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Winter 2001/2 |
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Homberg's coat of arms — then and now
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By Alidë Kohlhaas Moss and moldering leaves gave off a fragrant, earthy perfume and dew shimmered like specks of pearl dust on tufts of still green grass that peeked out on the edges of a mildly winding path. It led up a steep, tree-covered hill. Or should it be called a mountain, this 377 meter-high (about 1,237 feet) basalt rock known locally as Schlossberg (Castle Mountain)? It was an early fall morning. The sun had just risen in the East and had only just begun to throw its golden light on the colorful clay and slate rooftops of the ancient city huddled against this rock. The path leads through dense woods. It has as its final destination the top
of the rock. For less romantic souls, there is a road for cars to the
summit. There the ruin of a fortress sits on its pinnacle with an
unsurpassed view not only of the city below, but of a gentle plain dotted with small
villages and smaller fields. A sense of history permeated the air for the wanderer. It hung there just as the natural perfume that rose from the ground beneath the thicket of deciduous trees that covers the Schlossberg now. It has not always been that way. Centuries ago, trees were sparse to prevent possible attackers of the fortress from hiding among them.
The Schlossberg lay conveniently at the intersection of two important imperial roads. The Langen Hessen (the long Hessian) trading route started in Antwerp and ran to Cologne and Frankfurt, and from there ran northeast to Danzig, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), and ended in the medieval principality of Novgorod, now in Russia. The other, a Via Regia, allowed trading with the lower Rhine region through Paderborn and Warburg, and ran over Hersfeld and Eisenach to the eastern parts of the German lands. But that was a long time ago. This placed the settlement that formed there then almost smack in the middle of modern Germany. On the fall morning when this story begins, few cars moved about. The town presented the illusion that in the narrow, cobbled streets and lanes life is lived in the same manner as it had been when the ruined Hohenburg was one of central Germany's strongest fortresses. Only light smoke from a few chimneys revealed that the town's bakeries were already busy baking the buns, "Wecken" in local parlance, for the timeless ritual of breakfast. The locals there rise early to buy them fresh before sitting down to eat the morning meal. Regardless from where it is approached, Homberg an der Efze (on the Efze) looks like a scene out of a fairy tale. This should not surprise anyone, for this medieval town lies in Brothers' Grimm country in northern Hesse. Its idyllic countryside belies the violent origins of the landscape created when millions of years ago volcanic magma spewed forth in this area. There are two other Hombergs in Germany, one to the southwest, located on the River Ohm, the other in the northwest, now part of the city of Duisburg. How these latter two obtained the name is not clear. Perhaps the first syllable of their name is related to the Ham in Hamburg, the northern Hanseatic city state. The etymology of Ham has the same roots as the English hamlet, and home, and the German Heim (home). Homberg, located on the River Efze, however, comes by its name quite differently, and far more romantically as this story will reveal. The tall, red-roofed, half-timbered houses, a few dating back to the early 1400s, nestle around the magnificent Gothic church. Its interior is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Germany, and is a sister to the slightly older and larger Elisabethkirche (St. Elizabeth's Church) in the university city of Marburg. In most other parts of Germany, somber grays and blacks dominate half-timbered
houses.
Remains of the wall that has surrounded the old city since at least the 13th Century proclaim that it was once worthy of strong protection. The wall's thickness averaged two meters, its height ranged from between six to 10 meters. Its length was about 2.2 km. In the mid-1300s, a new section was attached to the city that was enclosed by another kilometer of wall. Six wall towers provided a protective lookout for the city from below the mountain. Only one of the towers still remains in its full glory, two others stand as partial ruins. A view from a southerly direction out of the plain northward shows the town huddled around the church and against the fortress-topped, tree-covered mountain. To mind comes the picture of chicks snuggled around a hen seeking shelter against a barn From a distance it is not so obvious that the fortress is now a ruin because the high, level stone wall of the structure and a tower mislead the eye.
Homberg owes its name to the fortress, home to a family of free knights by the name of de Hohenberc. They guarded the intersection of Germany's two main commercial roads from at least the 1100s until the 15th century. The family died out in the mid-1400s. The name actually means "high mountain" and that is why the castle is called Hohenburg (Burg means castle or fortress in German, Berg means mountain). While other Hessian towns in the surrounding area had been founded as adjuncts to monasteries, or had been the seats of bishops, Homberg had been dedicated to guard the safety of travelers, to protect the empire, and then to commerce. The outstretched, wavy plain below the mountain offered ideal grazing grounds for sheep. By the 13th Century, it had become an international producing and trading centre for wool and cloth, the most important of its kind in all of the German lands. The town boasted its own measures and weights until the late 18th century. Napoleon Bonaparte put an end to that when he introduced the meter and the kilogram to all of the countries he had conquered.
