Heidelberg, Germany

 

Rene, our Program Director

Our Program Director, Rene, spent his childhood in East Germany. As a 6 year old, their school lessons talked about the enemy next door, the West German capitalist society. Yet his father had a soldier friend in West Germany who would send Levi and sweatshirt hand me downs to him. One shirt promoted Lidl grocery and his teacher said he shouldn’t promote capitalism. The Berlin Wall came down when he was ten in the weeks before there were protests shouting, “we are the people, we want to be free”. The people danced in the streets when the wall came down.  Afterward, they opened the secret police files, and you could read your record and find out who had reported you. In 1990, a 1.9% tax was begun to help rebuild East Germany. Today there remains some resentment towards the East Germans, but their living standards are still lower than West Germany.

Heidelberg Castle

We started our tour in Heidelberg Castle. This was the home of the Prince Elector for centuries, one of seven electors for the Holy Roman Empire. There are numerous architectural styles. The Ruprect wing was built in 1401 and served as a throne hall. The angels above the door are the builder’s children. Most of the Castle was built in the Renaissance style in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  On one wall Frederick IV traces a false lineage back to Charlemagne. A second wall has biblical figures. Below we can see the Neckar River. We visited the big cask which holds 5000 liters of wine from the taxes paid in wine. The pharmacy museum shows the various drugs used through the ages. Finally, we went to the gardens where we could see the destroyed tower that once held gun powder.

Toppled Gunpowder Tower

We continued in the town of 150K, of which 30K are students attending Germany’s oldest University. Here we saw the Church of the Holy Spirit, once shared by the Lutherans and Catholics with a wall splitting the church. The central market square was filled with people enjoying the day.

Heidelberg Central Square

We rejoined our ship in the port of Ruedeshiem, where we were entertained by a local group of women named Stimmalarm.