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http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlossberg_(Freiburg)

The word „Schlossberg“ literally means „castle mountain“. The “Schlossberg” is a mostly wooded hill today of 456 metres height in the city area of Freiburg im Breisgau, immediately eastern of Freiburg’s mediaeval centre and belongs to the Black Forest. At the western limits of the Schlossberg passes along the geological main fault of the Upper Rhine ditch.

General

Since the 11th century fortified buildings were constructed on the “Schlossberg”, of which the remains can still be recognized today. For several years a board of trustees makes an effort to render perceptible the historical past of Freiburg’s Schlossberg. To achieve this, the remains of the overgrown old fortifications are cautiously laid open in order to be accessible to the interested visitor. The “Schlossbergturm” which was constructed in 2002 on top of the “Salzbüchsle” is also part of the initiative of the board of trustees. On top of the “Schlossbergturm” one has a brilliant all-around view over all parts of the city and its surroundings. One has also an excellent view over the city from the “Burghaldering” (partly extended to a hiking trail, partly to a road in the forest – no motor vehicle traffic) which surrounds the “Schlossberg” at half height, particularly from the “Kanonenplatz” immediately on top of the historical mediaeval centre. The “Burghaldenring” can be reached by foot or by car, since July 2008 also by the new “Schlossbergbahn”, a sloping construction, which was built as a substitute for the old “Schlossbergseilbahn”. In the “Schlossberg” there is located a water tank for Freiburg’s water supply, which was built from 1874 to 1876 and also a big dugout construction from the 20th century, of which the main entrance is at the west side of the hill. On a rock on top of the “Burghaldenring” there is Freiburg’s Bismarckturm made of red sandstone, which was built according to plans of Fritz Geiges and opened officially in 1900. At the precipitous south side of the hill heading to the district Oberau there is done some winegrowing here and there. Until around 1900 viniculture was more extensively carried out; from then on the “Schlossberg” was laid out as forest park and provided with footpaths. In the wood the sandstone walls and the stairwells of the former vineyard terrace are still the recognizable.

History

The “Schlossberg“or so called Castle Mountian has his name justifiably; the duke of “Zähring” Berthold II. had it built in a romantic style in 1091 as it was to be mentined in many documents and been sung about by Hartmann von Aue calling it the beautiful “Castrum de Friburch”. Finally in 1120 the duke’s son Konrad with the agreement of the emperor Henry IV. gave the market rights to the colony of manufactures and servants downhill and ended the so called founders period of the city of Freiburg.

During history(As history passed on) the well-fortified buildings upon the Castle Mountain were multiple damaged by fires and the influence of wars but because of their strategic importance to control the “Dreisamtal” it was rebuild over and over again by the actual sovereign. Compared to the “Zähringer” castle upside the a-like called village north of the city the constructions on the Castle Mountain were called castle stockpiles(????).”Burghaldenschloss”.

The people of Freiburg took over the castle twice. During war against their city master count Egino II. and his brother-in-law, the bishop of Strasburg, Konrad of Lichtenberg, using a trap against the castle to beat a breach in 1299. While the castle was in a siege during the conflict with Egino II. in 1366 the people of Freiburg used cannons and put the “most beautiful castle in German lands” into rubbish and ash. The relationship between the reigning count of Freiburg and the city was totally disordered. In the end the people freed themselves from control by paying a one-time payment of fifteen thousand silver mark and then put themselves voluntarily under the protection of the house of Habsburg. Generously, the new sovereign archduke Leopold let the ruin upon the Castle Mountain to the people of Freiburg.

The city had the fortifications fixed only scantly and therefore the castle was an easy take for the enemies while the Peasants’ War in 1525 and the Thirty Years’ War. Finally emperor Leopold I. built a mountain fortress while using the “Burghaldenschloss” in 1668, the so called “Leopoldsburg” Leopolds’ Castle, as a stronghold against the threats to the Breisgau by Louis XIV. Unsuccessfully as in 1677 during the Franco-Dutch War the French took over the city and fortress. The Schlossberg went through several major changes when in 1679 the Habsburgers were forced to return Freiburg to the French crown, obliging the terms set down in the Peace Treaty of Nimwegen. Louis XIV had his mason Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban build a fortress wall around the Schlossberg, similar to those built around modern keeps of the time, thus incorporating the city of Freiburg into the Austrian realm as a French outpost. In 1681 the king and most of his court came and inspected the working process in Freiburg and also visited the Schlossberg.

The Peace Treaty of Rijswijk ended the Palatinate War of Succession in 1697 and lost Louis XIV the rule over Freiburg. A commemorative pamphlet glosses over this negative event:

The King gave up several places he did not deem useful... the city of Freiburg was not important enough for the King to consider its return a loss. The city returned to the bosom of the empire and the care of the Emperor who is its prince.