Some patrician house on the Marktplatz (Market Square) It is not difficult to imagine Homberg's past. A walk through its narrow cobble stone lanes and streets, even as car sounds break the medieval stillness, feed that impression. A few lanes (Gassen) are so narrow and its houses so tall that they lean into their neighbors with the tips of their roofs almost touching to shut out daylight. No cars can pass through there so that the present does not impose itself upon them or the visitor's imagination. Names like Webergasse (Weaver's Lane), Salzgasse (Salt Lane), Kirchgasse (Church's Lane) and others indicated in part the occupation of its residents in past centuries, before the industrial age changed the way things are made. Any visitor to the city should try to obtain a tour of the church. Our wanderer had the luck to have a retired physician, Dr. Hermann Grebe, then one of the town's leading historians, as a guide. Sadly, he died soon after. Today's visitors will have to find another guide, who will, one hopes, have the same intimate knowledge of the structure – and the city – as Dr. Grebe had. The good doctor added a private organ recital on the church's Baroque organ, installed in 1732. It boasts 1,653 pipes and on that fall afternoon filled the interior of the church with a magnificent sound. Organists throughout the country seek to play this more than 200-year-old instrument.
The church has a main portal, and a bridal portal through which to this day the bridal couple enters the church for the wedding ceremony. Above this portal is a stone relief of Mary and the baby Jesus that is surrounded by a band carved in Gothic lettering. The Latin translates to "I am the flower from which the bees suck sweetness". To some extend it was this church that became the city's undoing. Its unraveling began in 1618 with the start of the Thirty Years War. Homberg was attacked several times by papist troops, more so than other communities in the area. Why? Because in 1526 Hessian Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, then only 22 years old, but one of the most educated among the German princes, held a synod at the church. The 158 theses, called Paradoxa, and 47 addenda for discussion at the synod, had been nailed to the church's main portal. Not only clerics but also ordinary citizens had been invited to this event, which began on October 20, 1526. The most important of the theses were translated into German from the Latin so everyone could understand them. Exactly how many actually were debated or became new church law is uncertain. But, they led to a new social order and responsibility, and to the declaration that made Hesse Protestant. It had been done in defiance of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Landgrave Philip, one of the hereditary electors that had always chosen the emperor from among the leading princes of the realm, had close ties to England and considered Henry VIII a friend. Homberg, which at the beginning of the Thirty Years War had about 5,000 inhabitants, had only 800 by its end in 1648. Croatian and Irish troops in particular raped, pillaged and burned their way through the town. The destruction of the city hall led to the loss of most of its early historical documents. During this time the bell tower of the church also received severe damage. The city finally found the money to rebuilt it in 1670. For reasons that are obscure, perhaps lack of funds, the architect chose a design for the top of the tower that detracts from the elegance of the church's Gothic style. After climbing the tower's 185 steps of its winding staircase one steps onto a terrace of the typically four-sided Gothic structure. From there an eight-sided structure continues, but much shorter than the original, giving it a stubby appearance. It is topped with a rounded turret that would be far more at home in a Bavarian landscape than in northern Hesse. This unusual top story of the church, which features four clocks, one in each geographic direction, was the home of the town musician and tower warder until 1837. His job included keeping a watch on the town from above and to call out with a bugle when the time came to close the city gates and all good burgers locked their doors and go to bed. Below these humble living quarters are the church's huge bells. It must have been quite an experience for the warder's family to have had to live with the noise created by the ringing of these bells. And speaking of clocks, the south facing columns of the church hold no less than six sun dials, which date from the 13th and 14th Centuries. Two dials, instead of showing the time of day, show the hours for prayer for the monks before the church became a Protestant one. The year before Philip the Magnanimous held his synod, one of Homberg's most famous sons was born. Hans Staden entered the Spanish and Portuguese military services between 1547 and '55. With them he went to South America. There Natives captured him. He escaped and wrote a book about his adventures, published in 1557. The latest edition of the book appeared in 1963. Its title is rather long: "Warhaftige Historia and Beschreibung einer Ladtschafft der Wilden, Nackten, Grimmigen Menschenfresser" or The true History and Description of a Territory of Wild, Naked and Gruesome Cannibals. It became the first book written by a non-cleric about South America. Let us now return to the beginning of this story, namely the fortress, which had been turned into one of the strongest and most fortified castles of its time by the beginning of the Thirty Years War. The cluster of villages one sees from on top, 22 in all and many as old as Homberg (incorporated in 1231), are now officially part of the city. The city's snaking river, Efze, its name of pre-historic Celtic origins, also comes into view. There are quite a number of Celtic names to be found in the Homberg area. For anglers, the Efze offers brown trout, according to locals. Although papist troops bombarded the castle with more than 600 cannon shots, they were unable to breach its walls. Yet, they conquered it because the castle's water supply became non-potable when a townswoman fell into its deep well — a marvel of engineering as it was cut into the solid basalt stone. The fortress had a second water source outside the castle. It had been revealed under torture by a captured messenger on his way to seek help for the beleaguered town. The well is presently being re-excavated to almost its total depth of about 170m (about 557 feet). It was filled in at the end of the Thirty Years War at the behest of the then Hessian ruler, who also decreed that the fortress not be rebuilt. As an aside here, a visit to the well housing is recommended, and for the more daring, a trip below ground where the cellar of the stables are still intact. After exploring the castle and its grounds, refreshments can be had at the restaurant located in the castle forecourt. It offers a rest before the walk back into the city. It was certainly a good way for this wanderer to complete the morning before returning to the city below.
