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_The Story of Nuremberg_
_All rights reserved_
_First Edition, April 1899_
_Second Edition, September 1900_
_Third Edition, November 1901_
[Illustration: _Portrait of Albert Durer by himself, from the painting
at Munich._]
_The Story of_ Nuremberg
_by Cecil Headlam with Illustrations
by Miss H. M. James
and with Woodcuts_
[Illustration]
_London:_ _J. M. Dent & Co._
_Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street_
_Covent Garden W.C._ 1901
"Quaint old town of toil and traffic,
Quaint old town of art and song."--LONGFELLOW.
"Wenn einer Deutschland kennen
Und Deutschland lieben soll,
Wird man ihm Nürnberg nennen,
Der edlen Künste voll.
Dich, nimmer noch veraltet
Du treue, fleiss'ge Stadt,
Wo Dürer's Kraft gewaltet,
Und Sachs gesungen hat."
--MAX VON SCHENKENDORF.
"Nihil magnificentius, nihil ornatius tota Europa reperias."
--ÆNEAS SILVIUS.
_To
Maurice Hewlett
in friendship
and
in admiration_
PREFACE
I am painfully aware of the defects of this little book, and still more
painfully unaware of its errors. The best excuse for the mistakes that
have surely crept in is the vast scope and variety of my subject--the
story of the old mediæval town which was for long the centre of German
industry and thought. But, for a guide-book, accuracy is above all
things desirable, and I shall therefore be deeply grateful to the
courtesy of any of my readers, who, having discovered any error or
omission, will kindly point it out to me.
The sources from which I have drawn are far too numerous to acknowledge
in detail. But in the matter of topography and architecture a more
express note of indebtedness is due to the devoted labours of R. von
Rettberg, A. von Essenwein, and Ernst Mummenhoff. Above all, I must pay
my tribute of gratitude and acknowledgment to the enthusiastic erudition
of Dr Emil Reicke,[1] whose mighty volume, _Geschichte der Reichsstadt
Nürnberg_, is a mine of information from which I have freely quarried.
Lastly, to those old chroniclers at whom I have sometimes laughed, but
whose quaint phrases and legends may have saved these pages from too
serious a dulness, I now hasten to make amends and to assure them that I
am very conscious of my own inferiority as a storyteller.
The object of this book will have been in great part achieved if it
succeeds in reviving the memories and quickening the affections of old
lovers of Nuremberg; if it awakens a desire in those who have not yet
known and loved her, to visit the old "White City," and join the band of
her worshippers.
CONTENTS
PAGE
_The Origin of Nuremberg_ 1
CHAPTER II
_The Development of Nuremberg_ 35
CHAPTER III
_Nuremberg and the Reformation_ 55
CHAPTER IV
_Nuremberg and the Thirty Years War_ 93
CHAPTER V
_The Castle and the Walls_ 114
CHAPTER VI
_The Council and the Council-House. Nuremberg Tortures_ 150
CHAPTER VII
_Albert Durer and the Arts and Crafts of Nuremberg_ 171
CHAPTER VIII
_Hans Sachs and the Meistersingers_ 215
CHAPTER IX
_The Churches of Nuremberg_ 225
CHAPTER X
_Old Houses, Bridges and Wells_ 267
CHAPTER XI
_German Museum_ 275
CHAPTER XII
_Arms of Nuremberg_ 289
CHAPTER XIII
_Hotels, Itinerary, etc._ 294
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Frontispiece. _Portrait of Albert Durer,
from the Painting by himself at Munich_
_The Heathen Tower_ 4
_Luginsland, Kaiserstallung, and Five-Cornered Tower_ 6
_Nürnberger Zeidler (Beefarmer) armed with crossbow_ 9
_Nassauer Haus_ 22
_The Pegnitz_ 27
_Oriel Window of the Parsonage_ 42
_Beautiful Well_ 57
_Frauen Thor_ 63
_Rothenburg_ 79
_Pellerhof_ 90
_The Castle from the Hallerthorbrücke_ 117
_Sinwel or Vestner Thurm_ 122
_The Walls and Ditch_ 139
_The Walls (Interior)_ 144
_The Rathaus. Old Window_ 155
_Henkersteg (Hangman's Tower)_ 165
_Albert Durer's House_ 173
_Albert Durer as a boy. From a drawing by himself
at the age of thirteen_ 179
_St. Anthony, from the engraving by Albert Durer.
Background of Nuremberg Scenery_ 189
_Sakramentshäuslein. Adam Krafft_ 203
_Nuremberg Spruchsprecher or State Poet_ 223
_Brautthüre, St. Sebalduskirche_ 232
_St. Lorenzkirche. From the river_ 241
_Hauptthor, St. Lorenzkirche_ 244
_St. Lorenzkirche. North side_ 246
_St. Lorenzkirche. Interior_ 251
_West Door, Frauenkirche_ 255
_House on the Pegnitz_ 268
_Fleischbrücke_ 271
_The Nuremberg Madonna_ 279
_The Seals of Nuremberg_ 291
_All the illustrations with the exception of the frontispiece, "St.
Anthony" and "Albert Durer as a boy" have been drawn by Miss James, or
cut in wood from the beautiful photographs by Captain Gladstone, R.N.,
to whose generosity the publishers are indebted for permission to
reproduce the pictures in this volume._
The Story of Nuremberg
CHAPTER I
_Origin and Growth_
"In the valley of the Pegnitz, where across broad meadow-lands
Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nuremberg the ancient
stands."--LONGFELLOW.
