View Atop City Hall, Dresden, Germany
Photograph by Gordon W. Gahan
Statues look down on the rebuilt inner city of Dresden from atop City Hall. The medieval city lost tens of thousands of citizens and nearly every building to heavy Anglo-American bombing near the end of World War II. The restored Church of the Cross stands at left of center.
(Photo shot on assignment for “East Germany—The Struggle to Succeed,” September 1974, National Geographicmagazine)
Source: National Geographic
The Battle of Lechfeld (10 August 955), often seen as the defining event for holding off the incursions of the Hungarians into Western Europe, was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders, the harka (military leader) Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél (Lehel) and Súr.
Located south of Augsburg, the Lechfeld is the flood plain that lies along the Lech River. The battle appears as the Battle of Augsburg in Hungarian historiography. It was followed up by the Battle of Recknitz in October.
It was the first national German battle against a foreign enemy.
image: The Battle of Lechfeld on an illustration in Sigmund Meisterlin’ codex about the history of Nuremberg.
Choir stalls at Buxheim Charterhouse ( now a monastery of the Salesians)
This is a spherical panorama photographed by Mr. TI. and probably the best way to include all historically significant buildings of Hildesheim.
The earliest part of the City Hall was built in the XIII century.
You can find a list and basic descriptions of all the buildings on the Historic Market Place, Hildesheim Wikipedia page.
Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
A child of a wealthy German family, Hildegard is handed over to a Benedictine Monastery at the age of 8. Taught in the arts of herbal medicine, reading and writing by her mentor Jutta von Sponheim, she quickly excels in all. When Jutta dies, Hildegard is horrified by evidence of self-flagellation on her body and vows to change the ways of the order.
Source: medievalists.net
Worms Cathedral’s Architecture
Only the ground plan and the lower part of the western towers belong to the original building consecrated in 1110. The remainder was mostly finished by 1181, but the west choir and the vaulting were built in the 13th century, the elaborate south portal was added in the 14th century, and the central dome has been rebuilt.
The ornamentation of the older parts is simple; even the more elaborate later forms show no high development of workmanship. Unique sculptures depicting salvation stories appear above the Gothic-era south doorway. The baptismal font contains five remarkable stone reliefs from the late 15th century. The church’s original windows were destroyed by bombing in 1943; between 1965 to 1995 new windows were made by Mainz artist Alois Plum.
image: UKOIA
Source: Wikipedia
Worms Cathedral (known variously in German as the Dom, Kaiserdom, Wormser Dom or Dom St. Peter) is one of the finest examples of High Romanesque architecture in Germany.
For nearly 1000 years, the unique and majestic Worms Cathedral has risen above all the other ancient buildings of the city, dominating the skyline even from a distance. Its original Romanesque architecture and splendid carvings are still exceptionally well-preserved.
Source: sacred-destinations.com
To finish with this MFA Boston spam, a beautiful German plaque with beasts. (Look at those lines and colors!)
(about 1185)
Two dog-like beasts crouch facing toward the center with noses to the ground and long tails tucked under their bodies. The central beast, resembling a ram, faces right.
Source: mfa.org
Gospels of Henry the Lion
Unknown Miniaturist, German (active 1175-1188 in Helmarshausen)
Between 1175 and 1188
340mm x 245mm
***The gospel book, preserved completely intact, with 50 full page miniatures, is kept in the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, and for security reasons is displayed only once every two years.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Ave Maria embedded in the floor before the altar of Zinna Abbey, Brandenburg, Germany. Each letter tile appears as a relief print on an unglazed, red-brown terracotta tile measuring 14 x 14 cm. The Latin inscription dates to the 13th or 14th century and was composed in Gothic majuscule. The text runs as follows:
AVE / MARIA / GRACIA /
PLENA / DOMINVS / TE /
CVM / BENEDICTA / TV /
IN / MVLIERIBVS / ET /
BENEDICTVS / FRVC /
TVS / VENTRIS / TVI /
Medieval letter tiles are one-letter ceramic tiles that were employed in monasteries and churches of the late Middle Ages for the creation of Christian inscriptions on floors and walls. They were created by pressing stamps bearing a reverse image into softclay, which was then baked hard, and they were used to form words by assembling single letter tiles in the desired order
Binding: Germany, ca. 1430, pigskin over heavy wooden red-painted boards , sewn of 5 thongs, brass centre and cornerpieces with bosses, leather clasps with brass catches. Original linen page markers on wooden holder, metal or vellum thumb tags.
Source: schoyencollection.com
NSFW: Binding porn (16th century, but I had to)
Germany, 1549, dark brown leather, over wooden boards, sewn of 5 bands, 15 stamps of roundels with renaissance busts and a large central panel gilt with 3 standing musicians on upper cover, 15 similar roundels and stamps of standing Renaissance warriors on lower cover, 9 brass bosses. Inscription gilt on upper cover: ” Missale renovatum Anno Domini MDXLIX”.
Source: schoyencollection.com
Otto Lessing’s Statue in Weimar
1950
(This is exactly how I picture him. A bit cocky and sneering. And with a great sense of humor.)
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Propaganda poster of the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German National People’s Party, not the Nazi Party) “Save the East” for 1920 elections. It depicts a Teutonic Knight threatened by a Pole and a socialist.
source: Burleigh, Michael (June 1985), “The German Knight: Making of A Modern Myth”, History Today
Monstrance Clock or Mirror Clock, ca. 1570
Made in Nuremberg, Germany
Case of gilt bronze; dial of gilt brass; movement of steel
In addition to showing the hours, the astrolabe dial of this clock (parts of which are now missing) was made to indicate the apparent motions of twenty-three stars in the northern hemisphere, the position of the sun and the moon in the zodiac, the astrological houses of heaven, and the age and phase of the moon in its monthly cycle.
The recessed ring encircling the chapter of hours gives the day of the year, saints’ days, and other calendrical information for the period beginning in 1570 and ending in 1610. The dial on top is for setting the alarm. The inclusion of a clock such as this one in a Kunstkammer would have demonstrated the owner’s familiarity with cosmology, astronomy, and astrology.
Source: metmuseum.org
