Built, Misused and Not Used at all

Written by eklastic

For various reasons it is difficult to talk about the Thingstätte in Heidelberg, particularly in English. The English problem is a language one. A Germanic Thing (pronounced ting) is a thing in English but not as in an object or an article but as in a folkmoot (kind of like an entmoot for people). Then there are the historic problems. This venue, fashioned in a way that Nazis envisaged Germanic culture 2000 years ago, was built in the 1930s on a hill near Heidelberg for pseudo Germanic festivities and rituals. Early on it was clear that it would never do what it was meant to do because they built a stage in the middle of an amphitheatre for thousands of spectators but forgot about toilets and other necessities. After world war II it was neglected, then half-heartedly revived (even Placido Domingo gave a concert there once), after 2000 it was only used unofficially for Walpurgis Night feasts where students partied in the night from 30 April to 1 May. This was stopped in 2018 as it created too many problems, not least several forest fires.

Today it’s mainly a destination for excursions. There is a lookout point in the vicinity which offers a wonderful view of the Heidelberg Schloss on the other side of the river Neckar.

FOWC with Fandango: Venue

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13 thoughts on “Built, Misused and Not Used at all”

    1. As mentioned, you’d miss out on the best view of the Heidelberg castle. 😀 The site itself is void of all Nazi emblems etc. (in principle and because in Germany they are illegal anyway). School classes that go there learn about the German tribes during Roman time (Nazis being mentioned in passing on this occasion). There is an abbey on the same hill and from there there are tunnels leading all the way down (several hundred metres) and apparently/possibly also under the river to come out in the old section of Heidelberg. It was made to help in case of an enemy siege.

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    1. Entmoot is a word from Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring. Ents are tree hearders, mythical beings that look kind of like huge trees but can move and sentient. In the LotR sage, the entmoot has an important place. I had never heard of a “folkmoot” until I found it in the English wikipedia on the Thingstätte but knowing about Treebeard (the most senior Ent) made it instinctively understandable to me. And in the German translation it is indeed called Entthing. Sorry to assume that fantasy is common knowledge 😉

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      2. I read LotR in 1979 – still 25 years after it was first published. Probably in the first year that I could understand it in English (I’ve never read a translation, I suffered through the films in German with our grandson and … °shake grrr°). And that was 20 years ahead of it becoming really popular.

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