My Second Favorite Country

I LOVE the United States of America, my Home!  Next, I LOVE Germany, the home of all my mothers' people.  What a treat today to get to start an article about a place - any place - in Germany.  Alicia O'Reardon Overbeck has started the next National Geographic Magazine, article, August, 1933, Freiburg - Gateway to the Black Forest, in a most beguiling way.  She writes, "You'll like Freiburg."  The learned professor beamed at me through thick glasses.  "You Americans are young, but we Freiburgers are brittle with age, so old that we're proud of it.  Frieburg is romance, a living story plucked from the past," (p. 212).

All these years, since I was a young girl, my Grandmother would tell me, "We came from the Black Forest of Germany."  Since she displayed a piece of sheet music titled "The Black Forest" on her upright piano, I wondered, during my teenage years, if it was really true that we came from the Black Forest.  Granny and all the other adults spoke German, so that gave some credence to her story.

Several months ago I found, on www.ancestry.com, a treasured document, the Naturalization Certificate of my Grandfather's Grandfather, Michael.  He was born in Bavaria, Germany, in the early 1800s!!

Freiburg is indeed in the Black Forest area of Germany.  The southern border of the area is shared with Switzerland; the western border is shared with France.

"The heart of Freiburg is its market and cathedral.  Since the 12th century farmers have brought their produce to Munsterplatz, to the left of the Cathedral.  There miracle and morality plays were given on a stage close to the Cathedral porch, and there murder trials made holidays for the citizens," (photo caption, p. 214).  I was concerned that perhaps the Cathedral was presently in ruins, due to the extensive bombing of World War II.  A quick Wikipedia check reveals that it is still intact, although I don't know if parts had to be rebuilt.  It appears immense and beautiful!  Both the cathedral church and the city were began in the 1100s.  The cathedral building was finished in 1513.

Isn't it interesting that church bells are sometimes given names?  The cathedral's oldest bell was cast in 1258.  When enemies were near, the bell, named "Hosanna," was rung.

My question was answered: Freiburg "was never entirely razed by enemy fire, although in turn it has belonged to the Zahringens, to Austria, Sweden, France, Italy, and Germany," (p. 220). Imagine, all the battles over the centuries!

Someday, I hope to visit the Old City of Freiburg.  "Freiburg streets have lost little of their medieval savor.  Within the limits of the original wall, the streets and alleys, some so narrow that only a German rarity, two thin people, can pass in them, twist and bulge and bend with startling abandon and a rakish disregard for right angles," (p. 217).

Were you taught that an Italian mapmaker named Americus Vespucci was the first to put the name "America" on the map?  This article claims that it was a German, Martin Waldseemuller, a Freiburger.  "His ancestral dwelling not only still stands, but flourishes," (p. 231).

The eight-page section of color photographs was especially beautiful in the countryside scenery, architecture of the typical German buildings, and in the native costumes.  I doubt if I would see any of the costumes today except in plays and museums!  This article is to be savored, not plodded through, hurriedly.  So I shall continue it tomorrow. Good-night!