In the Spanish War of Succession the fortress was held by a strong Austrian garrison. In 1713 Marshall Louis Héctor de Villars claimed the city for France. The Peace Treaty of Rastatt, 1715, decreed that the fortress be given back to the German Empire.

Then there was another war – this time they called it the Austrian War of Succession. In the fall of 1744 French armies – now allies of Friedrich the Great – invaded Freiburg yet again. Louis XV watched the process of the invasion: Camping on the Lorettoberg he was nearly hit and killed by a stray cannon ball, presumably fired by the defenders. One year later the Peace Treaty of Dresden returned Freiburg to the Habsburgers. However, before the French vacated the city they destroyed Vauban's masonry so thoroughly that debris covered the Schlossberg and its surroundings for decades.

Hermann von Greiffenegg had a residence built on the overgrown debris, close to the roots of the Schlossberg. The estate was called “Greiffeneggschlössle” by the general population, although its owner preferred the name “Quieti Sacrum”, Sanctimony of Calm. He lived in it for only two years prior to his death, his son, who led an unstable life, inhabited it from 1833 till 1840 before he had to sell it for financial reasons. After that, the estate became a well-liked restaurant that changed proprietors pretty fast but attracted many visitors nonetheless. Today it is home to a restaurant and a Biergarten.

English article shorter than German - additions could be made

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maultasche

Maultasche (pl. Maultaschen)

Maultschen (lit. muzzle bags) are a traditional dish from Swabia, which is a part of the state Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Along with “Spätzle” it is the most famous and typical food from Baden-Württemberg. Maultaschen contain a thin outer layer of noodle dough, which makes a square shaped pocket for stuffing. Traditionally, the stuffing is made of a special minced meat, spinach, onions and bread crumbs. Some local variations of the dish also include other ingredients like ham, smoked sausages as well as leftovers from roasts. The individual dumplings look similar to Italian ravioli, but they are slightly larger with dimensions of about 8-12 cm across.

Preparation

The stuffing includes chopped, sautéed onions, spinach, ground beef, bread that has been soaked in water for a couple of minutes and spices. All ingredients are put into a meat grinder to make a fine, well-mixed mass. One then places the meat mixture in the middle of the noodle dough that has been flattened with a rolling pin and brings together the ends of the dough on either side. Egg can be used to make the ends of the dough stick better. The final shape should be square, rectangular or diamond-shaped. It is also popular to roll the Maultaschen into more layers so that the noodle dough and the filling alternate, similar to a pinwheel and then cut the pockets into four centimetre wide slices. The filled dumplings are then cooked either in boiling water or simmering meat broth, in which the Maultaschen can be served as a soup.

Further preparations include:

• Sautéed – the cooked Maultaschen are pan fried in butter and topped with fried onions. Often served with potato salad.
• Roasted- cooled Maultaschen are sliced and roasted in a pan with onions and/or eggs.

Origin and legends

There are lots of different stories about the origin of this dish. According to a legend, Maultaschen are rumored to have been invented by monks of the Maulbronn monastery (another possibility what „Maul~“ could refer to) to conceal the fact that they were eating meat during lent. This is reflected in the semi-humorous alternative Swabian name "Herrgottsbscheißerle" (roughly: „little ones who cheat the Lord“). In an alternative version, it were the protestants who originally only filled them with herbs and spinach, but secretly started to add meat, too. This matches the fact that in protestant families, „Maultaschen in der Brühe“ („in a broth“) is in fact a traditional dish on Maundy Thursday. The (intended) leftovers are prepared in one of the other various ways on the next day, Good Friday.

Also possible is that „Maultaschen“ are in fact only a copy of Italian types of pasta like ravioli and tortellini.The Maulbronn monastery is surrounded by many Waldensian parishes. Being protestant fugitives from northern Italy, they also brought mulberry, lucerne (alfalfa), tobacco and finally (1710) the potato to southern Germany. [[1]] [[2]] Thus, Maultaschen (as well as „Spätzle“, ital. spezzato) are very likely to be of an Italian or even Chineese origin.The Chinees variety is called „Jiaozi“.

In an old cookbook (Allgemeines Küchenlexicon für Frauenzimmer. II. Th. Leipzig 1794. Col. 124—125.) also recipes for Maultaschen can be found, however only as a sweet dish.

Independently from their actual origin, Maultaschen formerly were regarded as a dish of the poor, being just leftovers (meat, bread and vegetables) put together serving for a dish the next day.

