Freiburg Archaeology

Next year’s anniversary is already casting its shadow. On November 23, the exhibition 900 Years of Life in the City opened in Freiburg’s Augustinermuseum.

Red Baron participated in a special guided tour by one of the curators of the exhibition, Dr. Bertram Jenisch, the man who dug out quite a bit of the exposed objects.

Medieval Freiburg, as seen from the duke's castle on Schlossberg.
The river Dreisam on the left is in the south and
the still existing industrial channel runs near to the city wall.

Here is more than an artist’s view of Freiburg around 1150. With Freiburg being the city that is best archeologically explored in Baden-Württemberg, the picture is based on actual findings. In the middle of the fortified place is the parish church in Romanesque style.

A closer look at the original parish church surrounded by the municipal graveyard in winter. When the construction of the Minster church started around 1200, the old building was removed in stages with the new construction progressing so that worship was always assured.

The building of the city wall was a Herculean task. In August 2018, Dr. Jenisch gave a talk at the Museumsgesellschaft.

Coming back to the long shot, the still existing Salzstraße is seen on the left starting at the Schwabentor, the gate to Swabia, from where salt, one of the most important trading goods of the Middle Ages, was imported passing along Salt Street.

Starting at St. Martin’s gate, the Große Gass running south to north and west of the parish church crosses Salzstraße at the Fischbrunnen - today Bertoldsbrunnen. Broad Street was Freiburg’s market place, so the fish basin at the fountain where live fish were kept for sale came in handy. In the Middle Ages, markets were the most important outlets for food and other goods like clothing and tools.

Double drinking cup made of rock crystal, gold-plated silver,
and enamel produced in Freiburg or Basel 1487

Already early, the water of the fast-flowing Dreisam not only was used to feed Freiburg’s Bächle (brooklets, see below) but channeled for the operation of mills and gem cutting and polishing facilities located between the city wall and the river.

Rosary (15th to 17th century) made in Freiburg.
The beads consist of cut and polished Bohnerzjaspis, i.e.,
silicified beechwood mined, e.g., at Auggen near Freiburg

The picture illustrates some activities extra muros along the industrial channel. In the background, the city wall and the church of the Augustinian Monastery.


This brings us to the mystery and controversy about a re-leveling of Freiburg that is still not solved.

Note the double-window of the third house from the right on the second floor.

Here is a picture of Salzstraße around 1150. Two-story buildings partly timber-framed and with nearly flat shingle roofs border the south side of the street. These houses had basements dug into a layer of gravel.

Embrasure of narrow group windows.
They were beveled towards the outside
to improve the incidence of daylight.

Already Freiburg’s precursor, an initial settlement of merchants and craftsmen below the Schlossberg, was built on a cone of gravel running downhill into the plain. The natural gradient of the deposits made the construction of artificial courses of water that were taken upstream from the Dreisam river easy. The talus of gravel on which the city stands actually has a thickness of up to 18 meters.

Around the year 1170, some street levels in the city were filled with layers of gravel and raised by up to three meters. Some experts assume that this elaborate construction project was aimed to raise the level of the system of Bächle as a whole, creating a sufficient gradient so that the emerging western suburbs could be supplied with surface water too. This assumption is bitterly contested by other experts, although without providing an alternative explanation.

On Salzstraße around 1200, houses show saddle roofs.
Building one and two from the right have merged
while the double-window of the third building is now on the ground floor.
Note the Bächle running in the street.

Houses from the first half of the 12th century aligned to a low street level on Salzstrasse suddenly had their entrance doors on the second floor for the benefit of two superimposed basements.

New buildings after 1175 were aligned to the higher street level. In fact, the number of new buildings at that time exceeds the number expected due to the natural growth of the city, presumably also because the elevation was used to replace wooden with stone buildings showing saddle roofs.

The interior of the Augustiner church is now a part of Freiburg's Augustinermuseum.
The Bächle is still running in the street.

In 1278 Count Egino II allocated a narrow plot of land between the salt road and the city wall to the ordo Sancti Augustini, the Augustinian hermits. For their monastery and church, at least eight houses and courtyards were demolished, the foundations of which were uncovered during the renovation of the Augustinermuseum in 2004. This is the basis of the above picture.

Magnificent fountain column with lion chapter of the von Andlau family 

Because the groundwater level is about 18 meters deep and the water of the Bächle was no drinking water, its supply was channeled from the nearby mountains using pipes made from wood. Drinking water was available at public wells, although rich people had outlets of their own.

Archaeology in Freiburg is not limited to the Middle Ages. The air raid on November 28, 1944, destroying most of the old city left a heap of ruins behind.