Year by year, many a traveller on his way to Bayreuth, many a seeker
after health at German baths, many an artist and lover of the old world,
finds his way to Nuremberg. It is impossible to suppose that such any
one is ever disappointed. For in spite of all changes, and in spite of
the disfigurements of modern industry, Nuremberg is and will remain a
mediæval city, a city of history and legend, a city of the soul. She is
like Venice in this, as in not a little of her history, that she
exercises an indefinable fascination over our hearts no less than over
our intellects. The subtle flavour of mediæval towns may be likened to
that of those rare old ports which are said to taste of the grave; a
flavour indefinable, exquisite. Rothenburg has it: and it is with
Rothenburg, that little gem of mediævalism, that Nuremberg is likely to
be compared in the mind of the modern wanderer in Franconia. But though
Rothenburg may surpass her greater neighbour in the perfect harmony and
in the picturesqueness of her red-tiled houses and well-preserved
fortifications, in interest at any rate she must yield to the heroine
of this story. For, apart from the beauty which Nuremberg owes to the
wonderful grouping of her red roofs and ancient castle, her coronet of
antique towers, her Gothic churches and Renaissance buildings or brown
riverside houses dipping into the mud-coloured Pegnitz, she rejoices in
treasures of art and architecture and in the possession of a splendid
history such as Rothenburg cannot boast. To those who know something of
her story Nuremberg brings the subtle charm of association. Whilst
appealing to our memories by the grandeur of her historic past, and to
our imaginations by the work and tradition of her mighty dead, she
appeals also to our senses with the rare magic of her _personal_ beauty,
if one may so call it. In that triple appeal lies the fascination of
Nuremberg. For this reason one may hope to add to the enjoyment of those
who may spend or have spent a few days in the "quaint old town of toil
and traffic, quaint old town of art and song," by recounting the tale of
her treasures, and by telling, however imperfectly, something of the
story of her rise and fall, and of the artists whom she cradled. _Many
shall go to and fro and their knowledge shall be increased._ Is not that
the justification of a guide-book?
* * * * *
The facts as to the origin of Nuremberg are lost in the dim shadows of
tradition. When the little town sprang up amid the forests and swamps
which still marked the course of the Pegnitz, we know as little as we
know the origin of the name Nürnberg. It is true that the Chronicles of
later days are only too ready to furnish us with information; but the
information is not always reliable. The Chronicles, like our own
peerage, are apt to contain too vivid efforts of imaginative fiction.
The Chroniclers, unharassed by facts or documents, with minds "not by
geography prejudiced, or warped by history," cannot unfortunately
always be believed. It is, for instance, quite possible that Attila,
King of the Huns, passed and plundered Nuremberg, as they tell us. But
there is no proof, no record of that visitation. Again, the inevitable
legend of a visit from Charlemagne occurs. He, you may be sure, was lost
in the woods whilst hunting near Nuremberg, and passed all night alone,
unhurt by the wild beasts. As a token of gratitude for God's manifest
favour he caused a chapel to be built on the spot. The chapel stands to
this day--a twelfth-century building--but no matter! for did not Otho
I., as our Chroniclers tell us, attend mass in St. Sebald's Church in
970, though St. Sebald's Church cannot have been built till a century
later?
The origin of the very name of Nuremberg is hidden in clouds of
obscurity. In the earliest documents we find it spelt with the usual
variations of early manuscripts--Nourenberg, Nuorimperc, Niurenberg,
Nuremberc, etc. The origin of the place, we repeat, is equally obscure.
Many attempts have been made to find history in the light of the
derivations of the name. But when philology turns historian it is apt to
play strange tricks. Nur ein Berg (only a castle), or Nero's Castle, or
Norix Tower--what matter which is the right derivation, so long as we
can base a possible theory on it? The Norixberg theory will serve to
illustrate the incredible quantity of misplaced ingenuity which both of
old times and in the present has been wasted in trying to explain the
inexplicable. The Heidenthurm--the Heathen Tower of the Castle--is so
called from some carvings on the exterior which were once regarded as
idols. Wolckan maintains that it was an ancient temple of Diana. For
those carvings, he says, represent the figures of dogs and of two male
figures with clubs, who must be Hercules and his son _Noricus_. Hence
Norixberg. After which it seems prosaic to have to assert that the
"figures of dogs" are really lions, and the male figures are Saints or
Kings of Israel, and certainly not heathen images. There is in point of
fact no trace of Roman colonisation here.
[Illustration: THE HEATHEN TOWER]
Other ingenious historians, not content with imaginary details of
heathen temples and sanctuaries, hint darkly of an ancient God--Nuoro
by name--who, they say, was worshipped here and gave his name to the
locality, but "of whom nothing else is known." Some chroniclers drag in
the name of Drusus Nero (Neronesberg) and refine upon the point,
debating whether we ought not rather to attribute this camp to Tiberius
Claudius Nero; and others, again, suggest that _Noriker_, driven out by
the Huns, settled in this favourable retreat in the heart of Germany,
and laid the foundations of Nuremberg's greatness. All we can say is
that these things were or were not: but they have no history. After all,
why should they have any? But those who prefer precision to truth shall
not go empty away.
"The Imperial fortress of Nuremberg began to be built fourteen
years before the birth of Christ, the 9th of April, on a Tuesday,
at 8 o'clock in the morning; but the town only twenty-six years
after Christ, on the 3rd of April, on a Tuesday, at 8.57 A.M."
Thus spake the Astrologer Andreas Goldmeyer, in his "Earthly Jerusalem."
And yet, as Sir Philip Sidney sings, some "dusty wits can scorn
Astrology!"
Be that as it may, the history of our town begins in the year 1050. It
is most probable that the silence regarding the place--it is not
mentioned among the places visited by Conrad II. in this
neighbourhood--points to the fact that the castle did not exist in 1025,
but was built between that year and 1050. That it existed then we know,
for Henry III. dated a document from here in 1050, summoning a council
of Bavarian nobles "in fundo suo Nourinberc." Of the growth of the place
we shall speak more in detail in the chapter on the Castle and the
Walls. Here it will suffice to note that the oldest portion, called in
the fifteenth century Altnürnberg, consisted of the Fünfeckiger
Thurm--the Five-cornered tower--the rooms attached and the Otmarkapelle.
