[ Conversing in German ]
Hi. I'm Rick Steves,
back with more of the best of Europe --
and this time, we're cooking up
some unforgettable German treats --
and that includes my favorite sausage anywhere --
Danke schoen.
We're in Frankfurt and Nuernberg.
Thanks for joining us.
♪♪
Germany is Europe's economic powerhouse,
and you feel that in its great cities,
like Frankfurt and Nuernberg.
These are examples
of how Germany has put the 20th century behind it
and learned that the most effective way to be powerful
is to be constructive.
In Frankfurt, a city of contrasts,
we see today's Germany --
a vibrant mix of the new and the old
sprinkled with people-friendly zones,
parks, and a stunning riverfront.
Then, in Nuernberg,
we marvel at remnants of Germany's First Reich
-- with the Holy Roman Emperor's castle --
and we learn of Hitler and the Third Reich --
with the architecture of a megalomaniac.
Finally, we go underground
for a peek at history seldom seen.
Dominating the north of Europe is Germany,
the size of Montana.
We start where many trans-Atlantic flights stop,
in Frankfurt,
and then travel a couple hours to Nuernberg.
For an honest look at today's Germany,
travelers need to venture beyond the ruined castles
and cute cobbled towns.
Frankfurt may be low on Old World charm,
but it offers a great look at no-nonsense, modern Germany.
Ever since the early Middle Ages,
people have gathered here to trade.
Today, cosmopolitan Frankfurt, nicknamed "Bankfurt,"
is a trading hub of a united Europe,
home to the European Central Bank
and a center for global commerce.
With its trading heritage came people from around the world.
You'll notice the strikingly multi-cultural flavor of the city.
A quarter of its 700,000 residents
carry foreign passports.
Frankfurt is often avoided by tourists
who consider it just a business and transportation hub.
But with its modern energy,
Frankfurt is a unique and entertaining city
well worth a look.
The city, with its forest of skyscrapers
perched on the banks of the Main River,
has been dubbed Germany's "Main-hattan."
While it leads the country in high-rises,
mostly bank headquarters,
it has plenty of people-friendly parks.
In fact, Frankfurters boast
that a third of their city is green space.
This park is part of a greenbelt that circles the old center
and marks the site
of Frankfurt's long-gone medieval fortifications.
Today that greenbelt weaves
through Frankfurt's banking district.
And history hides among these trees.
The Marshall Plan --
that massive American aid program
that helped Germany rebuild after World War II --
was administered from this building.
After World War II, Germany was in ruins,
and its economy was in chaos.
In 1948,
the United States gave it a complete currency transfer.
It was like a blood transfusion --
literally printing up the new German Deutsche Marks,
shipping them across the Atlantic,
and, from here in Frankfurt,
injecting them directly into the German economy.
That aid helped rebuild Germany,
and it shaped Frankfurt, as well.
And, as if attracted to all that money,
banks naturally grew up right here.
The architecture is striking.
By law, no German worker
can be kept out of natural light for more than four hours.
That's why work environments are filled with windows.
And unlike any skyscraper I've been in,
Germans have office towers with windows that open.
The Main Tower is open to the public
and offers a breath-taking view.
From its rooftop, 650 feet high, you can survey the city.
With new construction nearly obliterating the river
upon which the city was founded,
its ever-expanding skyline
exudes the vitality of the German economy.
In contrast to the glassy skyscrapers,
Frankfurt's train station is a classic.
This late 19th-century glass-and-iron construction
somehow survived the bombs of World War II.
The building's elegant facade
dates from the Industrial Revolution
and shows the pride of that age.
Atlas carries the world,
but only with some heavy-duty modern help
as figures representing steam power and electricity pitch in.
Stepping inside,
you feel the energy of Germany's busiest train station,
where 350,000 travelers catch 1,800 trains every day.
Kaiserstrasse, a grand 19th-century boulevard,
was built to connect the station and the city with style.
Towering above and beyond its fine 100-year-old facades,
and reflecting the glaring modernity
of this ever-changing city,
are the skyscrapers of Frankfurt's banking district.
Frankfurt is full of contrasts.
Just a few blocks away, under those same skyscrapers,
is a red light district with about 20 legal brothels --
the pragmatic result of a policy of tax and regulation
to take the crime
out of a reality that just won't go away.
Just a couple blocks away,
there are fashionable streets lined with top-end boutiques.
People-friendly pedestrian zones
make it easy for both shoppers and diners.
And on a hot day,
people of all ages enjoy the refreshing fountain
fronting Frankfurt's fine opera house.
The many small German-speaking states
finally united into modern Germany in about 1870.