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a) Etymology

The word „Maultasche“ goes back into the 16th century and is said to have meant „Ohrfeige“ - „slap in the face.“ The first bit „Maul“ is a vulgar word for mouth or face, whereas the part „tasche“ obviously derives from the words „tatschen“ (or „tätschen“ respectively) which both meant „to beat“. Due to the swollen form of the cheeks after a slap in the face, the Maultaschen were called like that later on. [[3]]

Influence on German cuisine

Today, the Maultasche is known as a delicacy far beyond Swabian borders and by now has become part of modern gastronomy. Thanks to reinforced marketing and the distribution over the whole country, it has become a widespread ready meal prepared in many different ways. Stores also offer a kind of pseudo Swabian form called „Maultäschle“ (Swabian diminiuitive) with a variety of unusual fillings such as salmon („Lachs~“), mushrooms („Pilz~“), vegetables („Gemüse~“), venison („Wild~“) or herbs as wild garlic („Bärlauchmaultäschle“).

b) Etymology The origin of the word „“Maultasche“ dates from the 16th century and is at first attested in the meaning of Ohrfeige ( “slap in the face“). Tasche seems to trace back to “tatschen“ or “tätschen“ respectively, meaning „to slap, to beat“. Only later the pasta was named after it, due to the swollen form, like a cheek after a slap in the face.

Geographical Extension Nowadays, the popularity of Maultaschen as a delicacy has spread far beyond Swabian borders. Modern gastronomy as well has taken possession of the Maultasche. Not least due to intensified marketing and area-wide distribution, it has spread as versatile preparable ready-made meal all over the country. You can also come across them oftentimes in a pseudo Swabian diminutive “Maultäschle“ with quite unusual ingredients such as salmon (Lachs~), mushrooms (Pilz~), vegetarian (Gemüse~), wild game (Wild~) or wild garlic (Bärlauch~).

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilli_Jahn

Marriage and starting a family in Immenhausen:

She gave up her plan to become a paediatric registrar and to set up a practice when she met Ernst Jahn, a protestant doctor of the same age whom she married against the objections by her parents. The “unequal couple” – Ernst Jahn was regarded as contemplative and hesitant, Lilli Schlüchterer as energetic and cheery – moved to Immenhausen in North Hesse, where they set up a practice together. They baptised their five children Gerhard, Ilse, Johanna, Eva and Dorothea and brought them up as Protestants. In the North Hesse province the Jahns mixed in the best society and were acquainted with the towns dignitaries. At first, it wasn’t a topic that the popular GP, who visited the synagogue regularly, was of Jewish belief.

Life during during the Nazi regime

In the beginning, this changed slowly after the National Socialists had taken over control. The majority of Immenhausen’s citizens, traditionally voting social democratic, did not approve of the SPD mayor being replaced by a member of the NSDAP. Until 1943, Lilli Jahn stayed rather protected since she lived in a “privileged mixed marriage”. Yet, she was not allowed to work as a doctor any longer and was increasingly shunned in the village which lead to her isolation to a large extent. Only through numerous letters to her friends and relatives was she able to keep in touch with the outside world. Soon, Lilli Jahn was the only Jew in Immenhausen. Her sister Elsa and her mother Paula – her father had died in 1932 already – had been able to emigrate to England early enough.

Displacement from Immenhausen

In Juli of 1943, Lilli Jahn was displaced from Immenhausen and forced to move to an apartment in Kassel, where allied bombings were a constant threat. Karl Groß, assistant regional leader of the NSDAP and mayor of Immenhausen since 1940, was personally responsible for this displacement. At this time, Jahn’s 15 year old son Gerhard Jahn was on anti-aircraft duty. His father had been drafted into service at a military hospital. The new Frau Jahn now lived in the family home with her child.

Deportation to Auschwitz and Death

In March of 1944, Lilli Jahn was deported to Auschwitz via Dresden by collective transport. She was, however, able to smuggle letters to her children out of Breitenau before her deportation. These letters fell into the hands of her son, who kept them until his death in 1998, without informing his sisters about them. The last letter received from Lilli Jahn from Auschwitz, written on March 6th, 1944 was penned by someone else. In September 1944, the children in Immenhausen received word of the death of their mother.

Imprisonment in Breitenau

In the end of August, 1943, Lilli Jahn was denounced – she had omitted to add the name ‘Sara’ – obligatory for all female Jews – on her doorbell, but left the doctor’s degree, which was forbidden for Jews. She was arrested, interrogated and due to violation of the Reichsgesetz of August 17th, 1938, was sent to the labor education camp Breitenau near Guxhagen, south of Kassel, under dubious circumstances. Her underage children were left to themselves more or less. Initially, Lilli Jahn worked as a forced labourer in a pharmaceutical factory. Her daughter Ilse managed to visit her already weakened mother during her arrest only once. Until today it has remained unclear to what extent Ernst Jahn tried to save the life of his ex-wife by pleas to the responsible Gestapo in Kassel or the Reich’s security main department in Berlin. Rescue efforts by friends of the Avowed Church in Kassel remained unsuccessful.

