Nuremburg to be Europe’s City of Culture?
mainThe city is frontrunner for the title in 2025.
Short memories?
Other City of Culture candidates are Chemnitz (formerly KarlMarxstadt), Hanover, Hildesheim and Magdeburg.
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How about focussing on the positive cultural aspects that Nuremburg has to offer, rather than painting it as a city known just for one despot’s rallies? There is a lot more to it than that, which the City of Culture would rightly celebrate. Go on, just try and be open minded.
This rather reminds me of the quote:
“Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?”
Seems to me it was well known for Meistersingers…
In a united Europe, we need to be reminded of all the crimes of the past. But more importantly we need to reduce prejudice and give renewal a chance.
“…was mich nach Nürnberg trieb,
war nur zur Kunst die Lieb.”
Walther von Stolzing
Why is it the frontrunner exactly? I live in Germany, not sure if there is one.
It also the city where many of the leaders of the third Reich were tried and brought to justice. The trials also brought to the attention of the world many of the crimes of the Third Reich.
In the 7 decades since the war and in the many decades preceding the war Nuremburg has sustained a rich cultural history.
How many were prosecuted exactly?
Hahaha “were tried and brought to justice”. Haha.
It’s the birth hour of revisionism, and rightly so.
Hanging them all (what you call “brought to justice”), created the void and information-manipulations we have today: For all sides!
No such place as “Nuremburg”. The name of the city is Nürnberg in German and, if you must, Nuremberg in English.
Sometimes spelt Nüremberg in Wagner’s Meistersinger:
“Wie friedsam treuer Sitten,
getrost in Tat und Werk,
liegt nicht in Deutschlands Mitten
mein liebes Nüremberg!”
– Sachs
Actually it’s “mein liebes Nürenberg!”, not with an m. Not sure why he spelled it like that. I suspect it’s because he needed an extra syllable to make it scan.
The libretto contains six instances of “Nürenberg” and eleven instances of “Nürnberg”.
“I suspect it’s because he needed an extra syllable to make it scan.”
Ja-ha!
I find Nüremberg, Nürenberg, and Nürnberg in digital versions of the libretto.
But no mention of Nuremburg.
…so that Anglo-Saxon and Latvian singers could cope with the Umlaut.
And some of us don’t have an Umlaut on our keyboard, or, like me, are too digitally challenged to know how to find it.
Yup. And it was “Karl-Marx-Stadt”. It’s a name. You can’t cobble that together.
Big monument of Karl Marx head downtown Chemniz was left after long debates. I visit this lovely town.
What does City of Culture have to do with the Nazis – you are almost doing the memory of them a favour by mentioning them. They are best left in the rubble they ended in.
But if you look at the website of the bid https://n2025.eu/en/ it’s quite obvious that a critical examination of the city’s history will be a big part of the cultural programme, as you would expect it to be, in Germany more than anywhere else.
So I’m not sure what Norman means when he refers to “short memories”. I don’t get the impression that anyone is trying to make anyone forget anything here, quite the opposite.
Agreed.
For once I must take issue with our host.
Nürnberg would be the ideal place for a “travail de mémoire”. A ancient city of culture, and a memorial — in dire need of being rekindled — that justice once did catch up with the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, and may do so again.
Oh, and Magdeburg ? The site of the worst massacre of the Thirty Years War, never surpassed on German soil until the Nazi crimes? A nice opportunity to scratch the thin veneer of European civilisation and to question the misdeeds of Christianity.
(If only the woke snowflakes had any critical nous and historical knowledge, this would be their hour. But no, they’re too busy expurgating Schenker and policing Trader Joe’s for ethnic dish labels.)
As the home of Albrecht Dürer and Hans Sachs, Nürnberg is an entirely sensible and defensible choice as “City of Culture.”
Not to mention being the birthplace of Johann Pachelbel, godfather to Bach’s sister Johanna Juditha, as well as being the composer of a rather famous work itself considered by some to be the godfather of 20th cent pop. Can’t get more cultured than that.
….almost as many people there as at Mr Trump’s inauguration………….
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhHl2DpD4E
What about Karl-Marx Stadt with all the horrors associated with communism ( 100 million dead and still alive in China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela…)
Actually, Nuremburg is a beautiful town with lots of culture. Yes, condemn its past but recognize that it is different now.
The Nazi museum they have is first-class and in no way glorifies what happened there.
“condemn its past”.
You cannot condemn a city.
I have spent a lot of time in Germany, am half German (or Bavarian), and lived in Japan for 3 years. There is a world of difference between the Germans who, in the main, have accepted responsibility for what happened (in large part) and the Japanese (who still think they were wronged to begin with).
Yes, there are some unrepentant Nazis still around. I recall going to Switzerland once not so long ago and meeting an innkeeper who said as I was checking in, “You speak good German for an American Jew.” I snatched my passport out of his hands and went elsewhere. I complained to the police the next day and they said the man was a well known ex-Nazi and they apologized for him. Hatred exists and we must deal with it.
I think Nuremberg is a beautiful city and well worth this accolade. We all can do better, even Americans.
What’s so bad about it?
“You speak good German for an American Jew.”
If you do speak German, that a perfectly valid statement to make. Or are jews just super suspicious by nature?
I should also add that the older man, Swiss innkeeper called me a “Scweinhund” which is a serious insult in German. The only words I had spoken to him (in German) were that I was sorry the train bringing me was late. His hotel staff(young people) looked appalled at what happened.
The problem is these places are beautiful. The people living in them are not so nice.
Henry, the places are beautiul but there are also lots of nice people living in them. The older Swiss innkeeper was not one of them (bad ones do exist) but he is likely dead; what was encouraging was the fact that his own staff disapproved of his actions.
Ah ok!
(Or did you make that up, to make your post higher up, look less ridiculous? But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, ok?!)
Chemnitz it is.