Bad Windsheim & Marktbreit, Germany

This Easter Sunday in Germany I rode trains northwest of Nuremberg and explored the small towns of Bad Windsheim and Marktbreit. “Bad” in German means bath so towns with that word in their name usually refer to a historical spa destination.

After transferring several times, I rode a short train to one of the smallest Deutsche Bahn stations I’d visited so far. Bad Windsheim had no real platforms, just a sidewalk to jump down on.

Towns with the most interesting traditional German architecture tend to follow a similar historical recipe. They started along a major trade route, were granted some status by ruling authorities, became rich and erected substantial buildings. Then, their fortunes shifted and the town stagnated.

There wasn’t money to tear down and update so the old remained. That same bad fortune essentially preserved the town and ironically made it interesting and valuable to visitors today.

As I walked past the Rathaus, I noticed this prominent plaque on the wall. Evidently the first German settler in America came from Bad Windsheim and founded Germantown in what is now Northwest Philadelphia in 1683.

Bad Windsheim was a beautiful town with winding cobblestone lanes. Later I learned this was the site of an intense fight in 1945.

In the late stage of World War II, a Volkssturm battalion took control of the town and refused to surrender to approaching American troops, declaring Windsheim a “fortress”. The U.S. Army eventually captured the town after deploying fire bombs through aerial bombing. The civilian population was forced to flee under enemy fire. The town was rebuilt after the war.

Several markers provided opportunities to consider different angles of that history. A towering stone statue of Roland the Knight stood next to the church with his sword drawn. He guarded the Great War memorial with lists of fallen German soldiers. Sadly, as is the case across Germany, many more names were added to the existing memorial after World War II.

Along a sidewalk, I came across two Stolpersteine (stumble stones) marking the last home of a Jewish couple, Leopold and Sophie Waldmann. Brief inscriptions on the brass plates shared birthdays and the date, April 3, 1942, when they were arrested and deported to the Piaski Ghetto in far eastern Poland.

I read later that the Piaski Ghetto was a Nazi transit station for Jews eventually headed to extermination camps. Information online about Leopold Waldmann read: “He was a veteran of the first World War and a fervent German patriot. He thought he was safe.”

One last reminder of the twists of history caught my eye as I walked back to the Bahnhof to catch my train. After battling the Americans in the streets in April 1945, Bad Windsheim greeted me with this message in April 2022:

Further northeast on the rail line, the village of Marktbreit was even smaller than Bad Windsheim. It was situated on the southernmost bend of the Main river along a tributary called the Breitbach.

In 1985, remains of a Roman legionary fortress were identified nearby causing a minor historical sensation. It was not known up to that time that the Romans built so far into ancient Germanic territory.

The defeat of Varus in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9 put an end to Roman ambitions east of the Rhine. The outcome of this battle dissuaded the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania and is considered one of the most important events in European history. Evidently, the base here was evacuated and never used.

Marktbreit boasted a prominent house perched on the edge of a wall called the Malerwinkelhaus (Painter’s Corner House). It got its name from its idyllic location on the Breitbach stream which made it a popular spot for painters since its construction in the 1600s.

Even though it was small, Marktbreit featured an impressive Altstadt filled with historical buildings and monuments including portions of the medieval town wall, towers and entry gates. It was a quiet Easter Sunday afternoon and I felt like I had the town to myself.

Even though the big cities like Berlin, Munich and Hamburg get the headlines, I prefer to wander small German towns like Bad Windsheim and Marktbreit to better understand this fascinating country.

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