Within a couple of years, Frankfurt,
which helped spearhead the unification movement,
built this fine opera house.
It celebrated both high German culture
and the newly created nation.
While bombed in World War II,
it was rebuilt in the original style.
Mozart, whose operas were a hit here,
and the esteemed Frankfurt writer Goethe
flank the entrance,
reminders that this is a house of both music and theater.
Lunchtime beneath the skyscrapers
can be entertaining
as herds of bankers fill countless restaurants.
This street is nicknamed "Fressgass,"
roughly the "Feeding Street."
As a contrast to the many trendy restaurant chains,
Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle, that's "little market hall,"
is a delightful, old-school alternative.
The venerable farmers' market
was saved from developers by a local outcry
and remains a neighborhood favorite.
Explore and enjoy the samples.
-This is anti-aging. You have not need of it.
-I don't need it, no. Immer Jung.
-[ Chuckles ]
-This stall is all about German sausages.
And amid this carnivore's delight hides this,
the city's classic wiener, the frankfurter.
My best market tip?
Find the most popular eatery, get local advice,
and go for the town specialty.
Just around the corner is Romerberg,
Frankfurt's old main square,
lined with half-timbered buildings.
Because of its historic importance,
it's one of the few bits of the old town rebuilt after the war
in its original medieval style.
On a sunny day, people head for the Main River.
A centerpiece of the riverside park
is this welcoming 19th century iron bridge.
Enjoy the lively scene along the riverbanks
in the shadow of Frankfurt's towering skyscrapers.
Taking a riverside stroll, I'm struck by how Germans,
while so productive in the workplace,
are also expert at relaxation.
From Frankfurt,
trains zip travelers to all points.
Heading southeast,
in a couple hours we cross into the state of Bavaria
and arrive in Nuernberg.
Nuernberg was one of Germany's, in fact Europe's,
leading cities 500 years ago
with an imposing Imperial Castle.
The city's formidable walls were state-of-the-art --
they were redesigned from square towers,
which worked just fine before the threat of cannon fire,
to round ones --
so enemy cannonballs were more likely to glance off
without doing any damage.
Back then, with 80 water wheels
powering mills along its now sleepy river,
Nuernberg was an industrial marvel.
The scenic remnants of its hard medieval past
are now just an added dimension
of a delightfully people-friendly historic center.
90% of downtown Nuernberg was destroyed in 1945.
To rebuild, city fathers had a choice --
go entirely modern like Frankfurt did --
that was the Manhattan plan --
or maintain the pre-war footprint and rebuild modern
while preserving the traditional character.
That was Nuernberg's choice.
With one of Europe's largest pedestrian zones,
the city of half a million has the charm of a smaller town.
Playful street art,
a series of bridges with scenic river views,
and no traffic noise
make it a joy to experience.
Nuernberg is dominated by its mighty castle.
In the Middle Ages, Holy Roman Emperors,
Europe's most powerful rulers, stayed here when in town.
The Holy Roman Emperor ruled much of Europe
for over a thousand years.
The institution was finally ended by Napoleon in 1806.
The emperor ruled a vast realm --
it was bigger than today's Germany --
but it was never centralized like France or England.
Rather than inheriting his power,
he was elected by the top bishops and nobles of the day.
They were called "prince electors."
The emperor had to keep on the move
and didn't have a real capital city.
While the emperor claimed supreme authority
inherited direct from the emperors of ancient Rome,
historians like to joke that the Holy Roman Empire
was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
The most famous of these medieval emperors
was Charlemagne,
shown here in a painting
by Nuernberg artist Albrecht Duerer.
Charlemagne, or Charles the Great,
was crowned by the pope in the year 800.
When ruling from Nuernberg,
the emperor would have received visiting delegations
in the castle's Lower Hall.
It's empty of furniture because the imperial court was mobile.
Each city would scramble to suitably furnish
its royal quarters before the emperor arrived.
The castle's 800-year-old church is Romanesque in style
and gives a peek at how structured
even medieval society's top 1% was.
It has a triple-Decker design:
The lower nobility worshiped from the lower level,
the upper nobility worshiped at this level,
and the emperor,
he worshiped above everybody else --
from the balcony.
♪♪
As effective as the castle fortifications were,
there was always an ultra-secure refuge of last resort --
the towering keep.
And security required more than stony towers.
Any good castle
needs a secure water source within its walls.
And when your castle sits on a high rock,
you need a very deep well.
This castle illustrates that in a fun and memorable way.
-[ Speaking German ]
-Even without understanding much of our guide's German,
he made it really clear that this well goes way, way down.
[ Water splashing ]
[ Laughter ]
-It's cool, huh?