The latter was burnt
[Illustration: LUGINSLAND, KAISERSTALLUNG, AND THE FIVE-CORNERED TOWER]
down in 1420, rebuilt in 1428, and called the Walpurgiskapelle. These
constituted the Burggräfliche Burg--the Burggraf's Castle. The rest of
the castle was built on by Friedrich der Rotbart (Barbarossa), and
called the Kaiserliche Burg. The old Five-cornered tower and the
surrounding ground was the private property of the Burggraf, and he was
appointed by the Emperor as imperial officer of the Kaiserliche Burg.
Whether the Emperors claimed any rights of personal property over
Nuremberg or merely treated it, at first, as imperial property, it is
difficult to determine. The castle at any rate was probably built to
secure whatever rights were claimed, and to serve generally as an
imperial stronghold. An imperial representative, as we have seen, took
up his residence there.[2] Gradually round the castle grew up the
straggling streets of Nuremberg. Settlers built beneath the shadow of
the Burg. The very names of the streets suggest the vicinity of a camp
or fortress. Söldnerstrasse, Schmiedstrasse, and so forth, betray the
military origin of the present busy commercial town. From one cause or
another a mixture of races, of Germanic and non-Germanic, of Slavonic
and Frankish elements, seems to have occurred amongst the inhabitants of
the growing village, producing a special blend which in dialect, in
customs, and in dress was soon noticed by the neighbours as unique, and
stamping the art and development of Nuremberg with that peculiar
character which has never left it.
Various causes combined to promote the growth of the place. The
temporary removal of the Mart from Fürth to Nuremberg under Henry III.
doubtless gave a great impetus to the development of the latter town.
Henry IV., indeed, gave back the rights of Mart, customs and coinage to
Fürth. But it seems probable that these rights were not taken away again
from Nuremberg. The possession of a Mart was, of course, of great
importance to a town in those days, promoting industries and arts and
settled occupations. The Nurembergers were ready to suck out the fullest
advantage from their privilege. That mixture of races, to which we have
referred, resulted in remarkable business energy--energy which soon
found scope in the conduct of the business which the natural position
of Nuremberg on the South and North, the East and Western trade routes,
brought to her. It was not very long before she became the centre of the
vast trade between the Levant and Western Europe, and the chief emporium
for the produce of Italy--the _Handelsmetropole_ in fact of South
Germany.
Nothing in the middle ages was more conducive to the prosperity of a
town than the reputation of having a holy man within its borders, or the
possession of the miracle-working relics of a saint. Just as St.
Elizabeth made Marburg so St. Sebaldus proved a very potent attraction
to Nuremberg. We shall give some account of this saint when we visit the
church that was dedicated to him. Here we need only remark that as early
as 1070 and 1080 we hear of pilgrimages to Nuremberg in honour of her
patron saint.
Another factor in the growth of the place was the frequent visits which
the Emperors began to pay to it. Lying as it did on their way from
Bamberg and Forcheim to Regensburg the Kaisers readily availed
themselves of the security offered by this impregnable fortress, and of
the sport provided in the adjacent forest. For there was good hunting to
be had in the forest which, seventy-two miles in extent, surrounded
Nuremberg. And hunting, next to war, was then in most parts of Europe
the most serious occupation of life. All the forest rights, we may
mention, of woodcutting, hunting, charcoal burning and bee-farming
belonged originally to the Empire. But these were gradually acquired by
the Nuremberg Council (Rat), chiefly by purchase in the fifteenth
century.
In the castle the visitor may notice a list of all the Emperors--some
thirty odd, all told--who have stayed there--a list that should now
include the reigning Emperor. We find that Henry IV. frequently honoured
Nuremberg with his presence. This is that
[Illustration: NÜRNBERGER ZEIDLER (BEE-FARMER) ARMED WITH CROSS-BOW]
Henry IV. whose scene at Canossa with the Pope--Kaiser of the Holy Roman
Empire waiting three days in the snow to kiss the foot of
excommunicative Gregory--has impressed itself on all memories. His last
visit to Nuremberg was a sad one. His son rebelled against him, and the
old king stopped at Nuremberg to collect his forces. In the war between
father and son Nuremberg was loyal, and took the part of Henry IV. It
was no nominal part, for in 1105 she had to stand a siege from the young
Henry. For two months the town was held by the burghers and the castle
by the Præfect Conrad. At the end of that time orders came from the old
Kaiser that the town was to surrender. He had given up the struggle, and
his undutiful son succeeded as Henry V. to the Holy Roman Empire, and
Nuremberg with it. The mention of this siege gives us an indication of
the growth of the town. The fact of the siege and the words of the
chronicler, "The townsmen (oppidani) gave up the town under treaty,"
seem to point to the conclusion that Nuremberg was now no longer a mere
fort (_castrum_), but that walls had sprung up round the busy mart and
the shrine of St. Sebald, and that by this time Nuremberg had risen to
the dignity of a "Stadt" or city state. Presently, indeed, we find her
rejoicing in the title of "_Civitas_." The place, it is clear, was
already of considerable military importance or it would not have been
worth while to invest it. The growing volume of trade is further
illustrated by a charter of Henry V. (1112) giving to the citizens of
Worms _Zollfreiheit_ in various places subject to him, amongst which
Frankfort, Goslar and Nuremberg are named as royal towns (_oppida
regis_).
We may note at this point, however, that the Chroniclers declare that
the town fell into the hands of the enemy, through the treachery of the
Jewish inhabitants and was plundered and burnt. By this destruction they
account for the absence of all earlier records, and are left at liberty
to evolve their theories as to the history of previous days. They add
that when the town was rebuilt (1120) the Jews chose all the best sites
for their houses, and retained them till they were driven out. The first
statement was an easy invention. The second, very probably true in
effect, points to the reason--commercial jealousy--but does not afford
an excuse for the shortsighted and unchristian persecution of the Jews
which disfigures the record of the acts of Nuremberg.
