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phenomenist-blog · 5 years

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11. Wiesbaden, Germany

Built on a foundation of natural springs discovered in the Roman era, Wiesbaden is the first “spa town” of Germany.

Wiesbaden is a stunning city with a rich history that is well-appreciate across all of Europe. It origins go to 6 A.D. Back then, Rome rules the province of Lesser Germania from the dual capitals Mainz and Cologne. Across the Rhine River from Mainz, Roman legionnaires discover a series of hot springs. These natural baths represent an ideal point from which to refresh military horses. Furthermore, the minerals from the gaseous spring water become a resource for the characteristic red hair dye that achieves widespread popularity in this period, among Roman women. Because of this, the newly-discovered hot springs draw immediate international attention, and in 71 A.D., the Romans construct a strongly-fortified stone bridge to cross the Rhine and grant the city of Mainz access to the hot springs.

Over time, around the baths, there develops a new municipality. Its name is “Wiesbaden” which literally means, “meadow baths,” a reference to the 26 naturally-flowing hot springs that well up from the land. Wiesbaden is the original definition of a “spa town” in German territory, one of the oldest such examples in all of Europe. Countless German cities follow the example of Wiesbaden, many of which now take the prefix title “Bad” before their name, perhaps a throwback to the name Wiesbaden.

Though originally a Roman town, lovely Wiesbaden becomes Germanic rather early in its history. The transition begins when the Romans, in 121, begin to staff town defenses with mercenary Germanic warriors. Then, in 260, a wild tribe from Swabia, the Allemani, fully seizes control of Wiesbaden. The Romans never again control the city.

Over time, the the Franks conquer the entire Allemani domain, and this leads to the gradual absorption of cities like Wiesbaden into the Frankish Kingdom. As a Frankish city, Wiesbaden becomes the site of a royal castle, the beginning of the royal era of the city. The hot springs are always a popular attraction for the royal class, and with the Franks, the name “Wiesbaden” receives honorary Imperial mention in the chronicles of Charlemagne. The famous Emperor is possibly inspired by Wiesbaden, when he builds his throne in Aachen, itself a spa town with royal baths.

By 1232, Wiesbaden has grown to such a place of cultural, economic, and political influence within the Holy Roman Empire that it becomes an official Free Imperial City. This is an honorary distinction. It makes the municipality one of the hundred-odd autonomous city-states that have no feudal lord besides the Emperor himself. Yet this official status only lasts in Wiesbaden for a meager ten years, because of a sudden and vicious war between Emperor Frederick II and the Pope. This leads the Archbishop of Mainz, Siegfried III, to order the thorough destruction of Wiesbaden. This is also the beginning of a darker time in the history of the city.

From this point forward, never again does Wiesbaden count as a “Free Imperial City,” and the status of the city declines slowly during the Middle Ages, though the city certainly continues to operate as a symbolic power center of a prominent Germanic family, the Counts of Nassau. One of these Counts, Adolf of Germany, even rises to the surprise title of “King of Germany,” which makes him a leading finalist for the title of Holy Roman Emperor, and yet Adolf never receives official sanction from the Pope, and dies fighting off one of his successors.

Historically, it almost feels as if Medieval Wiesbaden, with its natural blessings, is always just one step away from heights of true grandeur. For whatever reason, it is usually the meddling of a bureaucratic religious figure, like an Archbishop in Mainz or a Pope in Rome, that stifles the ambitious hopes of the city.

Still, adaptable Wiesbaden is always rebounds. It is a vibrant economic center throughout most eras of Germanic history, simply by virtue of its healing baths, and in 1329, it is no surprise that Emperor Louis the Bavarian smiles favorably upon town fortunes, and makes a “concession” to the city, for its loss of Free Imperial status, when he grants coinage rights to the Counts of Nassau, a right which effectively restores the power of Wiesbaden to run many of its own municipal affairs. In this way, Wiesbaden is almost an “unofficial Free City” in the Holy Roman Empire. There are actually many of these.

