During the Nine Years’ War (also known as the Palatinate War of Succession) the French invaded the area around Heidelberg and destroyed the castle and parts of the town. They blew up this tower with a diametre of 24 metres and a maximum wall thickness of over 6 metres on the eastern side of the castle. And didn’t clean after themselves.
Thousands of Stolpersteine, literally stumbling stones, are found in central Europe. They are a reminder of missing or killed people during the Nazi era. These particular five in Ladenburg are of the family Kaufmann who were deported to Gurs in France, where Mathilde Kaufmann died. The other four family members, Meta, Luise, Julie, and Sally were murdered in Auschwitz.
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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.
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pictures imperfect blog 