With the death of Henry V., which occurred in 1125, the Frankish or
Salic Imperial line ended. For the Empire, though elective, had always a
tendency to become hereditary and go in lines. If the last Kaiser left a
son not unfit, who so likely as the son to be elected? But now a member
of another family had to be chosen. The German princes elected Count
Lothar von Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony. This departure was not without
influence on the fortunes of Nuremberg. The question arose whether
Nuremberg had belonged to the late Imperial house as private or imperial
property. Did it now belong to the heirs of that house or to the
newly-elected Emperor?
In fact, part of the possessions, which had passed from the Salian
Franks to the heirs, Conrad and Frederick, Dukes of Swabia, of the house
of Hohenstaufen, was now demanded back by Lothar as being imperial
property. Nuremberg was numbered among these possessions and became the
head-quarters of the war which followed between the Kaiser and the two
brothers. In 1127 the town had to stand another siege--this time of ten
weeks' duration--whilst the Hohenstaufen brothers held it against
Lothar. The siege was raised; but three years later the brothers had to
give in. The Burg and town of Nuremberg were then given by the Emperor
to Henry the Proud of Bavaria, a member of the great Wittelsbach family.
He kept them till 1138, when Conrad having been elected King of the
Germans, they went back in the natural course of things to the
Hohenstaufen, who came once more to look upon the flourishing town as
their own private property.
It was to the above-mentioned Kaiser Conrad that the chronicles
attribute the foundation of the monastery of St. Ægidius, on the site of
the chapel, St. Martin's, which Charlemagne was reputed to have built.
To Conrad also, with less show of likelihood, they ascribe the widening
of the city. Widened the city has been more than once, as we can tell by
the remains of walls and towers.[3] But the earliest fragment of these
now extant--the lower part of the White Tower--dates only from the
thirteenth century.
It seems to have been the policy of the Hohenstaufen Kaisers to favour
Nuremberg. They often held their court here. The greatest of them--the
greatest and wisest of the Kaisers since Charlemagne--Frederick I.
Barbarossa, to wit, lived in the castle in 1166. It was he, in all
probability, who built the Kaiserliche Burg, and erected, over the
Margaretenkapelle, the Kaiserkapelle, a grander and more splendid chapel
of marble, which was certainly completed in the twelfth century. Of the
remarkable Double Chapel thus constructed we shall have more to say
later on. Meanwhile we must content ourselves with calling attention to
the very similar Double Chapel at Eger in Bohemia.
It was through Barbarossa that Nuremberg became connected with another
of the great ruling families of the world.
"It was in those same years," says Carlyle,[4] "that a stout young
fellow, Conrad by name, far off in the Southern part of Germany set
out from the old Castle of Hohenzollern (the southern summit of
that same huge old Hercynian wood, which is still called the
Schwarzwald or Black Forest though now comparatively bare of trees)
where he was but a junior and had small outlooks, upon a very great
errand in the world.... His purpose was to find Barbarossa and seek
fortune under him. To this Frederick Redbeard--a magnificent,
magnanimous man, holding the reins of the world, not quite in the
imaginary sense; scourging anarchy down and urging noble effort up,
really on a grand scale--Conrad addressed himself; and he did it
with success; which may be taken as a kind of testimonial to the
worth of the young man. Details we have absolutely none; but there
is no doubt that Conrad recommended himself to Kaiser Redbeard, nor
any that the Kaiser was a judge of men.... One thing further is
known, significant for his successes: Conrad found favour with 'the
Heiress of the Vohburg Family,' desirable young heiress, and got
her to wife. The Vohburg family, now much forgotten everywhere, and
never heard of in England before, had long been of supreme
importance, of immense possessions, and opulent in territories,
and, we need not add, in honours and offices, in those Franconian
Nürnberg regions; and was now gone to this one girl. I know not
that she had much inheritance after all: the vast Vohburg
properties lapsing all to the Kaiser, when the male heirs were out.
But she had pretensions, tacit claims: in particular the Vohburgs
had long been habitual or in effect hereditary Burggrafs of
Nürnberg; and if Conrad had the talent for that office, he now in
preference to others might have a chance for it. Sure enough, he
got it; took root in it, he and his; and, in the course of
centuries, branched up from it, high and wide, over the adjoining
countries; waxing towards still higher destinies. That is the
epitome of Conrad's history; history now become very great, but
then no bigger than its neighbours and very meagrely recorded; of
which the reflective reader is to make what he can....
"As to the Office, it was more important than perhaps the reader
imagines. In a Diet of the Empire (1170) we find Conrad among the
magnates of the country, denouncing Henry the Lion's high
procedures and malpractices. Every Burggraf of Nürnberg is in
virtue of his office 'Prince of the Empire'; if a man happened to
have talent of his own and solid resources of his own (which are
always on the growing hand with this family), here is a basis from
which he may go far enough. Burggraf of Nürnberg: that means again
Graf (judge, defender, manager, g'reeve) of the Kaiser's Burg or
Castle,--in a word, Kaiser's Representative and _Alter Ego_,--in
the old Imperial Free-Town of Nürnberg; with much adjacent very
complex territory, also, to administer for the Kaiser. A
flourishing extensive city, this old Nürnberg, with valuable
adjacent territory, civic and imperial, intricately intermixed;
full of commercial industries, opulences, not without democratic
tendencies. Nay, it is almost, in some senses, the _London and
Middlesex_ of the Germany that then was, if we will consider it!
"This is a place to give a man chances, and try what stuff is in
him. The office involves a talent for governing, as well as for
judging: talent for fighting also, in cases of extremity, and, what
is still better, a talent for avoiding to fight. None but a man of
competent superior parts can do that function; I suppose no
imbecile could have existed many months in it, in the old earnest
times. Conrad and his succeeding Hohenzollerns proved very capable
to do it, as would seem; and grew and spread in it, waxing bigger
and bigger, from their first planting there by Kaiser Barbarossa, a
successful judge of men."
Nuremberg continued to receive marks of Imperial favour. The importance
to which she had now grown is illustrated by the fact that Frederick
II., son of Barbarossa, held a very brilliant _Reichstag_ here in 1219,
and on this occasion gave to the town her first great Charter.
