression and reported that passengers often ask when it will start because they don't notice that the journey has already begun.
As the only passenger that morning, I had him explain the principle of the cable pulley to me and marveled at his ferryman's cubbyhole with pin-up girls, where he also offers handmade jams and home-harvested honey for sale.
Havelberg,
A Church like a Fortress,
From the eastern shore, my journey continued to Havelberg.
The origins of Havelberg lie on a ridge on River Havel near the mouth of the Elbe, on which Heinrich I, Saxon-Liudolfingian Emperor and father of Otto I, built a castle after he had pushed back the Slavs.
Later, in 948, his son Otto founded the bishopric Havelberg.
This diocese initially belonged to the Archdiocese of Mainz, but in 968 it became a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg.
The construction of the Havelberg Cathedral began in 1150.
Its core is Romanesque, even if later after a fire Gothic modifications in the 13th -14th Century took place.
The most striking Romanesque feature is the bulwark-like westwork, visible from afar, an unadorned western porch that has no window openings, but is equipped with loopholes.
In the Christian border areas, churches often had also defensive character, sometimes appearing like fortresses, having protective walls against pagan attacks. The upper, differently colored part of the western work with the belfry was added from 1200.
The cathedral is located above Havelberg. Its bulwark-like westwork shows that in the Middle Ages churches also had to be defended because people were on the edge of the Christianized world and were encroaching on pagan territory .
Inside the church is Gothic. After the fire, only the outer walls and the pillars remained, the vault with the cross ribs was added during the reconstruction, pointed arches and service bundles were added.
Due to the Gothic style, but above all due to the use of brick as a building material, the building can be classified as North German Brick Gothic. This style is characteristic of all churches and secular buildings, city fortifications and city gates in the medieval Christianized north-east of Central Europe , which continues via Brandenburg Cistercian monasteries to cities such as Thorn (Torun) , Graudenz (Grudziadz) or fortresses such as Marienburg (Malbork), but also along the entire Baltic coast, from Wismar via Stralsund, Danzig (Gdansk), Königsberg (Kaliningrad) to Estonia. The impulses for this uniform style came on the one hand from principalities and bishoprics, but also from the Hanseatic League, which economically linked the Baltic region from the 12th century onwards and had a strong cultural influence, especially on the south coast. An inland southern border for North German Brick Gothic is difficult to determine. The style was carried far inland by the rivers Oder and Vistula . Otherwise, Brick Gothic also existed in other parts of Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Flanders, although there it appeared in a different form than in the Baltic region.
From the High Middle Ages, Havelberg was also a Hanseatic city, of which there were eight in the Altmark. In addition to Havelberg, these include Salzwedel, Stendal, Tangermünde, Werben, Seehausen, Osterburg and Gardelegen. (Want to find out more about the Hanseatic League? Click here .) Accordingly, all of these cities have historic buildings in the Brick Gothic style. Here in the Altmark, the style is mixed with Romanesque, the architectural style that the Saxon emperors preferred.
After the cathedral was built in Havelberg , the town was built downstream on the river. Initially it was located on a peninsula in a loop of the Havel. Later, a ditch was dug that separated the peninsula, creating an easily defendable island.
Havelberg seen from the Sandauer Bridge
Havelberg, town hall on the city island
If you visit Havelberg today , the city island is quickly explored, there are only a few streets. The most interesting is the cathedral, which you should not miss . The ideal way to get there is via the street "Vor dem Steintor". There you can already see the Gothic brick St. Anne and Gertraud Chapel. To the right of it, a beautiful, gradually ascending path leads through green areas to the cathedral, from where you have a good view of the old town.
Havelberg seen from the cathedral
The bulwark-like bell tower of the cathedral
Metropolis of the Altmark
Stendal
From Havelberg my journey continued to Stendal on the western side of the Elbe. There are various options for getting back to the western side, such as the cable ferries near Sandau or Arneburg or bridges near Hämerten and Tangermünde.
Stendal is the largest town in the Altmark. Albert the Bear, who will be discussed in more detail later, founded the market around 1160/65 and soon granted the town Magdeburg law, i.e. town charter, freedom from customs duties, the right to mint coins and other privileges. The market with its town hall, Roland and St. Mary's Church shows the wealth of the old Hanseatic town.
The Roland of Stendal proves that the city already had its own jurisdiction in the Middle Ages. Behind the Roland is the courthouse from around 1378. It is the oldest part of the town hall. The council chamber in the town hall with wall carvings from 1462 is particularly worth seeing.