[ Chuckles ]
-Nuernberg's Germanic National Museum
is dedicated to sharing the cultural history
of the German-speaking world.
For German history buffs, this museum alone --
with a vast and gorgeously presented collection --
makes a visit to Nuernberg worthwhile.
When it comes to Germany's reputation
for fine craftsmanship,
its passion for quality goes way back.
These finely crafted,
centuries-old precision instruments
were intricate, innovative, and artful.
This is the world's oldest surviving globe,
crafted by a Nuernberger.
Since it dates from 1492, the Americas are missing.
While they understood that the world was round,
the Western Hemisphere
was still just a huge and mysterious sea.
The delicate, wooden Nuernberg Madonna
is also 500 years old.
This intimate, anonymous carving of the favorite hometown girl
was a symbol of the city for centuries.
The German painter Lucas Cranach
was famous for portraits of his contemporaries,
like the great German reformer Martin Luther.
Cranach also painted poignant psychological studies --
paintings that came with a message.
In The Ill-Matched Couple,
the lecherous old man thinks he's got the young maiden.
But she looks knowingly out at us
as if to say "he's a fool, and he'll get nowhere with me."
The great painter Albrecht Duerer
worked in Nuernberg around the year 1500.
This is a self-portrait of that ultimate German artist.
Duerer, who was from the same generation
as Michelangelo and Leonardo,
was in tune with the Renaissance.
He was a genius with a curious mind,
a love of nature, and a passion for realism.
After traveling to Italy
and seeing how artists were becoming well-paid and respected,
rather than anonymous laborers,
he returned to Germany
bringing the spirit of the Renaissance with him.
He painted this portrait of his mother
when he was a teenager.
While just 19,
his passion for realistic detail is already apparent.
This painting of Duerer's teacher
was done after his experience in Italy.
Its realism was unprecedented in Germany,
and it's signed.
Again, now the artist will be respected,
and he proudly included his initials, A.D.
Duerer was a master at producing engravings
from finely etched metal plates.
The detail and realism, a trademark of Duerer,
is extraordinary.
As he was famous in his own time,
and because many prints could be made from a single master plate
and therefore sold affordably,
the engraving technique enabled Duerer to become
the first best-selling artist in history.
And he made a lot of money --
enough to purchase this impressive mansion
beneath the castle.
Today, it's a fine museum
about the life of perhaps Germany's greatest painter.
A visit here includes a workshop
where you can learn about Duerer's craft.
It's with these tools
that the artist engraves an image into the copper plate.
Visitors are treated to a demonstration
of making a print from the plate.
The subject is a hare.
Duerer was famous for his vivid portrayals of the natural world.
-Wow.
-To be able to enjoy
such beautiful, yet mass-produced art
must have been a marvel 500 years ago.
A few blocks away,
towering nearly 300 feet above the pedestrians,
is St. Lawrence Church.
When emperors paraded into town,
they'd approach its magnificent facade head-on.
Stepping inside, you feel the splendor of that age.
Suspended over the altar is the Annunciation,
by the great Nuernberg woodcarver, Veit Stoss.
Carved in 1517,
it shows the angel Gabriel telling Mary
that she'll be giving birth to the Messiah.
Startled, she drops her prayer book.
The dove represents the Holy Spirit.
And God, looking as powerful as a Holy Roman Emperor,
looks down.
This lacy tabernacle is rich enough
to hold the consecrated Communion wafer,
which Catholics consider "the body of Christ."
And supporting the tower on his shoulders
is the artist who created it, Adam Kraft,
gripping his noble tools with a proud confidence.
Again, this was around 1500,
and the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance
was moving into Germany.
While this church along with the rest of the city
was heavily bombed in World War II,
much of its art survived
thanks to heroic and creative efforts by its citizens.
One part of Nuernberg
that avoided bomb damage was underground --
its vast and long-established network
of waterways, tunnels, and beer cellars.
They were outfitted as air-raid shelters.
During bombing raids,
tens of thousands of locals took refuge down here.
It's also where countless art treasures,
both local and looted, were safely hidden away.
To learn more about this,
and not get forever lost down here,
we're joined by my friend and fellow tour guide
Thomas Schmechtig.
-So, Nuernberg was bombed quite late in the war,
and we saw what happened to other cities,
so we actually prepared for the war
and reconverted these old beer cellars into air-raid shelters.
That, for example, where guards used to be
who protected the artworks
which were stored in here during the second world war.
-The Nazis hid crates of great art in many different rooms
in this sprawling underground network.
-This is one of the many rooms down here
which were filled up with art.
Nuernberg was back then
nicknamed "the treasure chest of the German Empire."
