Leipzig: Battles and Bach

October 2017
We have an additional holiday in Germany this year, 2017; one that comes along once every half a millennium. The 500th anniversary of the Martin Luther pinning his 95 theses to the church door in Wittemberg is on October 31st, which falls on a Tuesday. And the 1st of November is a holiday every year, so we took vacation on the Monday before that to make a five-day weekend. We were already in Wittenberg earlier this year, so we decided to visit Leipzig for the first time.

Today is October 30, which is nearly the 204th anniversary of the Battle of the Nations, so we went to see the monument.

The Monument to the Battle of the Nations (called Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig in German) commemorates the battle between Napoleon and a coalition armies from Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, fought from the 16th to the 19th of October in 1813, in which  Napoleon was decisively defeated for the first time in battle. Napoleon's defeat was the beginning of his downfall, because it forced him to return to France, and the Coalition invaded France early the next year, resulting in Napoleon's abdication and exile to Elba in May 1814.

A half-million soldiers battled at this site near Leipzig for the political future of Europe in the bloodiest battle of the 1800s.

Model of monument

A monument to the victory was erected on the site of battle. It was constructed by Bruno Schmitz and finished in 1913 in time for the 100th anniversary. The monument is really a huge building, as shown in this model of the monument's cross section. It is 300-ft high made from 26,500 granite blocks, and roughly pyramidal in shape. In front is a reflecting pool, which represents the tears of the mourning people. (It was being renovated when we were there.)

You can climb through spiral staircases and narrow passages inside the monument up to the top of the highest dome.












You enter the monument at the very bottom, underneath the relief of the archangel Michael.






















and then climb up through the base into the crypt, in which there are eight large statues of fallen warriors, each one next to two smaller statues called the Totenwächter (Guardians of the Dead).

Guardians of the Dead

The statues of the monument were sculpted by Christian Behrens and his apprentice Franz Metzner, who finished the remaining statues after Behrens's death in 1905. The style seems to be Jungendstil (art nouveau), most obviously in the semi-circular stained-glass windows and frames.

Willingness to Sacrifice

On the second story are four statues, each one over 30-ft tall, representing the four legendary historic qualities ascribed to the German people: Bravery, Steadfast Belief, Willingness to Sacrifice, and Ethnic Strength. (I think I got 3 of the 4 correctly labeled.) Metzner used the Colossi of Memnon as a model for the statues.

Steadfast Belief

Ethnic Strength

At the top are 12 knights, who are the protectors of freedom. (There are also  324 reliefs of knights on the inside surface of the dome.)















In one wing of the monument is a museum about the battle. The museum has weapons, uniforms, equipment, pictures, and personal keepsakes. I especially enjoyed the 15 square-meter (about 150 square-feet) model with its 3000 figures. It describes the strategies and troop movements throughout the battle.







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Leipzig has a huge musical tradition. Johann Sebastien Bach was appointed the Cantor of the Thomasschule at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, from 1723 until his death in 1750. During this time he was also responsible for providing music to the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) in Leipzig.  Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was named conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835, and he remained in Leipzig until his death in 1847. He also founded the Leipzig Conservatory. Robert Schumann went to Leipzig in 1830 at the age of 20 to take piano lessons from his old master Friedrich Wieck, and in 1831 he began a study of music theory under Heinrich Dorn, the conductor of the Leipzig Opera. In 1844 he left Leipzig for Dresden. But in the intervening years he jointly founded Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ("New Journal for Music"), married Clara Wieck (the daughter of his old master), and composed many works (including 150 piano lieder in 1840 alone). Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig in 1813.

We went to the Bach Museum and Archive, which is near the Thomaskirche and the statue of Bach. It is a really good museum that has a nice collection of artifacts including musical manuscripts, letters, portraits, and historical instruments, including the organ console from St. John’s Church in Leipzig, which was played by Bach. The Archive has a research institute and a library, and one of its missions is to find lost works by Bach. As recent as 2005, an unknown composition by Johann Sebastian Bach was discovered by a classical music scholar and researcher at Leipzig's Bach Archive. An aria dated October 1713, when Bach was 28, was found  in a box of birthday cards in the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar. The archive verified the piece as the work of Bach using various techniques described in the museum. There is an especially interesting exhibit on identifying Bach's handwriting, which changed over time as it does for all of us. His handwriting was different for his quick sketches than his neat final documents. Researchers also know what kind of ink he used and on which kind of paper he wrote.