The first provision of this Charter, by which the town is declared free
of allegiance to anyone but the Emperor, is of special interest, seeing
that it raises the question whether Nuremberg was really the private
property of the Imperial family, or only owed allegiance to the Emperor
as such. Probably Frederick did not intend to alienate Nuremberg from
himself and his heirs as private individuals; but, regarding the empire
as a permanent possession of his family, he intended by this clause to
bind the burghers of Nuremberg more closely to his own personal service
by freeing them from all feudal obligations to others.
A few years later Frederick, in order to carry out his plans with regard
to Italian lands, appointed his ten-year-old son as King of Rome and as
his successor to the German Empire. Then leaving the young King in
Germany under the guardianship of Bishop Engelbert of Cologne, he went
to Italy, and was crowned Emperor by the Pope.
Young Henry held his court in Nuremberg in 1225. In the castle, in
November, a double festival was celebrated--the marriage of the young
King with Margaret, daughter of Duke Leopold of Austria, and of the
brother of the bride, Duke Henry of Austria, with Agnes, a daughter of
the Landgraf Hermann von Thüringen. At this double wedding, as some
chroniclers aver, or at the wedding of Rudolph von Hapsburg (1284), as
is more probable, a terrible catastrophe occurred. For just as the
numerous assembly of nobles and ladies had begun to dance in the hall,
the platform erected for spectators fell in, and about seventy nobles,
knights, and girls were crushed to death.
It was certainly in the middle of this festival that the horrible news
arrived that the Archbishop of Cologne, the young King's adviser, had
been murdered, from motives of revenge, by his nephew, Duke of Isenburg.
"Such deeds were then very frequent," says the Abbot Conrad von
Lichtenau, "because the doers thereof hoped to obtain pardon by a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land."
Three days after his marriage the young King had to sit in judgment on
the culprit at the Kaiserburg. Deeply moved, he asked the noble Gerlach
von Büdingen for his opinion. Ought the murderer to be outlawed, there
and then? Gerlach answered yes, for the crime was patent. Friedrich von
Truhendingen opposed him violently, however, maintaining that the
accused man ought to be first produced, as justice and custom demanded.
Gerlach became enraged. The argument grew hot, and presently, in spite
of the King's presence, the supporters of either opinion seized their
arms and came to blows. A fearful crush occurred on the stairs, which
gave way under the weight of struggling humanity, and some fifty people
were killed upon the spot. But the sentence of outlawry got itself
pronounced, and a decree of excommunication followed from the Church.
This was but one example of the lawlessness of the times. Violence was
not often so swiftly punished. Germany had fallen on evil days, and
worse were in store for her. The absenteeism of her Emperors was
producing its inevitable result.
One after another, the Emperors "had squandered their talents and
wasted the best strength of their country in pursuit of a fancy,
and never learned by the experience of their predecessors to desist
from the dangerous pursuit. Instead of turning their attention to
the development of their country, to the curtailment of the powers
of the nobility, to the establishment of their thrones on enduring
foundations, they were bewitched with the dream of a Roman-imperial
world-monarchy, which was impossible to be realised when every
nation was asserting more and more its characteristic peculiarities
and arriving at consciousness of national and independent life. The
Emperors were always divided between distinct callings, as Kings of
Germany and Emperors of Rome. The Italians hated them; the popes
undermined their powers, and involved them in countless
difficulties at home and in Italy, so that they could not establish
their authority as emperors, and neglected to make good, or were
impeded in attempting to make good, their position as kings in
Germany. The bat in the fable was rejected by the birds because he
was a beast, and by the beasts because he had wings as a bird."[5]
So it came to pass that when the line of Hohenstaufen went miserably out
on the death of the ill-fated Conradin (1268), Germany was already
involved in times of huge anarchy; "was rocking down," as Carlyle puts
it, "towards one saw not what--an anarchic Republic of Princes, perhaps,
and of free barons fast verging towards robbery? Sovereignty of
multiplex princes, with a peerage of intermediate robber barons? Things
are verging that way. Such princes, big and little, each wrenching off
for himself what lay loosest and handiest to him, found it a stirring
game, and not so much amiss."
Towns like Nuremberg, on the other hand, found it very much amiss.
Fortunately many of them were rich and strong, and took the task of
preserving peace and order to some extent into their own hands.
During the period of the Interregnum, as it was called (1254-1273), "die
herrenlose, die schreckliche Zeit" of disturbance and lawlessness, when
the electors--the bishops and princes of the land--could only agree in
giving the crown to foreigners who would leave them alone and unhindered
in their efforts to enlarge their powers and territories by fair or foul
means, some curious transactions took place with regard to Nuremberg.
There exists a document by which, in 1266, Conradin pledged to his
uncle, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, a number of possessions to raise money in
order to pay back the loan which his former guardian had advanced to
him, and which was used to acquire the town and castle of Nuremberg. The
transaction is obscure. Possibly after the death of Conradin's father,
Conrad IV., Nuremberg was claimed by his executors as private property.
In that case we may hazard the conjecture that the town resisted the
claim, and that an appeal to arms was made. The money referred to may
have been spent in conducting a siege.
This much is known for certain from a contemporary document, that when,
in 1269, Duke Ludwig and his brother Henry, as heirs of Conradin,
divided the Hohenstaufen inheritance between them, they took equal
rights over Nuremberg. That may have been, however, merely a paper
phrase. Imperial and private rights were apt to get confused in the
minds of the Hohenstaufen. Nuremberg, at any rate, continues always to
act as if she were a free town of the Empire. She was acutely conscious
of the dignity of her charter. The great object for which the European
towns, and Nuremberg among them, were all this time struggling was a
charter of incorporation and a qualified privilege of internal
self-government. Emperors and princes might try to get hold of a rich
city like Nuremberg, and treat it as their private property, but, once
she had won her charter, she was determined to remain a Reichstadt, and
to enjoy all the privileges and liberties of a free city.