Deportation to Auschwitz and death

In March 1944, Lilli Jahn was deported in a collective transport via Dresden to Auschwitz. Prior to her deportation she managed to smuggle her children’s letters out of Breitenau: they ended up at her son’s, who kept them without the knowledge of his sisters until his death in 1998. The last preserved letter by Lilli Jahn from Auschwitz dated on March 6th, 1944, was written by someone else. Her children got the message of her mother’s death in September 1944 in Immenhausen.

Commemoration

In 1962, Gerhard Jahn planted two trees in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in honor of his mother. Lilli’s great cousin and close friend Lotte Paepcke survived the Nazi period and became an author. In her 1953 autobiography “Unter einem fremden Stern” (“Under a Foreign Star”) she paid tribute to Lilli. Historians at the University of Kassel maintain the memory of the Jewish doctor. Since 1992, there has been a display case at the Breitenau Memorial, displaying Lilli Jahn letters and keepsakes. In 1995, a street in Immenhausen was named after Lilli Jahn. In 1999, the local elementary school received the same honor.

Divorce and remarriage of her husband

Lilli Jahn’s life changed dramatically when her husband Ernst Jahn fell in love with a non-Jewish doctor, who in 1942 delivered a child of her husband in his house. Lilli Jahn even assisted her husband when the child was born. In the same year, she agreed upon the desired divorce of her husband, even though her friends advised her not to get a divorce. In November 1942 Ernst married his ladylove and she moved to Kassel with their child, while he continued to stay with his ‘former’ family in Immenhausen.

Letters

After Gerhard Jahn died in Marburg in 1988, his heirs encountered many boxes including envelopes with about 250 letters, which were written by Lilli Jahn’s children to their mother. The historian and Spiegel – editor Martin Doerry kept the letters of a son of Lilli Jahn’s daughter Ilse. The grandchild edited a selection of letters, which were written to his grandmother, together with the letters of her husband Ernst Jahn as well as further documents and pictures. The documents, reporting about Lillie Jahn’s life were published in 2002 with the title “My tortured heart” alongside with other annotated and amended text passages. This book was very successful in public and for critics, too. Famous literates like Eva Menasse, Martin Walser and Eva Rühmkorf acknowledge especially

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserslautern

Kaiserslautern

Kaiserslautern, situated at the northwestern edge of the Palatinate Forest of the federal state Rhineland Palatinate, is an industrial town with an university. At once, it is an independent city and the place of district administration of the borough Kaiserslautern.

Geography

Kaiserslautern is located 236 metres above sea level at the northwestern edge of the Palatinate Forest in the Kaiserslauterer basin. The town is framed by forest heights like the Humberg or the Kahlenberg in the south and the east. In the north, it is framed by the Rothenberg while it is expanding into the Landstuhler Bruch in the west, which is bordered by the Sickinger Höhe in the south. The River Lauter runs through the town, though it is directed subsurfacely in the city centre. The next bigger cities are Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which is about 75 km further to the east. Moreover there are Mainz, situated approximately 80 km northeast, and Saarbrücken, which is placed about 75 km further to the west. Kaiserslautern is located at an Rotsandsteingebirge, which was originally overlaid by sediments of muschelkalk. However, later on these sediments have been eroded and deposited in the Westrich. The following towns and communities border on the town Kaiserslautern. They are mentioned in a clockwise direction starting in the north. Expcept oft he community Elmstein, which belongs tot he borough Bad Dürkheim, the towns are all located in the borough Kaiserslautern: Otterbach, Otterberg, Mehlingen, Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Fischbach, Hochspeyer, Waldleiningen, Elmstein, Trippstadt, Stelzenberg, Schopp, Krickenbach, Queidersbach, Bann, Kindsbach, Landstuhl, Ramstein-Miesenbach, Weilerbach, Rodenbach, Katzweiler, Hauptstuhl.

Climate

Kaiserslautern is located in the temperate climatic zone with precipitations in all seasons. In comparison to other regions of Germany, Kaiserslautern has a rather warm a very sunny climate. Due to the location in lee of Hunsrück and Eifel, precipitations in north-west wetter situations are mostly detained.

