Gutenberg, la Operación Valkiria y Marc Chagall
HI! I’m Triana and this is Triana in Berlin. Welcome to Wiesbaden! Wiesbaden is very close to Frankfurt and we are going to spend two nights here and two nights in Frankfurt. Well, let’s get started! Wiesbaden is known for being a spa city thanks to its
Thermal baths rich in minerals. This is the Kochbrunnen, one of the most productive sources and the water can be touched since it is at 66 degrees. The water can be drunk from this source, but a consumption of 400 ml per day is recommended.
In fact, in the city you can see this vapor and smell the smell very similar to sulfur. It has the smell of minerals, because it has minerals. There is also a giant ampelmann and this statue. The city has a population of 291,169 inhabitants and was left largely intact after the Second War.
Wiesbaden is the capital of Hesse, but why, being such a small city, is it the capital? Well, it is much smaller than its neighboring city Frankfurt, but it turns out that when the Second World War ended this area was occupied by the United States and Wiesbaden was the area that was least destroyed,
So they decided to make it the capital of the State. The Ludwig Beck Awards are also held here, which are the Civic Merit Awards and who was Ludwig Beck? Ludwig was a general in the German army, in fact he was in charge of the German army when Nazism took over.
He accompanied for several years until ’39. This idea of having to swear allegiance to the Führer was no longer very appealing, but the break came when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. That’s when he broke off the relationship, retired from the army and became a strong opposition.
To such a level that he was one of the thinkers and promoters of “Operation Valkyrie.” Maybe you saw the movie “Valkyrie” with Tom Cruise. They tried to assassinate Hitler twice, we know that without success. “Operation Valkyrie” was in 1944 after he failed,
Before he was arrested by the Nazis, he decided to take his own life. Wiesbaden recognizes its merit to the Nazi opposition, giving awards for civic merit today. Wiesbaden many, many, many years ago was a Roman settlement, so there are still some things left
Here and in Mainz. and now we are going to see what a bridge, viaduct or wall was from Roman times. In case you didn’t know, Wiesbaden has the largest cuckoo clock in the world and the bird sings every half hour from 8am to 8pm.
The store where it is located also has a wide collection of crafts from all over Germany. We arrived at the Biebrich palace. This palace functioned as the residence of the Dukes of Nassau, from 1816 to 1886. Today it is a State building and houses the State Agency for Historic Preservation.
There is Mainz, land of Johannes Gutenberg. The first thing to notice in Mainz is the traffic light. These characters are called Mainzmanchenn and were an animated series from the 60’s that appeared briefly between advertising and programming. The traffic lights were modified in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mainzmanchenn,
But later they remained and even more appeared around the city. We cross to Mainz and behind me there is a gallery that in 1999, when the excavations began, it was discovered that there was an entire settlement, a temple actually, Roman from the 4th century.
Now it is on display so let’s go visit it. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis and Magna Mater, which Magna Mater is the Roman name for the goddess Cybele who is originally from Anatolia, but with so much invasion, she adopted different names and is like the mother goddess.
Isis is more or less the equivalent of the Egyptian goddesses. This particular place was a temple for sacrifices. Here is the mummy of a woman who was surely part of a sacrifice. Banquets were also held here and the utensils used did not distinguish between sacrificial jars and
Consumption jars, let’s say, everything was used for everything. Here I see the map of Uruguay, what do you say? For me it is the same. And this bronze statue was already an antique for them. Well, the truth is that the sanctuary is very good, I liked it.
So if you’re around here, take the opportunity to see it, it’s free but they accept donations. The truth is, it is worth it because it is very well preserved, very well put together. They have a little book in English so you can see and read what you find.
So very complete, really, I liked it. We are in the land of Johannes Gutenberg. So we came to the museum, let’s see what it looks like. The museum is made for those who really like the history of printing, it is not
Very interactive or technological, but it has a lot of information about the evolution of printing. Not only in Europe but it is also in charge of telling its development on other continents. There is a vault where you can see the first books printed by Gutenberg.
Now, if you like the theme of Gutenberg’s history, I recommend coming to Mainz, around June 24. On the night of San Juan, that is, the night of June 24, it is the day that Gutenberg is celebrated but the “Johannisnacht” lasts
4 days, with a large market in the street, dancing, a large book fair from small printers and even the baptism of the printers is done. Admission is free. Well we are going to Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, in this church the stained glass, the windows were designed by Marc Chagall, who was actually Russian,
Not French, but he was actually Russian from what would now be Belarus. In 1917, he was an active part of the Russian Revolution. He went to Paris and with the Second World War, he had to flee. He fled to the south of France and later went with his family to the United States.
In 1973 the Bishop of Mainz asked him to design the windows. As a symbol of union between Jews and Christians. Now we return to Wiesbaden and go directly to the Maldaner cafeteria. This cafeteria is more than 165 years old and we came to try a specialty.
Well, let’s try the Rudesheimer Kaffee, which is a coffee from the region that has brandy. Well, let’s see how it tastes. It’s good, I actually had a lot more cream than anything else, but it’s good, it’s delicious. It has 36% alcohol but you don’t feel that much because it is pure cream.
But it’s good. We came to the Kurhaus, where the Wiesbaden casino is located, where we neither won nor lost any money. It was built at the beginning of the 19th century and also houses several rooms for concerts, galas and balls. We also went the next morning to see the park.
We are in the Kurhaus park, and I am with this character in the back, who is Mr. Dostoyevsky. Here Dostoyevsky came to spend his days, he came to spend a vacation but he lost all the money from his trip playing in the casino.
He spent it all but it was not in vain, since it served as inspiration for his story of The Gambler. As you can see there are a lot of activities to do, we did all of this in two nights staying in Wiesbaden.
If you stay in Frankfurt in 40 and a few minutes by train you arrive in Wiesbaden. I hope you liked this trip and we’ll see you next Sunday. Have a beautiful week, bye!
¿Qué tienen en común Johannes Gutenberg y la Operación Valquiria? Hoy visitamos dos ciudades divididas por un río, por el que se cruzan y conviven un sin fin de historias interesantes. Hoy nos vamos a Wiesbaden y Mainz.
Escribime a: Trianaenberlin@gmail.com