One interesting and important result this period of lawlessness had. The
towns began to band themselves together in leagues--Der Rheinische
Städtebund, 1254, was the first of these--for the purpose of defence
against the plunder and rapine of the robber-knights, who had formerly
been held in check to some degree by the sword and authority of the
Emperors, but who now swooped down from their fortresses as they pleased
on the merchants travelling from town to town, and robbed them or levied
on them heavy tolls. Nuremberg joined this league: and it is in a
document (1256) welcoming the entrance of Regensburg (Ratisbon) into
the league that we first find mention of the Rat or Council of burghers
joined to the chief magistrate as an institution representative of the
community. Since the Charter of 1219, almost the whole administration of
justice--government, police and finance--had been centred no longer in
the Burggraf, but in the chief magistrate (Schuldheiss) of the town.
But, by the same charter, Nuremberg was now to be taxed as a community.
From the natural necessity and apprehensions of the situation, the
burghers felt the need of a representative body to sit with and to
advise the magistrate, who was, originally at any rate, a King's man and
officer of the Burggraf. So it came to pass that the bench of judges who
assisted the Schuldheiss in his judicial work, a bench composed of the
most powerful and influential citizens, gradually acquired the further
function of an advising and governing body, and finally became
independent of the magistrate. Little by little, by one charter after
another, by gradual and persistent effort, the Rat gained the position
of landlords and _Territoriiherren_. But, as the Council gained power,
the great families began to arrogate to themselves the sole right of
sitting on it. A close aristocracy of wealth grew up more and more
jealous of their fancied rights. Such was the origin of the constitution
of Nuremberg--a constitution which in later times offers a striking
resemblance to that of Venice.
At last the Interregnum came to an end. It was mainly through Burggraf
Frederick III. of Nuremberg that Rudolph von Hapsburg succeeded to the
Empire. For this and other service the Burggraviate was made hereditary
in his family. Under Rudolph the strong and just, who, after the
demoralising period of anarchy, worked wonders in the way of tightening,
whether with gloved hand or mailed fist, the bonds of imperial unity, a
brilliant gathering of princes assembled at Nuremberg for the Reichstag
in 1274. The chronicles are full of stories to illustrate the character
of their modern Solomon on this occasion. The following example will
suffice:--
A merchant complained that he had given his host a purse of 200
silver marks to keep, but the host denied having received them. The
Emperor thereupon summoned the landlord and several citizens. They
all came, naturally enough, in their best clothes. The landlord, in
particular, wore a costly cap, which, as he stood before the
Emperor, he twisted nervously in his hand. Rudolph took it from him
and, putting it on, exclaimed that it would become even an Emperor.
Then he went into the next room--apparently forgetting all about
the cap. The landlord meanwhile was detained. The Emperor sent the
cap to the landlord's wife, with a request in her husband's name
that she should give the bearer that sack of money she knew about.
The ruse succeeded, and whilst the landlord was emphatically
asserting his innocence to the Emperor, the sack of money was
produced to confound him. The wretch had to atone for his crime by
the payment of a heavy fine.
One other record of Kaiser Rudolph's presence at Nuremberg we have. It
is illustrative of the violence of those times. In 1289 a grand
tournament was held in honour of the King. In the course of it Krafft
von Hohenlohe had the misfortune to run his spear through the neck of
Duke Ludwig von Baiern, and the latter died of the wound. In consequence
of this mischance such strife arose between the followers of the Duke
and those of the Kaiser that the Council had to take measures for the
defence of the town. They barred the streets with chains and garrisoned
the Rathaus as well as the towers and walls. Luckily the quarrel was
smoothed over and no further disturbance took place.
[Illustration: NASSAUER HAUS]
A few years later Graf Adolph von Nassau succeeded Rudolph. Once in
1293 and twice in 1294 he held his court in Nuremberg and ratified all
the privileges of the town. To him and to his race legend ascribes a
great share in the building of the Lorenzkirche. "But," says Dr Reicke,
"there is as little ground for this assertion as for the unfounded
belief that the Schlüsselfelderische Stiftungshaus, so called because it
belonged to the institution founded by Hans Karl Schlüsselfelder who
died in 1709, and now known as the Nassauerhaus, was once in the
possession of the Counts of Nassau." This house which stands at the
corner of the Carolinenstrasse was built, according to Essenheim, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century. According to the earliest existing
records it belonged, with the house to the west of it, to a branch of
the Haller family, long since extinct. The figure on the well at the
east end of this house, which represents King Adolph of Nassau, belongs
to the year 1824. To-day the crypt of the house has been turned into a
Weinhaus, and there, in a vaulted cellar wreathed with yew, the
diligent oenophilist will be rewarded by the discovery of some rare
vintages.
The new King Albert held his court at Nuremberg in 1298. His arrival
brought many days of splendour and festivity to the town. For the King
had his wife Elizabeth crowned by the Archbishop Wigbold of Cologne in
St. Sebalduskirche. Six thousand guests assembled on this occasion.
There was no accommodation in the houses for so vast a gathering of
strangers, many of whom, in spite of the wintry weather, had to camp out
under canvas in the streets.
It was about this time that one of the fearful periodical persecutions
of the Jews--persecutions as unchristian as uneconomical--broke out over
all Franconia. It was said that in Rothenburg the Jews had pounded the
Host in a mortar and that blood had flowed from it. On the strength of
this fabulous sacrilege a fanatic, called Rindfleisch, led a "crusade"
against the unfortunate people. In Würtzburg the Jews were burnt and
massacred in crowds and utterly extirpated. Many from the surrounding
country sought refuge in Nuremberg, where they were hospitably received
by their fellow-believers and were at first protected by the Rat.
Rindfleisch and his bands of murderous fanatics were then at a safe
distance. But, as these drew near, the hatred of the Jews, which had
long smouldered among the people, broke out into flame. The Jewish
quarter was then in the centre of the town, a very advantageous
position. Their houses reached from the market where their synagogue
stood, on the site of the present Frauenkirche, to the Zotenberg, the
present Dötschmannsplatz. Rich as a community, though they counted, then
as ever, both the greatest and the least among their number, they were
envied for their possessions and hated as people of a foreign faith.