Part of Bach's Family Tree

There was an interesting display on Bach's family and the many generations of musicians. Bach created the family tree himself, and so he is listed in the second column from the right in this photo. Not all of Bach's 20 children ( 7 with Maria Barbara Bach, who died in 1720, and 13 more with his second wife Anna Magdalena Wilcke) are listed; only the musically gifted ones! Bach started his family tree with his great-great grandfather, Hans Bach, who was the father of Veit Bach, "a white-bread baker", who in turn was the father of Johannes Bach I "der Spielmann" (the player). He at first was a baker, but became the first professional musician of the family when he became a piper.

 Bach is buried across the street from the museum in the Thomaskirche, where there is also a portrait of him in one of the stained-glass windows.

Statue of Felix Mendelssohn Bartoldy

In front of the Thomaskirche is a statue of Felix Mendelsohn Bartoldy, who supported the church's Thomanerchor (the boys' choir founded in 1212) along with the opera and other musical institutions in Leipzig. We visited the Mendelssohn House, a museum in the house where Mendelssohn lived and died.

Mendelssohn's study with busts of Bach and Goethe

Naumburg Cathedral: Mysterious Master Sculptor

There is a new World Heritage Site north of us in Thuringen (Thuringia). Last year, UNESCO added the Cathedral at Naumburg to its list of World Heritage sites.

Naumburg Cathedral is known for its architecture, sculptures and images, and according to the supporting scientists, it is "a unique testimony to medieval art and liturgy. The harmonic connection between architecture,
sculpture and stained glass windows in the west choir of the cathedral counts among
the most impressive creations of human creativity in the Middle Ages at large.″

East Choir Screen

When Naumburg was nominated to the UNESCO list, the documents said that the choir screens were especially worth preserving.

West Choir Screen

"It is the only Cathedral illustrating in two almost completely preserved choir screen structures from the first half of the 13th century the profound changes in religious practice, perception, and in the reflection of nature and in science observation in the figurative arts. The workshop organization of sculptors and stonemasons which was likely established in the early 13th century and is known under the name of the “Naumburg Master” constitutes one of the decisive conveyors and pioneers of the ground-breaking innovations in architecture and sculpture of the Late Hohenstaufen period in the 2nd half of the 13th century that were first developed at Reims Cathedral and have been lost in other places. The quality of the Naumburg Master’s work has since justified Naumburg’s reputation far beyond its region."

The screen of the east choir is late  Romanesque, and the screen of the west choir is Gothic. The interior of the west choir and its screen were the work of the Naumburg Master, so-called because nobody today knows his name. But his artwork is among the most important of the European Middle Ages. He and his workshop traveled across Europe from Reims around 1225, to Metz in the Holy Roman Empire, and around 1230 he was in Mainz to work on the Cathedral. From there he traveled to Naumburg and worked from about 1245-1250 until construction was finished in 1257. Everywhere the Naumburg Master worked he left behind recognizable art. Other famous Gothic artists, like Tilman Riemenschneider, who lived later and worked around 1500, produced wonderful, but stylized, figures (see our blog). His wooden statue of St. Elisabeth in the Neuenburg Castle (see our blog) is very beautiful and also stylized.  But the Master of Naumburg made very realistic sculptures in the mid 1200s.

 The reliefs along the top of the west screen are more like statues; they are carved from one piece of stone. They depict scenes from the passion of Christ. At the passage through the west screen is a statue of Christ crucified.  On the sides of the passage are statues of Mary and John. The statue of St. John is especially expressive, as you can see in the photo.

Scenes from the passion of Christ

 

St. John on right side of passage

Entrance to west choir

Inside the west choir are the twelve monumental donor portraits that are considered his masterpieces. The most famous are the statues of Uta and her husband Ekkehard II of Meissen (today the city where the first porcelain was produced in Germany). Legend has it that the figure of Uta, with her high collar and medieval head covering, was an inspiration for the Disney portrayal of the evil queen in Snow White.

West choir screen from inside the choir 

Ekkehard II and Uta

Most churches, however old they are, no longer have choir, or "rood", screens. The "rood" refers to the cross that was typically depicted on the congregation side of the screen. Choir screens were meant to hide the altar from the lay person's view, making the ceremony of the mass even more mysterious. After the council of Trent ended in 1563, they were removed from Catholic churches as part of the Counter-Reformation. It is amazing that these screens survived. It is probably due in part to the neglect that churches suffered under the East German communist regime that such architecture survived.

