Würzberg

Würzberg is the capital of Franconia and has about 100,00 people. It is the wine capital of the region, known for its white wines. Above the town sit a fortress and a chapel. The chapel was meant to attract pilgrims but was kept outside the town to prevent the spread of disease.

Würzberg Rathaus

The Rathaus, the city hall has a ratskeller, a bar, in the basement. Historically, this was because taxes were paid in grain then the city brewed the grain into beer to sell. The British bombed the city during WW II destroying 90 percent of the city, sparing the churches. In front of one of the squares we found a May Pole. Traditionally the pole would display the crafts that are in the town. The church here had several interesting features:  Atop the beautiful steeple, is a rotating Mary with her feet on the symbols for good and evil, a globe and crescent moon. The front portal shows the last judgement with bishops and kings headed to both heaven and hell, proclaiming to the people that everyone is judged. A side portal has the annunciation with Jesus flowing from God's mouth to Mary's ear. 

Annunciation

The cathedral is dedicated to St. Killian  who converted this region to Christianity. After world war two  the church was shared with the Jews for their services. In appreciation, there is a large menorah in the church.

Menorah in St. Killians

We walked on to the Bishop's Residence a building similar to Versailles. The gardens were beautiful. The chapel was rococo style, every inch filled with building, paintings, statues and decorated columns, the ceilings were three separate ovals. Many folks took the English tour of the residence, a worthwhile tour, but we headed back to the ship, since temperatures were in the low 90s.

Gardens of the Residence

After a sauerbraten dinner, we had a zither concert. The zither has 42 strings. The left hand operates the frets for the melody picked by a thumb pick, the 2^nd and 3^rd fingers act like a rhythm guitar, while the 4^th and 5^th fingers play the base notes.

Germany after 1945

Germany ended the war with 12 Million homeless, 5 M displaced, 8 M Polish of German descent expelled from Poland, and 3.6 expelled from Czechoslovakia. There was enough building rubble to encircle Germany with a wall 6 ft. wide and 21 ft high. What housing was available was shared, rooms allocated based on the size of your family. There were food shortages for another three years. Germany and Berlin were divided into four occupation zones: American, British, French and Russian.  The first cold war crisis was when Russia blockaded the road corridors to Berlin. The Berlin airlift supplied West Berlin with goods, even delivering a power plant piece by piece by parachute. The US helped rebuild Europe with $13B from 1945 to 1948 and $12B from the Marshall plan from 1948 to 1952. In 1949 the Basic Law (constitution) was adopted and the Deutchmark became the currency. By 1952 Germany's GDP was 35% higher than before the war. In 1955 occupation ended and Germany joined NATO.

Meanwhile Russia shipped $10B of goods out of East Germany as reparations by 1952. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was declared in 1949. A series of 5 year plans were economic disasters, agriculture and industries were nationalized. The Berlin wall was built in 1961. A forbidden forested zone was created along the West German border. After the fall of the USSR, the GDR voted itself out of existence and each state voted to join West Germany. Reunification happened almost overnight. Of course this required a lot of infrastructure to be built. West Germany still pays a solidarity tax to rebuild East Germany.