The outside of Courtroom 600 where the famous war trials took place after World War II. (Was "war trials" the phrase that leaped to your mind when you read "Nuremburg"? It was for me. I didn't know that there was particular significance to having the trials there; please read on.)
Believe it or not, tools made of chocolate in the Christmas Market. They were absurdly realistic! The shopkeeper demonstrated a nut screwing onto a bolt. Ridiculous! I considered buying some but didn't want the dilemma of eating the wonderful food vs saving the beautiful handicraft.
The main church and square on Nuremburg. I actually saw this Glockenspiel operate! It features seven electors parading by, designating the new king. The market was small (compared to Munich, I mean) but delightful. I had to sample the first half of the famed Nuremburg/Regensburg sausage rivalry.
In the church we were blessed with an amazing organ concert. The sound was incredible and the organist very impressive: I sat up front where I saw him playing the pedals with his feet as if he were effortlessly dancing his way through Bach and Handel. One piece he played was his own, which must be fun (the birth-death dates in the program for him were "1985-").
This is what Nuremburg means to the better-informed: the place with the Nazis staged their annual rallies to whip up the populace. Picture Hitler standing at the focus of this edifice: that's what it was for.
Here we have my poor photo of a bad building that now houses a brilliant museum. This is the inside of the vast Nazi amphitheater, based on the Roman Coliseum, that was an integral part of the rallies were staged there. It was basically a façade with just some brick behind the overwhelming-looking white marble front. The city understandably had little interest in preserving all these Nazi buildings, but according to our local guide, in the 1980s the attitude shifted from "let's move on" to "remember and learn". The modern metal and glass section is part of the museum (the "Documentation Center", it's antiseptically called): it symbolizes not just the modern undoing of Hitler's fascist architecture, but is just about literally a spear stabbing through the heart of the Third Reich. And there's even more: Albert Speer (which means what it sounds like in English) was Hitler's architect.
A photo of the iconic Nuremburg tower looking just like in yesterday's post, but full of Nazis. Absolutely chilling to look at, having just been there in better times. John and I could have spent days in this museum, and it's the one thing that I'm really sorry Dad missed due to his reduced mobility.
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