Marienkirche in Stendal
The town and council church of St. Mary from 1447 has 82-meter-high twin towers that are visible from afar. Inside the church, the choir screen from 1230 with the apostles' cycle and the triumphal cross from the 14th century above it are particularly noteworthy.
The largest sacred building in the city is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. It all started there with a collegiate monastery, founded in 1188 by Heinrich von Gardelegen and Margrave Otto II. What is special about it is a cycle of 22 late medieval stained glass windows, which are unique in their context in the North German brick area. For almost six hundred years they have bathed the Stendal Cathedral in a mysterious light. The entire choir is surrounded by twelve windows, in addition there are three windows in the north transept, four windows in the south aisle and three more windows in an aisle of the south transept. They had been outsourced during the war and survived the time on a farm near Stendal.
Stendal’s most famous Son
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Below is a short excursion into the 18th century. If you are not interested in Winkelmann and want to stick with the Middle Ages, click here .
Stendal's most famous son is Johann Joachim Winckelmann, about whom there is a Winckelmann Museum in Winckelmannstrasse with a permanent exhibition worth seeing on his life, his later work in Italy and his importance for archaeology and art history.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann was born in 1717 as the son of a poor craftsman in Stendal, but was accepted into the Latin school soon after primary school because his talent had been recognized and he was encouraged. After studying theology in Halle and attending lectures on logic and history, he initially made a living from working as a private tutor and library administrator. He later studied medicine in Jena, but did not complete his studies. In 1748 he moved to Dresden, where he worked as a librarian at Nöthnitz Castle in the service of Count von Bünau, where he had access for the first time to scholarly writings on ancient art, mythology and history. In 1754 he moved permanently to Dresden and lived with the painter Adam Friedrich Weser, from whom he learned to draw. In the Saxon royal seat he had the opportunity to study the old masters, especially Raphael, in the Dresden Picture Gallery. His first work, "Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture," was written in Saxony in 1755. In it, he sees classical, ancient art as the antithesis of baroque courtly art. His work was translated into French and became known throughout Europe.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Portrait of Anton von Marion 1768, The original hangs im Castle Museum Weimar
In 1755, Winckelmann travelled to Rome for two years with the help of a scholarship, where he intensively studied the works of art of antiquity. The two years turned into many years.
In Florence, Winckelmann studied collections of Etruscan art and developed his work "History of Ancient Art" in 1764.
It includes the art of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians and Parthians, Etruscans and Italics, as well as the Romans. He created a system based on geographical and temporal differences as well as stylistic periods and accurately described the formal characteristics of each era, thus creating an important system of classification that enabled works of art to be classified according to era based on the specifics he had determined. Every work of art has its place in this system. He is therefore the founder of modern art history and classical archaeology.
For Winckelmann, the beauty and blossoming of Greek art arose from the spirit of democracy and freedom of ancient Greece.
The enthusiasm for Greek art shaped the following generations and led to an art oriented towards Greek antiquity, which also influenced Weimar Classicism.
His death in Trieste in 1768 is as unbelievable as his life. A young man, a certain Archangeli, went with Winckelmann to the hotel room, where he stabbed him seven times. According to the trial, the motive for the murder was greed, but many suspected that the Italian was a young man who offered sex services for money, with whom Winckelmann wanted to live out his homosexuality, which was far too often sublimated exclusively in the admiration of the male, naked body in ancient art.
Winckelmann's grave is located in the cemetery of the Cathedral of San Giusto in Trieste, along with a monument erected in his honor.
The Laocoon Group, plaster cast from the 19th century from the State Museums in Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage.
The original is now in the Vatican Museums. It is the Roman copy probably 20 AD of a Greek original.
The seated Hermes, bronze cast after the original in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples from the 1st century BC. Chr.
For a Time Brandenburg’s Capital,
Tangermünde
Very close to Stendal, directly on the Elbe, lies the pretty town of Tangermünde. It is no longer a real insider tip, as the town is often ranked among the most beautiful small towns in Germany, for example by Travelbook magazine in 2019, where it even came first. But there can be no talk of tourist inundation, as it is not known outside of Saxony-Anhalt or East Germany despite its accolades.