Nuremberg, like all the neighbouring towns except Regensburg, became
the scene of murder and brutality. A hundred thousand Jews were the
victims of a fearful death. The persecution continued till King Albert,
in spite of the unpopularity of the proceeding, came to Franconia and
put a stop to it, punishing the instigators and laying a heavy fine upon
the towns.
In 1308 Albert was murdered by his nephew, John of Swabia--Parracida.
The story of this murder is introduced, it will be remembered, at the
end of Schiller's _Wilhelm Tell_. After seven months' interval, Henry
VII., Count of Luxembourg, was elected king. He, in the following year,
held his court in Nuremberg, before departing to be crowned Emperor at
Rome, in the midst of battle and strife with the Guelphs. Dating from
Pisa, 1313, Henry granted Nuremberg a very important charter. Here are
some of its provisions:--
(1) The Imperial magistrate at Nuremberg shall protect the imperial
or principal roads and have the right of way.
(2) Once a year the Magistrate shall pledge himself before the
Council to exercise impartial justice towards rich and poor, to
judge and to arrange all matters with the counsel of the Schöpfen
(Bench of judges).
(3) The Burgomeister and judges are given complete control over the
markets, trade, and means of preserving order.
(4) The Burg is not to be separated from the town.
Generally, one may say, this Charter confirms and extends the
self-governing privileges of the town. The magistrate is still an
imperial officer, but his position is in acknowledged dependence on the
Council, into whose hands the regulation of trade and the preservation
of order are entrusted. Moreover, in another provision, the citizens are
clearly protected against trial by outside authorities, and against
arbitrary imprisonment.
Scarcely had he marked his appreciation of Nuremberg in this way, when
Henry was poisoned whilst besieging Siena. On his death, discord broke
out in Germany. We will avoid, as far as possible, stepping on to the
quaking bog of Reich's history. Suffice it to say that one party elected
Frederick, the beautiful son of Albert, and grandson of Rudolph von
Hapsburg. The other and stronger party chose Ludwig von Baiern, of the
Wittelsbach family. Nuremberg stood by Ludwig. A long war ensued, till
the great battle of Mühldorf ended the struggle. Ludwig's victory was in
great part attributable to the timely arrival of the Nuremberg cavalry,
under Burggraf Frederick IV.
"To us this is the interesting point: At one turn of the battle,
tenth hour of it now ending, and the tug of war still desperate,
there arose a cry of joy over all the Austrian ranks: 'Help coming!
Help!'--and Friedrich noticed a body of horse in Austrian
cognisance (such the cunning of a certain man), coming in upon his
rear. Austrians and Friedrich never doubted but it was brother
Leopold just getting on the ground; and rushed forward doubly
fierce; and were doubly astonished when it plunged in upon them,
sharp-edged, as Burggraf Friedrich of Nürnberg,--and quite ruined
Austrian Friedrich! Austrian Friedrich fought personally like a
lion at bay; but it availed nothing. Rindsmaul (not lovely of lip,
_Cowmouth_ so-called) disarmed him: 'I will not surrender except to
a Prince!'--so Burggraf Friedrich was got to take surrender of him;
and the fight, and whole controversy with it was completely
won."--_Carlyle._
It was after this battle that the Kaiser, when eggs were found to be the
only available provision in a country eaten to the bone, distributed
them with the legendary phrase that still lives on the lips of every
German child--
"Jedem Mann ein Ey
Dem frommen Schweppermann zwey."
"To every man one egg and to the excellent Schweppermann two."
Schweppermann was one of his generals, and it seems probable that he
was a Nuremberg citizen.
The story of how Ludwig shared his kingdom with his noble prisoner and
united with him in such cordial affection that they ate at the same
table and slept in the same bed, forms one of the best known and most
romantic episodes in German history.
Nuremberg, who had helped Ludwig with money and men, reaped her full
reward. Ludwig showed great affection for her, staying continually
within her walls (1320-1347), residing usually not in the castle, but
with some distinguished citizen. Hence, and because the city stood by
him throughout his quarrel with the Pope, he gave her many charters,
confirming and increasing the rights and privileges of the burghers. He
gave her permission, for instance, to hold a fair fourteen days after
Easter for a month, and to issue her own decrees regarding it. From this
arose the practice of the Easter Fair which still takes place. He
granted her, also, freedom of customs in Munich, thus helping her trade.
She already enjoyed a mutual Zollfreiheit with Berne and Heilbronn. All
this amounts to evidence of the steadily increasing trade of Nuremberg.
Already, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, her trade with
Italy was considerable, in spite of the robber-knights and imperial
requisitions. No paper privileges were, indeed, of much value, however
often renewed, unless supported by power to resist the robber-knights
who, from their castles, descended on the rich caravans of the peaceful
merchants. That trade flourished now as it did, shows that the knights
did not have matters all their own way. If the Emperors did little to
preserve order in the empire, the towns were now fortunately strong
enough and independent enough to protect themselves. When the knights
proved too troublesome, the
[Illustration: THE PEGNITZ]
citizens attacked their fortresses and burned them, and hanged the
robbers from their own towers. There is, for instance, a document extant
(1325) in which Ludwig grants immunity to the citizens of Nuremberg for
having destroyed the castle "Zu dem Turm," which belonged to one Conrad
Schenk von Reicheneck, a robber-knight, and promises the castle shall
never be rebuilt. Nor did the towns despise the advantages of
combination. In 1340 we find Nuremberg entering into a league, for
mutual protection and the maintenance of peace, with the Dukes of
Bavaria, with Würzburg, Rothenburg, etc., and a number of spiritual and
temporal lords.
