Go west, young man.

[onlyMark]

We had to head out to the west of Germany for a family commitment and decided to have an hour wandering around the westernmost city, Aachen.
It is a spa town and can be known as Bad Aachen, but the city decided it would miss out the ‘Bad’ part so it would be at the top of any alphabetical list.

It is another one of those places that can trace its history back several thousand years and one of the Roman settlements.
It is most famous though for becoming the preferred medieval Imperial residence of Emperor Charlemagne.
Due to time constraints we couldn’t get into much depth concerning the city, plus virtually everything is closed, but when they are not, it’ll be on the list of places to revisit.

We slipped past this building -




... to reach here. The Town Hall (Rathaus).
Built in the first half of the 14th Century and now a mix of Gothic, Neogothic and Baroque architecture. The latter element occurred as a result of a fire that devastated the city in 1656 causing many buildings to be lost and many to be renovated.
It has served many purposes over the course of its history, partially destroyed and rebuilt and even part being used to store munitions and weaponry and part used as a prison -




We headed now for the Cathedral.
On orders of Emperor Charlemagne it was started to be built in 796 and though the finish date is not known, around 805 was when it was consecrated. Charlemagne was buried there in 841.
It was built in an octagonal shape with numerous side chapels. Most of the stain glass windows are reproductions from after WWII -
























Something a lot more modern are the numerous statues in the city.
This one is from 1976 and depicts the “Cycle of Money”. Represented are avarice , greed , patronage and begging . In addition, it is shown how a father explains to his child how to deal with money.
The water runs anti-clockwise and I’m sure there must be some significance in that, but it escapes me for now. The water also comes from one of the hot springs, so flows all year round -










Moving a little further and passing a couple of nice shop windows -












We come to another modern statue.
This is from 1974 and called the Puppenbrunnen. Best I leave the description to the following but all the figures have moveable joints and can be positioned in many ways.

“A Roman figure symbolizes the long history of Aachen. The horse is part of it and symbolizes the tradition of equestrian sport and the annual CHIO horse show in Aachen. The market woman stands for the various markets that once existed in Aachen, and which are only remembered today by the street names.
The bishop should not be missing, of course, as Aachen is still a diocese city today.
The professor with the Prussian monocle stands for the sciences and refers to the RWTH, the technical university.
The clown and several masks represent the happiness of Aachen and the carnival. Even with the town musicians, the proud rooster got up at the top. The sweet fashion doll stands for the more than 600 year long tradition of the textile industry in Aachen.”




















A peer down and along a few more streets -















...... brings us to the last thing we have time for. A statue of several figures raising their hand and little finger.

Since the 16th Century the area has been known for the making of needles.
When produced they had to be sorted for size and amount into packets. Also faulty ones had to be discarded.
Children were employed to do this and the best way was to use a little finger.
For example, in 1801 a factory was built to produce needles, it employed 250 people of which 225 were children between the ages of four and twelve.

The little finger of the children who did this every day for hours and hours eventually became deformed - it thus became a way of recognition of many who had lived in the city.
A greeting developed as people became more mobile such that a raised little finger identified you came from Aachen.
Though I suppose it as quite confusing to those who had no idea what it meant -





I really hope to spend more time here as I didn’t scratch the surface, I only managed to scratch the scratch, if you see what I mean.

[kerouac2]

Nice to finally see Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle to some people). I almost went there once -- must have been about 1990. I was returning from a brief road trip to Brussels with two friends, and we decided to wander a bit because we had no urgent business back in Paris. Around Liège, we started seeing road signs indicating Aix-la-Chapelle, where none of us had ever been. "We should check it out." But this was before Schengen, and the German border guards decided they needed to see our papers. A car registered in France entering Germany from Belgium may have set off their suspicions since Maastricht was only about 40 kilometres away, too (Europe sometimes is a very small place), so perhaps we had been to the Netherlands for a drug run and were trying to take them off the scent by going through a bit of Belgium first? As it turned out, the passport of one of my friends had expired more than 5 years earlier and on top of that his photo looked like a middle school student (I hate him -- even now he looks about 15 years younger than his age.) So Bundesrepublik Deutschland decided that we were not fit to enter the country -- well, one of us at least -- and I have not passed through since then, although I hold absolutely no ill will toward the authorities.