Underneath the late-Romanesque nave is a high-Romanesque crypt, which
"is characterised by its high-quality architectural decoration. The palmette cushion capitals rank among the most beautiful examples of their kind in the Central European area. With the High Romanesque crucifix placed on the well preserved Godehard altar of the crypt (3rd quarter of the 12th century) an impressive furnishing piece complements the built Romanesque structure".
The crypt represents the oldest stone structure on the site.

Neuenburg Castle: one of the largest in Central Germany, the Wartburg's big brother

Wartburg Castle is very well known. Our blog from 2009 describes the connection with my favorite medieval Minnesinger (troubadour), Wolfram von Eschenbach; St. Elisabeth of Thuringen, who was brought to the Wartburg from Hungary when she was four years old; and most famous of all, Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into German there.

Not as well known is the Neuenburg Castle. It and the Wartburg were built by the same person, a Frankish Count called Ludwig der Springer (Louis the Jumper), at about the same time, around 1090. In spite of its obscurity, the supporting scientists writing about Naumburg Cathedral also found Neuenburg Castle  worthy of the designation World Heritage Site.

"Of the highest significance for the chivalric and courtly cultures of this time is Neuenburg Castle established by the landgraves of Thuringia. It counts among the greatest Romanesque Castle complexes worldwide and preserves one of the most impressive spiritual testimonies to the life of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia with its
exceptional two-storey chapel."

By the year 1100, Neuenburg Castle was the largest and most important fortification in central Germany. Still today, sections of the curtain walls in the north and east, part of the gate, the part of the castle on the lower part of the slope, and trenches in the east and in the south are open to visitors. The landmark is the castle keep, called "Dicker Wilhelm" (fat William), which today is outside of the castle on the high ground. It is visible from far away as a symbol of power.

Dicker Wilhelm

Visitor's entrance to the castle

The original castle was built in the Romanesque style, and the best evidence of that is the chapel.

 "the Chapel of Neuenburg displays the distinctive fusion of the Rhenanian and Saxon artistic styles as a masterpiece of the courtly art, strongly connected with the life of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia"
The chapel has two stories. The ground floor was for the peasants, and the upper floor for the nobles.

Upper floor of the chapel

Ground floor of the chapel

The ground floor has an opening in the ceiling. That opening met the liturgical requirements that the peasants have a view of the room with the altar and can hear the priest. The upper floor is very fancy, except for the hole in the floor. The four impressive columns in the middle of the room get their dark color from the  carboniferous limestone of which they are made.

Outside of the entrance to the upper floor is a statue of St. Elisabeth. This is the same woman we talked about in out blog "Poets and Thinkers". She was brought to the Wartburg when she was four years old, and married Ludwig IV, the Landgrave of Thuringia, when she was 14 and he was 20. After her husband's death when she was 20, and just a few weeks before the birth of her third child, Gertrude, she sent her children away and regained her dowry. She used the money to build a hospital in Marburg where she herself served the sick. In 1224 or 1225 she visited Neuenburg and is said to have cured a sick man.

Neuenburg Castle was a popular place. Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa visited Neuenburg Castle in 1172, and the legend of the “living wall” of soldiers providing the best military defense was born.  The most important poets of the 13th century, namely Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, also stayed at Neuenburg Castle. And this is where Heinrich von Weldecke, who was an inspiration to Hartmann von Aue and Gottfried von Straßburg, completed his AEneas novel, which was the first courtly romance in a Germanic language.

Goseck and Nebra: prehistoric astronomy

We rented a car in order to get into the countryside north of Naumburg and visit some remote prehistoric sites. The first was Goseck and the second was Nebra. The significance of these sites goes back to prehistoric times, and both are associated with ancient astronomers.



At Goseck, a 6900-year-old astronomical site was uncovered, similar to Stonehenge (some call it Goseck Henge), but much older and made of wood instead of stone. (Stonehenge was built from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, and Goseck Henge in 4900 BC). Goseck Henge is the oldest solar calendar in the world, and much older than the oldest of the Egyptian pyramids,  which was built from 2630–2610 BC.
Like Stonehenge, Goseck Henge consisted of a circular earth bank and ditch surrounding a palisade. The palisade at Goseck Henge is a double row of wooden posts. (Because trees can be dated precisely, the age of Goseck Henge is known very accurately). The palisade was reconstructed using oak posts and ancient methods after an archaeological dig in 2002-2004 uncovered the whole site.