The town offers a closed historical townscape, not too big, but big enough to offer a balanced amount of strolling and stopping off for a bite to eat. Its location above the Elbe is particularly beautiful, offering good views but also reliable flood protection. From the garden of the former imperial castle in particular, you can look far into the sparsely populated Altmark and the quietly flowing Elbe. The only landmark is Jerichow Monastery, whose church towers rise into the sky about six kilometers away.
View from the Imperial Castle over the Elbe
For a time, Tangermünde was something like the capital of Brandenburg. In the 14th century, Emperor Charles IV moved from Prague into the castle, which had been built by the Ascanians in 925. Charles was King of Bohemia, but was interested in the entire imperial territory east of the Elbe. This included the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which had become part of the empire after Albert the Bear had subjugated the Slavs living there. More on that later. In 1371, Charles managed to acquire the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the Wittelsbach-Brandenburg Margrave Otto, known as "the Lazy", who had no descendants.
Actually, until then the former Slavic castle 'Brandenburg' was something like the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, but Tangermünde was easier to reach from Prague via the Elbe.
Emperor Charles IV had the castle in Tangermünde expanded and made it his second home, residing there for several months each year. One of Charles' successors, Sigismund, had ambitions to be elected German king. To achieve this, he bought the vote of the Nuremberg burgrave Frederick VI by selling him the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Nuremberg burgraves were Hohenzollerns, and with Frederick VI they came into the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Frederick became Elector and made the castle expanded by Charles his main residence. At this time, Tangermünde was actually something like the capital of Brandenburg. But his son Frederick Eisenzahn began building a second residence in what was then still a completely insignificant city. It was not until Frederick Eisenzahn's nephew Albrecht Achilles that the Hohenzollerns' main residence was moved to Berlin at the end of the 15th century, where it remained permanently.
Emperor Charles IV in the garden of the former castle
Emperor Charles IV is considered one of the most influential European rulers of the late Middle Ages. During his time, the Golden Bull was passed in 1346, a kind of constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, which regulated the election of the German king by the seven electors. (Want to know more about the Golden Bull? Click here .) Charles, who came from the House of Luxembourg, built the city of Prague into something like the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. He is responsible for the construction of the Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral, the castle outside Prague, and the castle of St. Karlštejn , which housed the imperial insignia, the founding of Charles University, etc. His remains now lie in St. Vitus Cathedral, and he is revered by the Czechs as a national hero.
The city wall of Tangermünde
Up in town there are two main streets that run parallel to each other, Lange Straße and Kirchstraße. Both run through the entire old town from the big St. Stephen's Church to the Neustädter Tor, each of which forms a focal point and thus makes the stroll even more interesting. Approximately in the middle between the two buildings is the old town hall, which is also a focal point, since its decorative gable with the wind holes can be seen from afar.
The old town hall of Tangermünde
Lange Strasse with St. Stephen's Church
The Lange Straße with the Neustädter Tor
The New Town Gate
Jerichow Monastery
The Magdeburg canon Hartwig von Stade founded a monastery in Jerichow in 1144. The canons were Premonstratensians, a young reform order that was founded 25 years before the monastery was built by Norbert von Xanten in Prémontré, France, from which the name of the order derives. Norbert von Xanten later became bishop of Magdeburg, whereby his order played a key role in the proselytizing of the Wends. Premonstratensians are often to be found in the vicinity of cities as they see their primary task as pastoral care. However, many monasteries in Brandenburg also belonged to the Cistercian order, for example Lehnin Monastery, Zinna Monastery, Dobrilugk Monastery or Neuzelle Monastery.
Incidentally, Jerichow used to be a Wendish fishing village and the Elbe flowed along the monastery walls almost a thousand years ago. Only in the course of time did their course shift one kilometer to the west.
The Legacy of Otto the Great:
Magdeburg Cathedral
From Jerichow my journey continued to Magdeburg Cathedral.
The cathedral's predecessor was the church of St. Mauritius, which was founded in 937 by Otto the Great. It was to be the burial place for his family.
In 946 his wife Egditha, a princess of the Kingdom of Wessex, was buried there.
From 955 onwards, the church was expanded into a larger Ottonian building, into which Otto had Roman imperial architectural elements such as spolia incorporated in order to underline his imperial claim as the successor to the Roman emperors .
In 968, Magdeburg was elevated to an archbishopric at the Imperial Diet of Ravenna and the cathedral thus became a cathedral.
