First spied as we approached the campsite, we took a trip up to the Chรขteau du Haut-Koenigsbourg, the remains of a strategically located castle surveying the plains of the Upper Rhein below with views over Alsace extending to the Schwarzwald. Unknown when it was first built, the first documented mention predated the reign of Frederick Barbarossa in the tenth century, calling the fortification an illegally constructed incursion by the dukes of Swabia into French territory, and besieged during the Thirty Years’ War by Swedish Protestant forces in 1633, the burnt and abandoned outpost was left in ruin—the inspiring remnants subject of numerous romantic poets and painters over the ensuing centuries. Just after given the status of a monument historique by the Second French Republic, the region was taken over by the German Reich at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War as Elsaร–Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) with Kaiser Wilhelm II eager to solidify a sense of nationalism and unity through monument-building (
see also) and entrusted the restoration of the ruin to architectural historian Bodo Ebhardt, whom had previously overseen the redevelopment of
Veste Coburg, the
Wartburg in Eisenach and many other projects—Edhardt himself called to his vocation growing up in
Sankt Goarshausen. Completed in 1908, the work was inaugurated with an elaborate medieval re-enactment by the emperor present. Scenes from Jean Renoir’s 1937
La Grand Illusion were filmed there and a exact copy in of the castle and Colmar built in Malaysia outside of Kuala Lumpur and along with the canine-accessible Petite Kลnigberg—la Chรขteau de l’Oedenbourg along the apron walls it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in France.
Next we went to Kaysersberg (the Emperor’s Mountain,
previously) on the eastern slopes of the Vosges range on the Route des Vins—one of the chief members of the Dรฉcapole (Zehnstรคdtebund) of Alsace within the Holy Roman Empire to maintain their status of imperial immediacy. Among the finest wine-growing regions, owing to vine stock originally from Hungarian roots, the pinot gris is a particular speciality. French-German polymath—theologian, philosopher, organist and physician, Albert Schweitzer, hails from here, whose 1906
Quest for the Historical Jesus informed Christian mysticism and
eschatology. And although holding paternalistic views and accused by some of forwarding the idea of the White Man’s Burden, Schweitzer’s clinics in then colonial Gabon helped advance hygiene and medical care for all of Africa. The village and hike through the vineyards are dotted with his eponyms, including “Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing”—the so-called eponymous Effect for pedagogy for instilling trust for professional opinion through lived experience.
synchronoptica
one year ago: digital divinity (with synchronopticรฆ), ghost-writing, ambient music from a surveillance system plus up-selling
twelve years ago: reporting on the US government shutdown
thirteen years ago: DIY month, wine and cheese advertising, vintage community calendars plus the risks of the agriculture lobby
fourteen years ago: hidden messages in song lyrics
seventeen years ago: the fiscal new year
hot stuff, hot postula: vintage American cheerleading calls and college yells