Along with much of Germany, Wiesbaden descends into its true period of suffering in the Reformation. The descent begins around 1517, through the controversial figure of Martin Luther, after the surprise, nationwide publication of his local writings without his consent, through the use of the Gutenberg printing press, a technology that emerges across the River from Wiesbaden, in Mainz. One of the main points of contention that Luther makes, in his popular texts, is that scripture is the only authority for power from God, and that formal church authority, without truth, means nothing. One of his famous statements is that a farmer, in possession of scripture, has more authority than the Pope, absent of scripture. In response, German laypeople begin to assert their own authority to interpret scripture, a move which Luther not only supports, but indeed demands.

Yet the peasants, surely due to their destitute living conditions, seem to read even more deeply into the demands of Luther, than he intends, and many peasants naturally want to extend their newfound spiritual authority toward the seizure of political and economic empowerment. Luther seems surprsied by this. Athough he is happy to see peasants learn to read the Bible, and heal their souls by the word of God, he does not remotely support their uprising. Rather, Luther seeks the coveted stability in Germany that has never existed, that would finally come with a stronger Imperial central government. Luther is a monarchist, and certainly no sixteenth century pioneer or advocate for early democracy, and the word “freedom” to which he refers is mostly spiritual, in nature. Nonetheless, the loose interpretation of his popularized writings leads to the outbreak of the first widespread “German” national revolution, called the Peasants War of 1525, in which the peasant class seeks to secure a very literal form of freedom, or social mobility.

In this context, the town of Wiesbaden, in a heroic act, is one of the few cities in Germany to actively take the side of the peasants. This says something about Wiesbaden. Most German cities and nobles, along with Luther himself, take the traditional side of the Emperor instead. In the tragic conflict that ensues between the uprising peasants and the staunch upper classes, hundreds of thousands of peasants, armed largely with torches, garden-hoes, and pitchforks, become victims of outright slaughter at the hands of heavily-armed and highly-organized forces of the Holy Roman Empire. No matter their courage, the peasants never stand a fool’s chance, without larger support. The Empire brutally crushes the rebellion, and subsequently, punishment comes to the city of Wiesbaden for its participation in the uprising. The Emperor strips away official town privileges for forty years. This is a cruel but serious setback in the development of European democracy, though certainly not the first, nor last, failed revolution in German history. It is also a setback for Wiesbaden, but it does not destroy the revolutionary spirit of the city, which is made of stronger stuff.

A second tragedy, in this era, falls upon Wiesbaden in the form of two municipal fires, in 1547 and 1561, which are powerful enough to literally destroy all the Medieval buildings. As a result, there remains not a single building in the town that predates the early seventeenth century. Yet not to be outdone, the greatest tragedy of all time in Wiesbaden is the gargantuan Thirty Years’ War, after which there are no more than 40 living residents in the city, in 1648.

Decimated Wiesbaden understandably fails to rebound in the century after the War, when in 1771, a last-ditch attempt to rebuild the dead city finally comes from the Counts of Nassau, who legalize gambling. During the ensuing era of Napoleonic occupation, the Wiesbaden Casino opens in 1810, and in the presence of organized gambling, the natural town spas begin to receive significant economic patronage, once again.

The nineteenth century represents the era of remarkably fast turnaround for the city. Within five years of the casino grand opening, the Congress of Vienna grants Wiesbaden a high priviledge, making it the official, and no longer just unofficial, capital of Nassau, which marks the highest official status that Wiesbaden has enjoyed since 1242. The city certainly deserves feudal recognition, and many feel that this recognition comes far too late in the history of the city. Nonetheless, a late, blessed period descends upon the inhabitants of Wiesbaden, and it is to this period that one can attribute the magnificent and highly-romantic appearance that the city presents, today.