Plus, the Nazis looted lots of artworks.
-From countries that they conquered,
and they brought it here?
-Correct.
For example, right in this room,
they had the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor.
-So, right here in these cellars
were some of the great treasures of European culture.
-Correct.
We didn't just stash the art treasures down here.
They were carefully packed.
For example, here, Rick,
you see the wonderful stained-glass windows
from our St. Lawrence Church.
They were taken out pane by pane
and then put into those wooden crates.
The humidity was very dangerous for the artworks,
so they air conditioned the whole place in here.
-So, this huge duct was made in anticipation of the war?
-Yes, and already in 1939, before the war broke out.
-The bombing, of course, eventually came,
and this surviving underground network
became the foundation for rebuilding the city.
-So it did make sense
to rebuild the city on its original footprints.
We have miles of underground which survived the war.
They date back to the Middle Ages --
that, for example is an old water conduit system.
-Nuernberg, so steeped in German history,
was nicknamed the most German of German cities.
That's one reason it was a favorite of Hitler's.
A short tram ride from the center
is a collection of important Nazi sites.
When Hitler took power in 1933,
he made Nuernberg's Zeppelin Field
the site of his enormous Nazi party rallies.
The stark remains of this massive gathering place
are thought-provoking.
For several years,
increasingly elaborate celebrations
of Nazi culture, ideology, and power
took place right here.
-Imagine Hitler stepping out of that door,
overlooking the massive 200,000 people being lined up.
He used propaganda to create a new community --
in fact, we even have a word for it.
It's called " Volksgemeinschaft ."
-The chilling images
from Leni Riefenstahl's documentary
Triumph of the Will
were filmed at the 1934 Nuernberg rallies
and then shown in every theater and schoolroom in the country.
The goal? To bring a visual celebration
of the power of the Nazi state to every person in Germany.
Looming over a now peaceful lake
is another remnant of the dictator's megalomania --
his huge yet unfinished Nazi Congress Hall.
Hitler was enamored with the Roman Colosseum.
He had his Congress Hall modeled on that
but built much bigger.
-Imagine, 50,000 leading Nazis in here.
One third higher, covered by a roof.
A window inside the ceiling,
sunshine would have fallen down to the podium.
Once a year, one speech, of Adolf Hitler.
Adolf Hitler liked huge buildings.
He was a big fan
of the architectural style named Neoclassicism.
The idea was to make the individual feel small.
-This really makes me feel small here.
-Yeah, you give away the responsibility of your life,
and you get something back in return.
That is, a bright new future.
-The Nazi Documentation Center fills one wing of the hall.
This superb museum does its best to answer the question
"How could Germany's Nazi nightmare have happened?"
It traces the evolution of the Nazi movement,
focusing on how it somehow both energized and terrified
the German people.
This is not a WWII or a Holocaust museum.
In fact, those events are barely mentioned.
Instead, the center frankly analyzes
the origin and evolution of the Nazi phenomenon,
to help better understand it
and help prevent it from ever happening again.
Exhibits offer insights into the creation
of the Messiah/pop star image of Hitler --
the mass hypnosis of the German nation.
You'll see his manifesto, Mein Kampf ,
mementos that placed the dictator
alongside Bismarck and Beethoven
in the pantheon of German greats,
and souvenirs from his rallies.
With postcards like these,
the Hitler-mania generated by these rallies
was shared across the land.
Of course, Hitler's promises were trumped up
and led not to glory but to war, the Holocaust,
and the devastation of Germany.
The challenges of building and maintaining a peaceful future
are ongoing.
-Incorporated into these museums are classrooms like this.
-Why is that?
-Because every student, military, policeman
should learn from our difficult history.
-So this really is, today, part of German education.
-Yeah, it finally arrived in our education system.
-Having learned powerful lessons from its 20th-century history,
today Nuernberg celebrates its German character
with a forward-looking gusto that seems to really value life.
You feel that throughout the town --
the farmers who sell their produce
direct from stalls on the bridge...
fountains designed to make kids giggle,
along with their parents...
and its tasty traditions.
Here in Nuernberg, you'll certainly eat well --
famous beer, classic pretzels, sauerkraut,
and the thing about this city that steals my heart,
these adorable little sausages.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Rick Steves.
Until next time, keep on travelin'.
Guten Appetit and auf Wiedersehen.
-The Holy Roman Empire
was never really an empire or holy or Roman.
Bah! [ Laughs ]
-[ Laughs ]
-Military, too?
-Yes.
[ Laughter ]
-Suck in your gut.
Suck in your gut!
You don't have a gut.
You poor boy, you don't have a gut.
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