But if Nuremberg waxed in power and independence under the favour of
Ludwig, the Burggraf also had claims on the King. To him therefore was
given the office of Chief-Magistrate (Schuldheiss) and certain revenues
from the town. This was not at all to the taste of the burghers. They
grew restive under the Burggraf's abuse of justice, and finally managed
to buy back the office from him through the agency of their rich citizen
Conrad Gross, with whom the King often stayed. Conrad Gross was an early
specimen of that fine type of merchant princes who contributed so much
in later days to the glory of Nuremberg. Barter--trade in kind--was now
giving place to trade done with money drawn from the German mines. The
merchant prince began to raise his head. Whereas the trader had hitherto
been despised as a shopkeeper by the free-knights, the merchant, who
could indulge in luxury of dress and household furniture, now began to
look down on the knights as impecunious robbers. The time was at hand
when the Italian Æneas Sylvius could write:--
"When one comes from Lower Franconia and perceives this glorious
city, its splendour seems truly magnificent. When one enters it,
one's original impression is confirmed by the beauty of the streets
and the fitness of the houses. The churches of St. Sebald and St.
Laurence are worthy of worship as well as admiration. The Imperial
castle proudly dominates the town, and the burghers' dwellings seem
to have been built for princes. In truth, the kings of Scotland
would gladly be housed so luxuriously as the ordinary citizen of
Nuremberg."
It was Conrad Gross who, "longing to change his worldly goods for
heavenly ones," founded, in 1333, the "_New Hospital of the Holy
Ghost_." Within the church is the tomb of the founder. Additions were
made to the hospital and church at the end of the fifteenth century.
What is called the south building was erected on two arches over the
water. In the courtyard of the hospital is a little chapel of the Holy
Sepulchre, founded by George Ketzel in 1459. The church itself was
restored in the seventeenth century, from which period dates the stucco
work of the chancel. These things the visitor will see and appraise for
himself. Meantime the following beautiful legend concerning the founder
is worth recording:--
A man of the family of Heinzen, afterwards called "Great" (Gross),
fell asleep one day in his garden beneath the shade of a lime tree.
He dreamed that he found a large treasure there, but had no spade
with which to dig for it. To mark the place, therefore, he took a
handful of leaves and laid them on the spot where the treasure was
buried. When he awoke and walked round the garden, he came to a
spot where it seemed that someone had purposely scattered lime
leaves on the ground. Then he remembered his dream, and, since he
thought the dream had not come to him without some reason, he
called his men to help him, and vowed that if he found anything he
would help the poor and sick with it. And indeed he found so great
a treasure of silver and gold that he became very rich, and founded
therewith the Hospital of the Holy Ghost.
Ludwig had been a good friend to Nuremberg, and therefore when Karl
IV.,[6] the enemy of Ludwig and friend of the Pope, succeeded him, the
new Kaiser was regarded with some apprehension. Karl, however, was very
gracious to Nuremberg, and gave her new privileges, for he was eager to
secure the loyalty of her citizens. He confirmed the rich burghers in
their offices, and succeeded in winning over the patricians to his side.
But it was at this time that a desire for a more democratic form of
government began to manifest itself throughout the towns of Germany. The
lower classes showed signs of restiveness, and evinced a desire to have
a voice in the counsels of their town. The patrician families had
engrossed all the rights. The proceedings of the Council were secret,
and no account of the money which passed through their hands was
forthcoming. The administration of justice rested entirely with them.
Complaints were loud that the rights of the poor and the artisans did
not receive proper attention. The pride of the hereditary patrician
Councillors had become notorious. The sturdy independent craftsmen began
to murmur against this state of affairs. They felt they were entitled to
a place in the government of the town, which they supported by their
industry and, in war, with their arms. They were ready at last to take
steps to secure that place. When their demands were refused by the
patricians, bloodshed and strife resulted. In Rothenburg, Regensburg,
and Munich the patricians were successful in retaining the Council in
their own hands. And so it was with Nuremberg. But of the details of the
great revolution which broke out there at the beginning of Karl's reign
little is known. The artisans, it seems, were staunch and faithful to
the memory of Ludwig. He had, says one of the chroniclers, won their
adherence by his popular manners and by giving them the right of having
their own drinking clubs. The change of policy on the side of the
Council who embraced the cause of the Luxembourg (Caroline) party
enabled the artisans, who were loyal to the Bavarian (Wittelsbach)
family, to make a bid for a share in the government of their town. The
Council, with promises of redress of grievances, tried to stem the
revolt. But it was too late. In alarm they called in the aid of Karl,
and Karl sent a peace-maker who came and went in vain. Some of the
Council then fled the town. The chroniclers go so far as to say that a
surprise of the Council--a regular coup d'état--was planned for a
particular day, but that the Council was warned in time. Though the
Rathaus was stormed and the gates of the town occupied, "the birds had
flown." They had escaped from the town by all sorts of curious devices.
This story may have sprung from the unchastened imagination of the
chroniclers, but we know as an historical fact that on June 4, 1348, the
rebels opened the gates to soldiers of Ludwig, Markgraf of Brandenburg,
eldest son of the late Emperor. He was excommunicated (for Karl was the
Papal nominee) as his father had been. The city when it received him
shared in his excommunication. The clergy tried to escape from the
tainted city, but the people, having shut the gates, compelled them to
read mass. A copy of a certificate from the Bishop of Clure to the
clergy, testifying that they had only held mass under compulsion, is
still extant.
The rebels, then, were for the moment successful: the old Council was
abolished and a new one chosen, which was composed mainly of artisans,
but did not exclude all the old Councillors. Their chief work of
innovation was to allow the artisans to form Guilds. On the whole the
new Council was not a success. Prosperity is a cynical but convincing
test of a government. Confusion and disorder obtained, and commerce was
affected by the lack of police and the little real power of the Council.
The finances of the town suffered accordingly. The partisans of the old
_régime_ refused to contribute.
It was therefore a good thing for Nuremberg when, in 1349, the
opposition of the Wittelsbach party broke down, and terms were made
which left Karl master of the situation. Nuremberg passed into his
hands, and he proceeded to restore the _status quo ante_ there. A new
Council[7] was elected, and the ringleaders of the conspiracy were
banished with their families.