We walked into the middle of the reconstructed henge. The ditch is 220 feet in diameter, and it has causeways and openings in the palisade at locations to mark important astronomical events. The largest causeways in the southeast and southwest mark the winter solstice sunrise and sunset. Another, smaller, pair of gaps in the northeast and northwest of the palisade mark the summer solstice. A small gap in the palisade south of the spring solstice is said to indicate the time to celebrate the spring feast of Beltane, around May 1. There is yet another opening and causeway on the northern side, but its significance is not known. 

Goseck Henge was built by people of the culture that is now known as the “Stroke-Ornamented Ware Culture”, after the way they decorated their pottery. The builders left behind buried skeletons, human and animal bones, ox skulls and ritual fires around the site. These remains suggest that burial rituals or human sacrifice was part of the culture.

Only 15 miles away near the town of Nebra, the oldest depiction of the cosmos ever found was unearthed on the top of Mittelberg hill in the Ziegelroda Forest. It is called the Sky Disk of Nebra, and it is a bronze disk measuring 32 centimeters (about  a foot) in diameter. It dates from 1600 BC, so it is 3000 years younger than Goseck Henge, and slightly younger than the last of the great pyramids in Egypt.  It depicts a crescent moon, a circle that was probably a full moon, and a cluster of seven stars that probably represents the Pleiades constellation as it appeared 3,600 years ago.  

There is a very good museum close to the site where the Sky Disk of Nebra was found. The museum has a planetarium, and admission to the museum includes a planetarium show. The show is really great; it shows how the Sky Disk could be used for various calculations in the days before printed calendars. For example, the gold arc on the right edge and the outline of another (the gold is missing but the impression remains) on the left edge are geographically and astronomically significant. If the Sky Disk is laid on a picture of the Goseck Henge, the right-hand arc matches the angle between openings in the palisade for the sunrises on the winter and summer solstices. The left-hand arc matches the angle between opening for the sunsets. How else could people recognize the exact solstice day? We can imagine the years of precise observation required to determine that at some point every year, the sun stopped rising, or setting, at the extreme southern end of its range and began to rise further and further north.  

The constellation of the Pleiades, depicted as a cluster of seven stars, is most important in its relation to the moon. On or near the vernal equinox (first day of spring), the Pleiades rises at sunset, and the moon is full; this indicates that it is time to plant crops. This relationship between the constellation and the full moon is shown on the left side of the Sky Disk. Near the autumnal equinox (first day of fall), the Pleiades sets just after sunset, so the moon is a crescent; when this occurs, it's time to harvest crops. This relationship between the constellation and the new moon is shown on the right side of the Sky Disk. So information on both the solstices and both the equinoxes is found in the Sky Disk.

But there's more. Once every four years on the autumnal equinox, the new moon is very new, and the crescent is very thin. The next year on the autumnal equinox, the crescent is slightly thicker. When the thickness of the crescent gets to the thickness shown in the Sky Disk, it is time to add a 13th lunar month to the year. (a lunar month is 29.531 days, so 12 lunar months is only 354 days)  After that, the crescent is again very thin the next year. 

And we're not done yet.  There are 32 stars on the disc. When the Moon is added, there are 33 objects in total. Intriguingly, 33 Lunar years are equivalent to 32 Solar years. According to archaeologist Harald Meller, 

• The explanation of the disc's purpose sheds new light on the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the Bronze Age people, who used a combination of solar and lunar calendars as important indicators for agricultural seasons and passage of time."The sensation lies in the fact that the Bronze Age people managed to harmonize the solar and lunar years. We never thought they would have managed that," Meller said. According to astronomer Wolfhard Schlosser of the Ruhr University at Bochum, the Bronze Age sky gazers already knew what the Babylonians would describe only a thousand years later.

It's no wonder that some people thought the Sky Disk must be a forgery. It is way ahead of its time.

One final observation: there is some art work along the bottom edge of the Sky Disk. This could be “the sun boat”, with numerous oars, carrying the sun across the sky. This symbol was added later, long after the disk was originally made.