Monat	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dez
Maximum °C	4	5	10	13	19	22	25	25	20	15	9	5
Minimum °C	–1	–2	2	3	8	12	14	13	9	6	3	1

City arrangement

The area of Kaiserslautern is traditionally divided into Fünftel, which were marked by the colours blue (south-west), white (west), yellow (north-west), red (north-east) and green (south-east). This arrangement is for example still reflected in the traditional enamel signs with the house number, which also tell the belonging to the Fünftel through their colour; also the colour of the old street sign on the house walls or names like Rote Apotheke and Grüne Apotheke refer to the Fünftel. This division was established by the French garrison management in the 18th century. Administratively, the Fünftel do not have a meaning any more.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Walser

some text has been added to Wiki article

Martin Walser (born 24 March 1927 in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance) is a German writer. He became famous for describing the conflicts his anti-heroes have in his novels and stories.

Life

Martin Walser's parents were coal merchants and they also kept an inn next to the station in Wasserburg. He described the environment in which he grew up in his novel “Ein springender Brunnen” (English: A salient fountain). From 1938 to 1943 he was a pupil at the secondary school in Lindau and served in an anti-aircraft unit. According to documents released in June 2007, he may have joined the Nazi party on the 30th of January 1944, which has been denied by Walser. He ended the Second World War as a soldier in the Wehrmacht. After the end of the war he returned to his studies and completed his Abitur in 1946; he then studied literature, history and philosophy at Regensburg and Tübingen. He obtained his doctorate in 1951 for a thesis on Franz Kafka under the supervision of Friedrich Beißner.

While studying, Walser worked as a reporter for the Süddeutscher Rundfunk radio station, and wrote his first radio plays. In 1950 he married Katharina "Käthe" Neuner-Jehle. His four daughters from this marriage, Franziska Walser, Alissa Walser, Johanna Walser and Theresia Walser, are all career writers; Johanna sometimes collaborates with her father.

Since 1953 Walser was regularly invited to conferences of the Gruppe 47 (Group 47), which awarded him for his story “Templones Ende” (English: Templone’s End) in 1955. His first novel “Ehen in Philippsburg” (English: Marriages in Philippsburg) was published in 1957 and was a huge success. Since then Walser has been living as a freelance author, first in Friedrichshafen, then in Nußdorf on Lake Constance. His most important work is "Runaway Horse" (German: “Ein fliehendes Pferd”, published 1978), which was not only very popular among readers, but also gained the recognition of literary critics.

Walser supported for the election of the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 60s, like many other left intellectuals (Günter Grass et. al.). In 1964 he was an auditor of the Auschwitz court case in Frankfurt. He was involved against the Vietnam War, travelled to Moscow and was regarded as (also to his publisher Siegfried Unseld) a sympathiser of the DKP (Communist Party of Germany) in the sixties and seventies, but of which he was never a member; he was friends with Ernst Bloch, Robert Steigerwald et. al.. In 1988 Walser hold a speech within the framework of the alignment Speeches about its own country, in which he made clear that he experiences the German division as a painful gap, which he does not like to accept. This matter he also made to a subject in his narration Dorle und Wolf. Although Walser explicitly emphasized that his attitude towards this time has not changed, some observers speak of a change of mind of the author.

An unusual clause of the publishing contract made it possible for Walser to switch with all his creations from the Suhrkamp Verlag to the Rowohlt Verlag in 2004, after the death of Siegfried Unseld. According to his own words in particular the missing positioning of the publisher in the argument about his controversial novel Tod eines Kritikers played a role.

Walser is a member of Akademie der Künste (Berlin, Academy of Arts), Sächsische Akademie der Künste, Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (Darmstadt, German Acedemy for Language and Poetry) and member of the German P.E.N.

In the year of 2007 the magazine Cicero made a list of the 500 most important German intellectuals. According to that Martin Walser lies behind pope Benedikt XVI. on the second place, yet before Günter Grass.

His speech in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt and the „Walser-Bubis-Controversy“ in 1998

Walser has long been regarded as a supporter of the German left-wing political scene, although he was kept at a distance from this very scene. The reservation about his personality suddenly changed into vehement protest after Walser’s speech on the 11th of October in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, where Walser was rewarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In his speech he disapproved of an “exploitation of the Holocaust”.

Some people thought his statement was expressed in a very complicated way. This is the reason why his comment has often been interpreted as follows: The crimes of the Nazis were abused by some people in order to hurt the Germans or in order to back up political claims. Those who made these crimes a subject of discussion felt morally superior to other people. The range of issues about Auschwitz should not be used to apply moral pressures, especially because of the great importance of the topic.

After his speech, Walser was generally applauded by those present, apart from Ignatz Bubis and his wife, as shown on television pictures. The chairman of the Central Council of the Jews in Germany accused Walser of giving the right-wing revisionist what they had been waiting for. Bubis feared that these revisionists who wanted to stonewall this highly charged topic in Germany would refer to Walser’s speech. Walser countered that he did not intend to exploit his “very personal view” in a political way. He had only spoken about his personal opinion.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christkindlesmarkt

1. Christkindlesmarkt:

The „Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt“ is a Christmas market and takes place annually in advent in the old town of Nuremberg at the “Hauptmarkt”, the central place in Nuremberg’s old town, and in all the adjoining streets and places. Two millions visitors going there every year make the “Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt” to one of the biggest Christmas markets in Germany and to one of the most famous ones in the world. Every year the Christmas market begins on the Friday preceding the first Sunday in advent and ends on 24th December, unless this day is a Sunday.