Did you see any older statues in the city that were not part of buildings? I imagine that most or all of them were total rubble by 1944.

[tod2]

Terrific photo essay Mark. The stained glass in the cathedral may not have been the original but it was fantastic. I loved all the statues and the story of the little finger....I'm still trying to work out how it became deformed? What did it do in the needle process? This interested me as we sell millions upon millions of needles every year. The quality needle is Schmetz and I know China makes loads too but I think Schmetz are still made in Germany.

[onlyMark]

Tod, I expect the little finger of small children became flattened and splayed out from the other fingers as it had to be extended all the time to check the needles.
Imagine a column of needles laying flat on a table. Running a finger down them to turn them slightly to see if they 'rolled' correctly plus also it would be easier to determine faulty ones by touch than always by eye. Considering the lighting in a 17th century factory, I doubt just by eye would be accurate. Like running your finger over a surface to detect anomalies in it rather than just trying to see it. Plus faulty ones would be flicked to the side by the finger.
I imagine something along those lines.
As to what are quality needles in Germany, don't have a clue.

K2, those pesky Germans holding to the rules.
Older statues, sculptures or monuments that are not part of buildings are as thought, few and far between. Nearly all are from the 20th Century, scores of them, but spotted around are a few from the 19th Century. One of the oldest seems to be an obelisk from 1815. The 1970's and 1980's seemed to be the most productive times for doing them.

[lugg]

A treat for us -thank you Mark. The pastry shop windows are a real feast for the eyes. Your photos of the inside of the cathedral helped me to understand the octagonal set up. Fascinating to learn about the " little finger"

Of course I had to find out more about the CHIO and now know / remember that it is one of the most prestigious equestrian events in Europe “Concours Hippique International Officie” I do not know how I had forgotten that that but I do now remember seeing some events on TV that have been held there .

... and some years ago I posted here about what I thought was one of the best performances ever by a dressage horse - I think this was at Aachen. I will have to do a search to see if I can find it .

[bixaorellana]

Sorry to have been so slow to respond to this lovely report, Mark, but please know that I enjoyed it very much.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I became interested in Aachen when I was watching the tv series Vikings. There is a scene with a big bad Viking entering the cathedral in Aachen which is gorgeously depicted from directly under the dome. This prompted me to look it up and learn, or maybe relearn, about the history of Charlemagne in Aachen. This stuck another pin in the map of places I want to see one day, so I'm especially happy to get this photo tour of it now. I'm happy to know you plan on going back one day.

Are the various modern statues you show near each other, or in different squares? The city seems to have a very open feel for its medieval center. Thanks for all the close ups of the articulated statuary group, which is something quite different.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it seems to me I remember packets of sewing needles from Germany when I was a child. I just googled "for how long was germany a center of the needle industry" and the hits go on for pages. It appears Germany still produces all kinds of needles.

It was nice to see the fabulous Christmas treats in the store window, especially this year. Wonderful report ~ thank you!

[onlyMark]

Lugg, end of June, beginning of July 2021 is the horse festival so there's plenty of time for you to arrange to visit. Covid permitting of course.

Bixa, I'd never heard or couldn't remember hearing of Charlemagne when I was doing history at school but as soon as my kids were doing it I realised what a major character he was. It also wasn't until I started looking at the local history here how much Viking involvement there was. Never thought they came this far but obviously they enjoyed a bit of havoc in the area, and more than once.
The statues are spread around but only require five or ten minutes of loafing about looking in shop windows to get between them. Some are further out but most within the type of walking distance that isn't a strain when you are exploring a town.
When normal times, there are the usual nice cafes to make a break in and I think doing a wander in the late Spring/early summer would be the ideal time.

Huckle, rainiest place in Germany? I'd take that claim by them with a pinch of salt. Nice to know you enjoyed your time there.

[kerouac2]

I looked it up and it is Oldenburg which is officially the rainiest city in Germany. It doesn't really make any sense because there is nothing topographicallu special about that region (Lower Saxony) other than being not too far from the North Sea. However, huckle wasn't too far off the mark because the next four rainiest cities are in North Rhine-Westphalia of which Aachen is a part.