Still, even after recognition as the capital of Nassau, the political history of the city is by no means finished. In keeping with its legacy from the German Peasants War, as a “revolutionary city,” Wiesbaden courageously joins in a second German Revolution, that of 1848, in which the European academic classes demand constitutions in many countries. German academics hope to finally overcome the shadow of the dead Holy Roman Empire and establish, at last, a fully-unified Germany. The demands of the revolution include freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, somewhat in imitation of the democratic revolutions of America and France. Yet just like the Peasants War of 1525, the Revolution of 1848 meets resistance from the thick German aristocratic nobility, and while some scrappy concessions fall from the table, as a whole, the revolution is a failure, and the lower classes remain thoroughly dissatisfied with their petty gains, in the difficult struggle. Germany produces no unified nation at this time, nor any sort of satisfying democracy. And yet, in Wiesbaden, the revolution is a relative success: the feudal Counts of Nassau grant the people their own constitution. This demonstrates the generally progressive nature of the town, which seems to follow an enlightened pattern that goes back as far as the Roman era, when the Roman overlords simply hand the town over to the Allemani without much struggle.

Again, in 1866, the revoutionary city of Wiesbaden rebels against Prussian overlords, and takes the losing side of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. While this appears to be a “defeat” for the city, it is definitely not a setback. Really, it turns out to be a positive development, for though it leads to the temporary and forced prohibition of gambling in Wiesbaden, it also spells the end of the long reign of the feudal Dukes of Naussau, who, all things considered, are rather benevolent overlords, but who are overlords, nonetheless. Enjoying a sense of newfound freedom, ironically in the authoritarian Prussian regime, Wiesbaden finally enters its heyday as a free, fully-funtioning, international, cosmopolitan spa town. This strike of good fortune, of course, is only made possible by the unique allure of the hot springs, which always enables the city to attract the upper crust of society, such as Prussian monarchs and Russian nobility. King Wilhelm I, for example, is so impressed with Wiesbaden, that he directs and promotes the construction of the renowned Hessian Theater, a great Baroque work of art (see photos above). Then, the same Wilhelm I becomes the first Emperor of the Second Reich, and his son, Wilhelm II, builds a summer residence in Wiesbaden. Other frequent guests to the city include some of the greatest artists in the world, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the lavish city with a population of 86,100 entertains 126,000 visitors per year, a truly staggering tourist industry. So powerful is the allure of Wiesbaden, at this time, that it becomes home to more millionaires than any other German city.

As a final revolutionary act, Wiesbaden serves as host to two notable anti-Nazi resistors: Ludwig Beck and Martin Niemöller. General Beck is the author of a 1944 assassination attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler. Although the attempt fails, it nonetheless serves as a symbolic light of hope to the German people. Meanwhile, Niemöller is a theologian, founder of the Confessing Church resistance movement against the Nazis, and he gives his last open sermon at the Market Church at Wiesbaden, prior to his arrest.

Oddly enough, Wiesbaden avoids total destruction during Allied bombings in WWII, leaving 75% of the city intact. The reasons why the Allies treat Wiesbaden with such surgical precision, similar to how they treat Regensburg, are not entirely clear. There is nothing “rational” about which culturally-rich cities become targets of indiscriminate carpet bombing, and which do not. Wiesbaden is just lucky, in a sense, in that only 25% of the city meets destruction. There is, of course, an unsupported theory, which posits that wartime Americans love Wiesbaden so much, that they decide not to bomb it out, so that they can inherit the spa town and turn it into one of their cherished military bases, post-war, which they do.

Finally, in the organization of West Germany after WWII, the German province of Hesse selects Wiesbaden as its capital city. This is a remarkable honor, given that Hesse is a historic region that also includes the alpha world city of Frankfurt, as well as historic cities like Marburg, Darmstadt, and Kassel. Yet in a way, Wiesbaden is a highly-appropriate selection for Hessian capital. Wiesbaden is a wealthy city, and Hesse is a very wealthy province, with a higher per capita GDP than any other German province, besides the city-states.

