kulturschätze kompakt – serie

The Niederwald. One book – two sights. Take the time to visit and look at the two monuments at the entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Trace the respective spirits of two different periods: in Ostein’s Niederwald, which is a creation in the landscape, and at the Niederwald Monument, which commemorates war and the founding of the German Empire. A walk through the “ornamental forest” founded by Karl Maximilian Count of Ostein (1735–1809) gives you the pleasure of enjoying the nature of a forest rich in species and views of the Rhine valley. At the same time, it introduces you to an important period of garden art from the end of the 18th century. The monument with the colossal Germania is also located on the grounds of the historical park forest. It takes you back to an eventful epoch in German history, as a result of which a nation state was founded. Subsequently, many meaningful monuments were erected in the German Empire. The Niederwald Monument proclaims the political messages of that era.

Among the German Staufen castles, the architecture and architectural sculpture of the Gelnhausen pfalz, with its Upper Rhine-Alsatian and Southern French forms, is the most artistically noble. However, with the end of the Staufen dynasty and the system of pfalzen in the 13th century, the complex lost its importance. A period of decay set in. What is now only in ruins was once a seat of administration and hosted a farmyard, a place of adjudication, receptions, festivities and imperial diets. Thomas Biller explains the significance of the building, which was used as a seat of government, on the basis of individual building elements and ornaments and sheds light on various reconstruction attempts.