Christmas Markets Part II: Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nuremberg

After Heidelberg, we headed to a very small town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is a very well-preserved medieval town and is also on the Romantic Road in Germany (a picturesque route of castles and quintessential towns).

I had read that the town was very beautiful especially during Christmas, and it definitely was. The town is small but has a ton of history. It was once a very protected town; there is a wall that goes all the way around it and it has lookout towers on all sides. Rothenburg ob der Tauber used to also be very wealthy until the 30 years war when it was conquered as a place of rest for the Catholic soldiers during winter. When they left in the spring, it was basically empty and poor which is actually what kept it preserved so well since there was no money to modernize or develop it.

Then during WWII, the Nazi's used it as an example of idealized family life because they felt it was the "most German of German towns." Towards the end of the war, German soldiers were stationed in the town to defend it from US troops overtaking it. Bombs were dropped on the town destroying a portion of the wall and some of the towers. U.S Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy knew how beautiful and historical the town was because his mother had actually been there and had talked about it when he was growing up. So he decided that instead of destroying the entire city, he send ground troops to try to negotiate with the German local military commander. The US said, if you surrender this town and leave, we will not bomb it. But if you do not, in 3 hours it will be destroyed. The German commander decided to ignore Hitler's orders, and did surrender and leave the town which saved it from total destruction. After the war, the town asked for help in raising money to rebuild the portions of the town and wall that were destroyed. Donations came from all over the world, and as a thank you, the names of those that donated were etched in the stone around the city. Now when you walk around the wall, you can read names and countries from everyone who donated to help preserve the town.

We wandered through the Christmas markets, watched as Sankt Nikolaus came to the town square and handed out chocolates to the local children, and even walked along the town walls reading names of those who donated. We also visited the first Käthe Wohlfahrt store, a German family company specializing in everything Christmas. I've never seen anything like it before: it was like stepping into a giant snowglobe of the Northpole - each room was a different Christmas theme (nutcrackers, trees, nativity scenes, etc).

In the evening, we did a tour with the "night watchman," someone who was hired to walk around the town at night up until 1920 and watch for fires or other disturbances. Dressed in costume, our guide played the role and described what a dangerous position it was as well as the history of the town. (If you are curious, here is a link that goes to a video someone else posted but this is the Night Watchman guide and it gives you a feel of the tour).

And one last thing to mention is just as we were walking around the Christmas markets, it started to snow! Our trip there was complete : )

The next day we headed to Nuremberg, which also has a lot of history. (You are getting quite the history lesson from this Christmas Market post!) You probably know or have heard about the city because of the Nuremberg Trials, where the US prosecuted Nazis after the war. But before we visited, I had no idea that it also played a huge part during the war.

Aaron and I visited the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände which was the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds. In short, Nuremberg was declared by Hitler to be the city of Reich Party Congresses, and so he had these huge buildings and grounds built to hold Nazi Party Rallies. Six rallies were held there between 1933 and 1938 and the site served as a place for Nazi propaganda events. It even had a parade route, and he had plans to build the largest stadium in the world. Today, the Congress Hall has a permanent "Fascination and Terror" exhibition which looks at how Hitler came to power and the tactics he used to stay there with particular emphasis on how Nuremberg played a part from these rallies to the trials. Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials instead of Berlin because it had been such a symbolic city for the Nazis and the laws stripping Jews of their rights were passed here. The exhibition was truly fascinating, heart-wrenching and terrifying at the same time.

We also walked around the Nuremberg Christmas Market which is one of German's oldest markets. It was the largest market that we visited with stalls for pretty much everything. We even met a couple from Puyallup there and they told us about a cellar-restaurant for dinner that we ended up eating at! We had a delicious seasonal Christmas beer there.

The next morning, we boarded a bus for Prague, where we would spend the weekend. It would be our last stop on the Christmas Market trip... more to come!