In 1207, the Romanesque cathedral burned down on Good Friday, April 20th. The then Archbishop Albrecht II of Käfernburg then had a new building built in the Gothic style. The church was not consecrated until around 150 years later. The 101-meter-high west towers were completed in 1520. The cathedral is considered to be the first cathedral in Germany to be designed as a Gothic building from the outset and is now a World Heritage Site.
The Magdeburg Cathedral, here seen from the Elbe promenade,
Missionary starting point and security of the former eastern outer border of the East Frankish Empire. With its location directly on the river, it is also a landmark that announced the rise of Christianity towards the east around a thousand years ago. At the time of Otto the Great, however, it looked very different. The current Gothic cathedral is the third version.
The ambulatory of Magdeburg Cathedral. It is oriented to the east, since the holiest part of a church in the Middle Ages was always oriented to the east, towards the Holy Land.
Inside the church, behind this rood screen, which separates the nave from the choir, is the sarcophagus containing the bones of Otto the Great.
Otto's historical significance lies in his victory over the Hungarians in 955 on the Lechfeld near Augsburg, which was significant not only for German but also for European conditions. The Hungarians had been constantly invading the East Frankish Empire and other parts of Europe for the previous 60 years, until the important battle took place, before which Otto vowed that if he won he would found a monastery in honor of Saint Lawrence in Merseburg. Under Otto, the Germanic tribes won this decisive, historic victory over the Hungarians, which finally protected the empire from their constant invasions.
This victory made Otto one of the most important rulers of his time. He also gained the reputation of being the savior of Christianity through another victory over the Slavs.
Under his reign, the Ottonian era began, an impressive flowering of architecture, book and goldsmith art, into which ancient, Byzantine and Carolingian elements flowed .
He continued Charlemagne's claim to power by having himself crowned emperor by the Pope in 962, like his Frankish predecessor. Otto is thus considered the first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, a state structure in which the East Frankish kingdom was combined with the ancient Roman imperial dignity. The emperor thus became the protector of the church and of all of Christianity.
Charlemagne is often seen as the first German emperor, but he was emperor of the Franks, a territory that included parts of what is now France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland , etc. That is why the French also see him as their ruler. But this French ideal is also wrong. Charlemagne was neither German nor French, but, as already mentioned, a Frank.
Otto followed in Charlemagne's footsteps by resuming the ritual of coronation by the Pope as Emperor by the Grace of God. The Pope, as successor to the highest Roman priest, the Pontifex Maximus, was authorized to bestow the Roman Imperial title.
The choir with the sarcophagus of Emperor Otto I in Magdeburg Cathedral.
Otto had Roman columns and spolia brought to Magdeburg and installed in the first Ottonian cathedral to underline his Roman imperial claim. In the photo above you can see four differently colored antique columns on the wall of the ambulatory in the Gothic successor cathedral, the spolia that Otto had already installed in the Ottonian predecessor building.
Incidentally, Charlemagne also had Roman columns built into his Aachen Cathedral - also as a demonstration of imperial power. (Want to find out more about Aachen Cathedral? Click here . )
After Otto died in the Memleben Palatinate in 973, he was buried in Magdeburg Cathedral in accordance with his wishes. His heart, however, remained in the monastery in Memleben. (Would you like to find out more about Memleben? You can find out more on the page An Saale und Unstrut . Or click here . )
Beginning of Brandenburg’s History:
Albrecht the Bear
In 946 , Otto I founded the bishopric of Havelberg and the bishopric of Brandenburg on the eastern side of the Elbe. Brandenburg was previously a Slavic castle. Today it is the city of Brandenburg an der Havel .
The attempt to Christianize and conquer Slavic territories failed at first because the Slavs reconquered the territories. It was not until around 150 years later that Albert the Bear from the House of Ascania (now better known as the House of Anhalt) inherited Brandenburg from the now baptized Prib islav Heinrich, the childless Slav prince of the Hevelli. For other Slav rulers it was an affront that their most important fortress had been "given away" to a Saxon prince. They did not want to accept this inheritance and reconquered the castle with a final great victory of the Slavs in the Battle of Brandenburg in 1157. Afterwards, Albert the Bear besieged the castle with his troops until he was able to take it for good. He thus became the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its first margrave from 1157-1170. Since this victory, the Margraviate of Brandenburg has been part of the Holy Roman Empire. Albert the Bear is considered the first ruler in Brandenburg's history.
He is also the founder of the House of Ascania, i.e. the House of Anhalt.