History:

Despite intense investigations carried out by several historians and country researchers, the origins of the “Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt” are unknown. The oldest piece of evidence, however, is a box made of coniferous wood on whose bottom stands the following inscription: “Regina Susanna Harßdörfferin of the virgin Susanna Eleonora Erbsin (or Elbsin) sent across for the “Kindles-Marck” 1628. At the moment this box is in the possession of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg.

In official documents, the words „Kindleinbescheren“ (handing out presents to children) or “Weihnachtszeit” (Christmas time) are used time and again. It is not quite clear, however, whether these words have something to do with the Christkindlesmarkt. Historians assume that the market has its origins in conventional sales on the weekly market between 1610 and 1639 and later it gradually developed independently. Originally, the market opened on Thomas’ Day, the 4th December. Due to the large number of visitors, the opening day was rescheduled to Friday before the first advent. There were no markets between 1939 and 1948.

Places: From the start, the Christkindlesmarkt has taken place at the Nuremberg “Hauptmarkt”. It was, however, relocated to other places such as the Fleischbrücke or the island Schütt between 1898 and 1933. In 1933, the market returned to its original venue.

The market today: Nowadays, the Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt is one of the biggest and most popular Christmas markets in Germany. There are about 150 stalls and nearly 2 million people visit it every year. Especially Japanese people visit the market – nearly 7000 Japanese tourists stay there overnight during the Advent season.

The Christkind: Every year since 1948 there has been a Christkind (German “Christ Child") in Nuremberg. Until 1968 it had been played by actors. Since 1969 the inhabitants of Nuremberg have been allowed to elect a new Christkind every second year and the requirements to become Christkind have been the following: You have to be a female inhabitant of Nuremberg, 1.60 metres tall and free from vertigo. Moreover, candidates have to be between 16 and 19 years old and the Christkind has to know the prologue for the inauguration of its market by heart.

The Election: The search for the Christkind starts with an audition of the prologue in front of a jury which chooses 18 candidates. In the second round the inhabitants of Nuremberg have about one and a half months time to vote for their favourite among the 18 girls. They can vote online on the website of the Christkindlesmarkt or by mail. In the end the first six girls get on and a jury decides who will be the Christkind.

The Prologue: When the decision to introduce a Nürnberger Christkind was made, the prologue for the inauguration of the Christkindlesmarkt was written by Friedrich Bröger, the son of the working-class poet Karl Bröger. There are sources however that indicate that the text is already older than 1948.

Twin Cities Market: Since 1998 there has also been a twin cities market at the town hall square. There you can find market stalls that sell specialties of the respective countries of the twin cities. The following cities and regions have stalls: Antalya (Turkey), Atlanta (USA), Charkiw (Urkaine), Gera (Thuringia), Glasgow (Scotland), Kavala (Greece), Krakow (Poland), Nice (France), Prague (Czech Republic), San Carlos (Nicaragua), Shenzhen (China), Skopje (Macedonia), Venice (Italy) and the French region Limousin. Additionally, the acquainted communities Bar (Montenegro), Kalkudah (Sri Lanka) and Verona (Italy) take part in the market.

2.Christkindlesmarkt:

The „Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt“ is a Christmas market and takes place annually in advent in the old town of Nuremberg at the “Hauptmarkt”, the central place in Nuremberg’s old town, and in all the adjoining streets and places. With about two million visitors a year the “Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt” is one of the biggest Christmas markets in Germany and equally one of the most famous ones in the world. Every year the Christmas market begins on the Friday preceding the first Sunday in advent and ends on December 24th, unless this day is a Sunday.

History:

Despite intense investigations carried out by several historians and people interested in local history, the origins of the “Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt” are unknown. The oldest piece of evidence, however, is a box made of coniferous wood. On the bottom you can find the following inscription: “Regina Susanna Harßdörfferin from the virgin Susanna Eleonora Erbsin (or Elbsin) sent to the “Kindles-Marck” in 1628. At the moment the box is in the possession of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg.