Homberg's City Hall, destroyed in the Thirty Years War was rebuilt by its citizens on the remaining foundation and reaming structure as can be seen from the stone of the ground floor. Once a maker of history, Homberg became forgotten by it. The city remained a garrison town, and sent a regiment to fight with the British in the American Revolutionary War. Different regiments departed on different dates. One of the first to leave was the 'Regiment von Donop' that departed from Homberg/Efze on February 29 (1776 was a leap year) at 2 p.m. Almost all inhabitants of the city bid us a tender farewell. Almost everything appeared at that moment to be more than usually touching. An animated sense of pain seemed to descend on everything, and deeply mournful glances followed us. Mothers full of despair, lamenting wives and crying children followed behind the regiment in large masses . . . , wrote Second Lt. Johann Heinrich von Bardeleben in his war diary about this departure. The German troops were sent in two different directions. Cavalry General Leopold Philipp Theodor von Heister, 60, had been given the command of 12,000 men by Landgrave Friedrich II. This native of Homberg was sent with his men (and their many women) in the direction of the 13 colonies. He departed on the ship Elizabeth on April 16, 1776 from Bremerhaven-Lehe. He and his troops arrived at their destination at Sandy Hook on Staten Island on August 17. It must have been a grueling journey. What is mostly forgotten or seldom mentioned in German history books is that the other contingent, under the command of the Baron von Riedesel ended up in Lower Canada. Its commander led the Hessian faction of the British troops under General John Burgoyne, who moved down from Montreal to Saratoga, where American revolutionaries defeated them and turned the tide of the war in favor of the American colonies. After that Homberg faded away. Its only fairly recent claim to fame came in 1809. In that year German officers plotted in Homberg a failed revolt against King Jerôme (Napoleon's brother). Sometime between Napoleon's final defeat, and around German unification in 1871, Homberg became a regional administrative town, a distinction it even lost under Hitler. Now, it is once again a regional seat of government, a garrison town, and most of all, a tourist attraction. Homberg is now the administrative seat of the Schwalm-Eder Kreis (Region). It is a delightful place to visit at almost any time of the year. Try it >For more pictures of Homberg go to www.boelling.de The site is unfortunately in German, but the wealth of photos tells a story all its own. Tourist information can also be obtained by contacting the
Foreign Travel Bureau of the city, the Fremdenverkehrsamt at 011-49-56-81-772-51 or by
writing to the Bureau at Another place to contact is the: Fremdenverkehrsverband Kurhessisches Bergland Parkstrasse 6, 34576 Homberg/ Efze, Tel. 011-49-5681-775-250
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Copyright © 2001-8 CamKohl Arts Productions |
Plots of trees make up groomed forests, where well-managed deer can be found, and even boar.
In the distance other hills and mountains rise on the horizon to frame the plain.
Seen
from on top of the castle, sun rays spread their benevolent light onto the red clay roofs
of the tall houses that nestle against the mountain and around the imposing Marienkirche
(St. Mary’s Church). At the foot of the church is the market square
(Marktplatz), ringed by Germany's version of Tudor-style houses. Here
Hombergers have conducted their business since well before 1200. By the
early 1300s the townspeople began to plan for their imposing Gothic church.
The fortress, or a predecessor, has stood on the mountain since at least 1120.
Fortifications may well have been there as early as the late 8th Century, when
the Frankish Charlemagne reigned as the first Holy Roman Emperor, and his empire's trade
routes needed to be protected.
Not in Homberg. There the timbers are painted brightly in different hues of brown, some infused with red,
and even some with a touch of blue. Some have intricate designs carved
into the wood. Others are painted with floral designs on the white spaces
between the timbers. Standing tightly together around the large market
square, dominated by the Marienkirche, the houses exude the richness of a once prosperous
past. On the square stands Germany's oldest, continuously run inn,
Die Krone (The Crown to the right.) It dates to 1480 and is worthy a visit.
The church's foundation stone was laid in 1340 and serious construction began the
following year. It boasts a high, delicately structured Gothic ceiling
and high stained-glass windows that flood the whole interior of the church with light.
Its bell tower dates from 1374. During renovations in 1961 it was
discovered that the church had been built on top of a Romanesque basilica, which in turn
had stood on top of two early Romanesque chapels.
To
reward the bravery of the troops at the castle, he conquerors gave the castle's
commander and troops free passage, and the town a promise of no further damage.
But once they left, Irish troops came, ignored the promise, and senselessly burned down
the castle. They were also responsible for the damage to the church.
It took Homberg more than a century to recover from the war, and it never regained its
former prominence. No one doubts that before 1618 Homberg had the
reputation as a an major trading center. It attracted the attention of
the well-known Swiss artist Matthäus Merian, who created a copper etching of the city
sometime before the war started. Unfortunately, it was not published
until after the war ended. It is ironic that by the time the public
across the German states came to see its image, Homberg had lost its importance.
