The fool in the mirror.

Nördlingen, Germany

One of just three towns in Germany that is still completely surrounded by its Medieval wall, Nördlingen is packed full of history. I’ll visit Dinkelsbühl tomorrow and I’ve previously been to Rothenburg so I’ll have covered the walled trio here in northeastern Bavaria.

Nördlingen is instantly recognizable from the sky.

Heading into Munich back in early September, I remember flying over Nördlingen and looking down on the instantly-recognizable circular village. I thought then I’d like to visit that place. So here I am.

Nördlingen is full of tipsy looking houses with plenty of fachwerk.

Saturday’s sunny weather disappeared with clouds and mist moving in for Sunday. It stayed dry while I explored town but it started coming down heavier as I raced back to the hotel in the evening.

Climbed “Daniel”, the church tower in Nördlingen, for a view over the village.

First thing on my list was to scale the 90-meter church steeple at St. Georgskirche (finished in 1505). The church and many of the older buildings in Nördlingen are built of stone, specifically suevite impact breccia that contains shocked quartz. A mile-wide meteorite impacted the area some 15 million years ago and today the stone quarried from there contains millions of tiny diamonds.

Details of the wooden bell mechanism and more Medieval architecture.

Get this, the meteor’s imprint left the Ries Crater, the circular valley in which Nördlingen now sits, a landscape whose soil is exceedingly rich and yet eerie and rugged enough that Apollo 14 and Apollo 17 astronauts trained here for their trips to the moon.

Views of sleepy Nördlingen from the church steeple.

You can walk all the way around the tight terrace surrounding the steeple and see the walls, bastions and towers that protected Nördlingen. Watchmen did much the same thing hundreds of years ago to see approaching danger. After climbing back down, I headed for the wall itself and did a lap around town.

The wall surrounds the village.

Near the church is an Art Nouveau fountain called the Kriegerbrunnen. It commemorates the fallen of the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent foundation of the German Empire. The Germans have no love lost for the French (three major wars in the past 150 years should tell you that).

Details from the Kriegerbrunnen

Also near the church, the ancient Rathaus (town hall) has been used without interruption since 1382. I loved the external staircase built in Renaissance style (1618) with a surprise on the wall.

The external stairs at the Rathaus.

There’s a fool peering out from a mirror. The inscription below reads “Nun sind unser zwey”. As you look at the image of the fool in the mirror, he says “now there are two of us”! You just got punked from 400 years ago.

Nördlingen’s Narrenspigel, the “Fool’s Mirror”

Other playful details emerged from high up on a nearby fachwerk house. I had no idea what was happening here but one looks rather painful:

What was Johann Christoph Arnoldt telling us back in 1668?

There were plenty of renovated buildings but you’d also come across houses that showed hundreds of years of wear. It was interesting to see the brittle bricks and stone exposed as the plaster crumbled.

If these walls, doors and windows could only tell stories.

The closer you looked, the more interesting details emerged. I can only imagine the people who touched these places, whose lives came and went right here in Nördlingen.

A brittle shutter hinge, tarnished “Briefe” (mail) slot and an ancient passageway.

I think the buildings, homes and churches are interesting but I believe the personality of a place really comes alive in the adornments.

Dancing figures behind a door knocker, a happy pig fountain and the Nördlingen city seal (of course it’s an Adler).

On a darker note, I came across a home that displayed this plaque to Josef Wittmann. After doing a little research, I learned that Wittmann was a local typesetter that became part of the resistance against the Nazis at the risk of himself and his family. He was eventually executed in July of 1942.

Here lived Josef Wittmann. Born on September 2, 1899 and executed on July 17, 1942 by the Hitler judges.

Immediately as you exited the Bahnhof (train station) you were confronted by a memorial to both World Wars. Along the medieval wall there was also a memorial to those Germans still missing from World War II (the words above read “Nördlingen wartet auf Euch” or “Nördlingen waits for you”).

Memorials to the World Wars and those still missing.

Much by accident, I came across a memorial to the Jewish citizens of Nördlingen who were rounded up and deported. The list of names behind the obelisk included the concentration camp where they were murdered.

Memorial to the Jews of Nördlingen.

Perhaps that’s why the stumble stones are so different (and controversial). You simply come across them on the sidewalk. There’s no one memorial hidden away. I’ve read that many people living in homes with stumble stones outside object because they infer ownership was gained after the original Jewish owners were deported.

More than 50,000 stumble stones have been installed in sidewalks across Germany and Europe.

In America, can you imagine the resistance to a nation-wide campaign to identify and place memorials at homes where slaves were kept or property where Native Americans were driven away? Something to think about.

I’m headed north to Dinkelsbühl in the morning. See you then.