In official documents, the words „Kindleinbescheren“ (handing out presents to children) or “Weihnachtszeit” (Christmas time) are used time and again since 1610. It is not quite clear, however, whether these words have something to do with the “Christkindlesmarkt”. Historians assume that the market has its origins in traditional sales on the weekly market between 1610 and 1639 and that it gradually evolved into an independent market. Originally, the market opened on Thomas’ Day, December 4th. Due to the large number of visitors, opening day was rescheduled to the Friday before the first advent in 1973 and has remained so ever since. There were no markets between 1939 and 1948.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schauinsland

History Mining For more than seven hundred years silver, lead and zinc were mined on the Schauinsland. In the Middle Ages mining was very profitable. In the 14th century several traders (Grube Dieselmuot) endowed glass windows to Freiburg Cathedral. The miners lived directly by the collieries in two settlements on the Schauinsland, which were abandoned in the course of the 16th century. The silver mined there was bargained away from Freiburg or it was minted into coin. Towards the end of the 19th century the Kappel adit connected both villages: Kappel and Hofsgrund. This adit is also called Hebammen adit because midwives used it as a shortcut to Hofsgrund. The 2 km long adit, however, was also used by the children from Kappel as a road on their way to the one-room school in Hofsgrund. The colliery adits and lodes (walks) ran the total length of approximately one hundred kilometers and they were divided into twenty two levels. At the beginning of the 20th century about 250 miners were working there. Only in 1955 the work on the mine was suspended because of the world market situation. Since 1975 a part of the mine, the reconstructed Barbara adit, has been used by the Federal Administrative Office as a depository for the FRG archives copied on film reels. A lot of the old mine workings have been cleared and surveyed by the Steiber group of researchers which was founded in 1976.

Sights: Windbeeches Because of the exposed location at the Rheinebene, from which the Schauninsland directly rises, there are a lot of and sometimes very harsh winds, mostly coming from the west. This wind lead to the bizarre forms the beeches took up there. Schniederlihof Above Hofsgrund (a village nearby) there is the Schniederlihof, a 400 year old Blackforst farm which can be visited. A Museumsmine Since 1997 one part of the old archmine is a museummine open for everyone interested. With a guide through it the visitor can experience a wide spectrum from the gallery from the middelages to the dismounting and drafting from the last operating phase.

The Schauinslandtrail With Germany's longest Cabine- aerial- railway you can reach the Schauinsland from Freiburg (Valley station Horben). The so called Schauinslandbahn can reach an altitude difference of 746 meters with a length of 3600 meters. The 37 Cabines are able to transport more than 700 people per hour and during the year there are approximately 240.000 passengers. In 1930 the Schauinslandbahn was the world's first passeneger aerial railway which was working with the circular principle. The english memorial Apil 17th in 1936 a group of students hiked on the Schauinsland with their teacher Kenneth Keast. Shortly before reaching the peak they got into a snowstorm and lost oriantation. After several hours the group reached Hofsgrund, where the organized search started. But five students were killed by frost already. For their rememberance an english memeorial was build by the architect Hermann Alker from Karlsruhe in 1938. The Hitler youth were dicisively involved in the initiative, but they used the memorial for propaganda. After World War II. the inscription Die Jugend Adolf Hitlers (the youth of Adolf Hitler) was changed to the youth of Germany, and the Empire's eagle and the swastikas were abolished. Schauinslandtower → main article: Eugen-Keidel-Turm The tower was named after Freiburg's mayor Eugen Keidel and was build in 1981. It's a lookout tower which is a starting point for a lot of places you can hike to in this region. You can see the Mont Blanc from the 20 m high viewing platform which you cannot from the tower's foot because of the Haldesköpfles (mountains) which are in the way. Observatories On the Schaunbinsland you can find a sunobservatory run by the Kiepenhauer-Institution for physics of the sun, which today serves for a learning purpose and public relations. (The current researches are executed in the observatory del Teide in Teneriffa.) The sunobservatory on the Schauninsland can be visited without announcement every year between May and September. There are five days which are set at the beginning of the year for open doors. There are guiding tours between 11am and 3pm always starting full time. The obervatory was found by the Third Empire's airforce in 1943. Due to the observations of the sun's activity an optimum prediction for frequences for a military radio traffic was possible. Karl-Otto Kiepenhauer was the director from 1943 to 1975. On the Schauinsland there are also an air doctor station run by a states environmental agency and the Federal Office for radiation protection. Here they detect the level of concentrations within the European Monotoring and Evaluation Programs (EMEP) and also the for the climate relevant gases and radionuclids collected in the atmosphere, within GAW. The building was build in 1943 at the same time the sunobservatory was build and served for the aims of the military radio traffic.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg

History

Early History

The region that is today known as Baden-Württemberg was demonstrably already populated by members of the species Homo at least half a million years ago. The "Mandible of Mauer", which was found close to the city of Mauer, and the Homo steinheimensis, which was discovered close to the city of Steinheim an der Murr, belong to the oldest findings of the species Homo in Europe. They are 500,000 and 250,000 years old and belong to the species of Homo heidelbergensis.