A residence of the Anhaltians, Ballenstedt Castle, is located above the town of Ballenstedt in the north-east of the Harz Mountains. The excursion to this place is worthwhile, as Albert the Bear also founded the largest town in the Altmark, Stendal, and is also associated with the Christianization of the Slavic regions east of the Elbe .
Ballenstedt today advertises itself as the cradle of Anhalt and presents Albert the Bear as a central figure of the medieval Anhalt
History . In 2019, the 850th anniversary of his death was celebrated and thus the "Festival Year 850 Years of Albrecht the Bear, Ballenstedt" was launched.
To mark the anniversary, a sculpture of him made for the occasion was unveiled in the palace courtyard. It has an unusually contemporary face and is in fact the face of the dynasty's greatest descendant, Prince Eduard of Anhalt.
Albrecht's burial place is in the crypt in the Castle Church, where he lies next to his wife Sophie.
The endeavor to make Albrecht the central figure of Ballenstedt was not without contention, because the National Socialists also heroized Albrecht the bear. After all, he was a pioneer of East colonization and thus corresponded to the National Socialist idea of "Lebensraum im Osten" (Living space in the East) outside German borders. The National Socialist heroization was expressed in the design of the grave in the crypt. A copper tombstone designed by the architect and NSDAP member Paul Schultze-Naumburg adorned the tomb.
The tombstone for Albert the Bear's grave, made by Paul Schultze-Naumburg
"Albrecht the Bear, The trailblazer to the German Eastland + 1170 and his wife Sophie"
Paul Schultze-Naumburg was an ambivalent personality, on the one hand he is the founder of monument preservation, the aim of which is to maintain regional references, styles and building materials, etc., and he also built a number of important buildings, including Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam for Frederick Wilhelm II., Freudenberg Castle near Wiesbaden and several more, he was a member of the Deutscher Werkbund, an association of important architects and designers, which included a number of well-known, famous architects who had an awareness in the population (today one would say "with the consumer") for high-quality design .
On the other hand, Schultze-Naumburg opposed modern art and compared pictures by Expressionists with photos of mentally handicapped people. He was one of those who initiated the exhibition "Degenerate Art".
How did the city of Ballenstedt manage the balancing act of celebrating Albrecht the Bear as the central figure on the one hand, and shaking off the National Socialist appropriation of his person on the other? Wouldn't the installation of a new sculpture of the pioneer in the East be a signal that could be misinterpreted?
The gravestone of Paul Schultze-Naumburg was removed when the crypt was redesigned a few years ago and replaced by a slab with a golden, oversized fingerprint, which is intended to represent the fact that Albrecht the Bear left his fingerprint in the area between the Elbe and Oder.
Court of Honor of Ballenstedt Castle
Today's castle was originally a collegiate monastery, which was converted into a Benedictine monastery in 1123. The monastery was dissolved and when a new baroque palace was built in 1748, the church was integrated into it. You can still see it today, it is the right wing of the palace when you stand in the main courtyard. The apse is clearly visible and the towers of the former westwork still rise above the roofs of the right wing of the palace. The castle served as a summer residence and hunting lodge for the Ascanians.
The right wing of Ballenstedt Palace seen from the palace garden. You can clearly see the west work, made of natural stone, which is clearly reminiscent of a church in Brandenburg. The nave (the yellow building) was rebuilt into a baroque palace wing.
The Ascanians have a palace theater in their residence. Since the Renaissance, most secular rulers presented themselves as patrons of culture. How far they got with their ambitions depended on their wallets. The many theaters in residence in Germany today make up our diverse theater and museum landscape, which is admired internationally, since in most countries culture is limited to the capitals and metropolises.
At the top of the castle on the left, when you walk up the castle hill, is the small castle theater, one of the few preserved theater buildings from the 18th century in early classicism from 1788. Albert Lortzing conducted here the premiere of his romantic fairy tale opera "Undine" in 1846.
There is also a museum, but it does not go back to a particular passion for collecting on the part of the people of Anhalt. Perhaps they lacked the money for such expensive status symbols as a picture gallery . The museum was only established in 1980 and is named after the court painter at Ballenstedt Palace, Wilhelm von Kegeln.
The baroque building in which the museum is located today was not originally designed as a museum building, but as a residential building. It fits well into the ensemble of the magnificent baroque avenue that leads up from the village to the castle.
Want more? My journey through the border region of Saxony and Wends continues along the Saale and Unstrut, past Freyburg, Naumburg and then into the Kyffhäuser and Harz, the Ottonian core area. Click here .