Overall, the legacy of Wiesbaden is mainly two-fold: one, it is the original cosmopolitan spa town in German-speaking lands, a model for all subsequent generations, opening its baths to people from all over the world. Two, in a related sense, the town is one of the greatest symbols of democracy in the Germanic world, a revolutionary hotbed that is certainly “ahead of its time” from the Peasants War of 1525, to the Revolution of 1848, down all the way through the modern, authoritarian Prussian and Nazi regimes, all of which represent periods where Wiesbaden nobly takes the “losing side” in a humanitarian struggle for freedom.

In spite of this, perhaps Wiesbaden is nowhere near the top candidate for “most authentic German city,” for even though the city is always a sophisticated place, it nonetheless loses its eminent status early, during the thirteenth century, and never really becomes the true “Free Imperial City” that it promises to be, within the Medieval world order. Furthermore, the entire Medieval Old Town of Wiesbaden is non-existent, as of the sixteenth century, a tragic loss. Still, the Medieval losses provide room for the surges of status and architecture that come to distinguish the city in the 1800s, which really make up for a lack of older structures, proof that Medieval prominence is not the only way for a German city to develop into a great beauty. Anyone who has been to Wiesbaden, for any amount of time, will attest to its status as a European jewel. Currently, Wiesbaden is the tenth richest city in Germany, perhaps the most revered German resort town, a fact which would surely make the humble horseback Roman legionnaires proud, who stumble unexpectedly upon the hot springs in 6 A.D.

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ericfruits · 6 years

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Angela Merkel worries about Frankfurter voters

HESSE DOES not look like a place on the verge of political revolution. Old money is stashed in the grand villas of the region’s capital, Wiesbaden, a wealthy spa town. New money is made in the gleaming towers springing up in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial capital. Even the sleazy area around Frankfurt’s railway station is looking smarter. But despite Hesse’s booming economy, grumpy voters could shake up national politics in a regional election there on October 28th.

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The region’s governing coalition, made up of Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Greens, is credited with unspectacular but effective compromise. That is more than can be said for Mrs Merkel’s federal government in Berlin. Her coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) has been plagued by internal squabbling and undignified spats over migration. The “grand coalition” in Berlin, nicknamed GroKo in German, has never been so unpopular. Voters in Hesse could use the state election to express their irritation. The latest polls put the CDU at 26%, with the SPD hovering around 21%, falls of 12% and 10% since last time. “Hesse is a referendum on the central government,” says Wolfgang Schroeder, a political scientist at Kassel University.

The Greens, who are in opposition nationally and have kept out of the rows in Berlin, are also at around 21%, making them potential kingmakers, with the option of staying with the conservatives, or forming a new left-wing coalition. “Tarek instead of GroKo” reads one Green Party election poster, referring to Hesse’s Green leader, Tarek Al-Wazir, a man with a record of pragmatic consensus-building.

A poor SPD result in Hesse would increase pressure on the party leadership to quit the federal coalition with Mrs Merkel: left-wingers believe the party is losing its identity because of compromises with the conservatives. A CDU defeat, meanwhile, would reflect badly on the chancellor, who faces re-election as party leader in December. The worst scenario for her would be if her close ally and fellow centrist, Volker Bouffier, the CDU premier of Hesse, were pushed out of office. Speculation is growing that, in that case, her government could collapse.

But the GroKo parties’ weakness also shows why the coalition may stay together, for now at least. The SPD lacks the leaders, the policies and the money to fight another election. For the conservatives, there is no clear successor to Mrs Merkel. Both parties could win even fewer seats than they did last time, so neither of them may want to risk a fresh election. Voters are already irritated. A government collapse would leave them exasperated.

Mrs Merkel is aware of the threat, so she has taken energetically to the campaign trail in Hesse. “If you’re angry about what’s happening in Berlin, write me a letter,” she joked during a rally on October 22nd. “Right now it’s about Hesse.” But by getting involved so visibly, she increases the chance that the result will indeed be seen as a verdict on her own government.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "The mess in Hesse"

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