Close to the Southwestern Kemps, the oldest German jasper mine from the Stone Age is situated in the mountains of the Black Forest foothills.

Proofs of cultural life in Baden-Württemberg date back approximately 35,000 to 40,000 years. As old as that are the findings of the oldest known musical instrument (an ivory flute, excavated in 1979 in Geißenklösterle) and works of art (Lionman), which were discovered in caves of the Swabian Alps. Both were fabricated by Homo sapiens, the ancestor of present-day people.

During the Hallstatt-time, celts populated huge parts of the country. This is proven by the numerous cairns, the best known of which is the tomb of the celtic prince of Hochdorf, and by hallstattanian settlements such as the Heuneburg.

Antiquity

Since Caesar’s Gallic war of 55 BC the Rhine in the north has formed the Eastern border of the Roman Empire. In 15 BC the Romans came over the Alps under Tiberius. The newly founded province of Raetia extended all the way to the Donau and also covered Oberschwaben.

The route between Mainz and Augsburg was strategically very important. To make it shorter, the Romans built a road through the Kinzig valley in 73/74 AD and to protect this road, they established Rottweil. In this period Ladenburg, Bad Wimpfen, Rottenburg am Neckar, Heidelberg and Baden-Baden were also founded. It is likely however, that settlements only continued in Baden-Baden, Ladenburg and Rottweil.

The later built road via Bad Cannstatt shortened the distance between Mainz and Augsburg even more. The land seizure in Southeast Germany was ensured by Roman campaigns in the area which today is Hessen. (I’m not even sure whether I understand the German sentence correctly) Around 85 A.D., emperor Domitian founded the province Germania superior (Upper Germania).

From about 98 – 159 A.D., the borderline of the Roman Empire ran alongside the “Neckar-Odenwald-Limes”, later alongside the Limes Germanicus. The Romans called the area which was bounded by the limes, the Rhine and the sources of the Danube “Agri Decumates”. The northeastern part of what today is Baden-Württemberg, however, was never a part of the Roman Empire.

Around 233 A.D., Alamanni plundered the Agri Decumates. Around 260 A.D. the Romans gave up the hitherto existing borderline after further attacks and retreated behind Rhine, Danube and Iller. They managed to maintain the Rhine as a borderline until the year 406.

Middle Ages

In the 5th century, the duchy of Alamannia became part of the Frankish Kingdom. The northern border of Alamannia was moved southwards and roughly covered what is today the border between the Alamannian and Frankish dialects. The northernmost third part of Baden-Württemberg came under direct Frankish influence (dioceses of Mainz, Speyer, Worms and Würzburg). The two thirds of the south remained under Alamannian influence (dioceses of Konstanz, Augsburg and Strasbourg). In the 8th century the county (Gau) was established as an administrative unit (Breisgau, Ortenau, Hegau and others). From the 9th century onwards, the region of Baden-Württemberg shared the historical development of East Francia and the Holy Roman Empire respectively. With the reestablishment of the sovereign duchies and until the close of the High Middle Ages, the southern parts of what is today the federal land of Baden-Württemberg belonged to the duchy of Swabia, whereas the North became part of the duchy of Francia.

2nd version

Antiquity

After the Gallic campaign in 55 BC, the Rhine in the north formed the Eastern border of the Roman Empire. In 15 BC the Romans under Tiberius came over the Alps. The newly founded province of Raetia extended all the way to the Danube and also covered Oberschwaben. The country way between Mainz and Augsburg was strategically very important. To make it shorter, the Romans built a road through the Kinzig valley in 73/74 AD; to protect this road, they established Rottweil. In this period Ladenburg, Bad Wimpfen, Rottenburg am Neckar, Heidelberg and Baden-Baden were founded as well. It is however likely that settlements only continued in Baden-Baden, Ladenburg and Rottweil.

Middle Ages

In the 5th century, the duchy of Alamannia became part of the Frankish Kingdom. The northern border of Alamannia was moved southwards and roughly resembled what is today regarded as the border between the Alamannian and Frankish dialects. Thus, the northernmost third of Baden-Württemberg came under direct Frankish influence (dioceses of Mainz, Speyer, Worms and Würzburg). The two thirds of the south remained under Alamannian influence (dioceses of Konstanz, Augsburg and Strasbourg). In the 8th century, counties (‘Gaue’) were established as administrative units (Breisgau, Ortenau, Hegau and others). From the 9th century, the region of Baden-Württemberg shared a common historical development with East Francia and the Holy Roman Empire. With the reestablishment of the sovereign duchies up to the end of the High Middle Ages, the southern parts of what is today the federal state of Baden-Württemberg belonged to the duchy of Swabia, whereas the North became part of the duchy of Francia.