The content of a basement was dug up when a new building was constructed at the site of a destroyed house.

Maximilianus, the Art of the Emperor

On the occasion of Maximilian's 500th death anniversary in 2019, Freiburg's Alemannisches Institute had organized a three-day excursion to the exhibition with the above title at Tirol Castle in South Tyrol followed by a visit of Innsbruck where the emperor’s (empty) tomb is located.

Approaching Tirol Castle from below

Traffic lights even for pedestrians ...

... and the reason why.

In olden times access by a bridge over a ditch

Tirol Castle in 1845

His profile showing the way to the exhibition

A tournament with Maximilian winning.

The exhibition at Tirol Castle showed original graphics, paintings, and printings glorifying the last knight as he was called for his love for knight tournaments.

The well-known woodcut by Dürer

Maximilian on horseback

During all his life, Maximilian strived in building up his memory for the posterity, ”Wer ime (= sich) im leben kain gedechtnus macht, der hat nach seinem tod kain gedechtnus, und demselben menschen wird mit dem glockendon vergessen. (Who does not look after his memory in life has no memory after his death, and the same person is forgotten with the bell tone)." These are the final words of his autobiographic work Weißkunig (White King).

The White King dictates to four scribes from his life
and has a war campaign painted.

Here follows Maximilian's logical insight, "Darum wird das Geld, das ich auf Gedächtnis ausgebe, nicht verloren (Therefore the money that I spend on memory is not lost)." This is a bold statement considering that Maximilian was bankrupt during his whole life. Only loans by the Fugger clan kept him aloft who, in turn, got hold of Maximilian's assets.

Maximilian's triumphal procession

Maximilian's great triumph cart

The Burgundy wedding with Maria

Cart with statues of ancestors:
Rudolf I, Stephan of Hungary, Clovis I, and ´Charlemagne

Exotic people and animals

The bootmaker comes in handy at the end of the triumphal procession.

Maximilian's triumphal arch

Maximilian's triumphal arch

A scene from the triumphal arch:
He then moved to the Netherlands to help the English king.
Soon they gathered a large army strangling the French.
Its army laid down, Terrauan was destroyed, and Tornay surrendered.

Getting kids interested in history:
Max was really cool! What a life he had!
He tried to capture it with his awesome corporate publishing
by woodcuts and copper engravings.
Make your selfie with Max, post it to your friends.
His epic profile is a brand that lets you be a self-promoter too.

When Maximilian died at Wels Castle in 1519, there was not even enough money to finance his funeral, as the abundant Tyrolean silver and copper mines were pledged to the Fuggers: Everything that carried money has been transferred. Only borrowed money enabled a modest burial in Wiener Neustadt.

Our group slept at Goldrain Castle.

Innsbruck

The most famous Golden Dachl,
the initial residence of the Habsburgs in Innsbruck

Visiting the Hofburg with the dome of Innsbruck's cathedral in the background

A cross above Innsbruck's cathedral

To the left: Cafe Sacher. In the background, the cupola of the Hofkirche.

Well deserved: Sachertorte and Einspänner. This is a coffee covered with whipped cream.
The cream insulates the surface of the coffee, keeping it hot.
It is practiced by the Fiakers (the drivers of the one horse-drawn cabs in Vienna)
 to keep the coffee hot when it was delivered from the cafés to their cabs.

At Sacher, being observed ©PBöhm.

The Hofkirche

Maximilian had planned to decorate his tomb with 40 statues cast in bronze, but only 28 were finished. The figure captions below are the copied inscriptions at the base of those statues.

Maximilian's ancestors

The Habsburgs started off when, in 1273 Rudolf I was elected German king. In 1291 his son Albrecht (Albert) followed. He was assassinated in 1298, the year when the House of Luxemburg took over providing the German kings. But when Emperor Sigismund, the last male member of the House of Luxembourg, died, he left only one daughter. She was married to a Habsburg, Albert, who became German King Albrecht II from 1438 to 1439. In 1440 the electors chose as successor Albert's cousin Frederick - and Maximilian's father - who ruled until 1493. Contrary to Maximilian Frederick III was called the Reichserzschlafmütze (arch-sleepyhead of the empire)

Kaiser Rudolf Graf v Habsburg

Kunig Albrecht der Erst Herczog zu Osterreich (son of Rudolf)

Albrecht (II) von Osterreich Romischer Hugerischer und Bechaimischer Kuning Laslau Vater

Fridericus Tercius Imperator Divi Imperator Maximiliani Pater (father of Maximilian)

Maximilian's wives

They write that Maximilian had truly loved his first wife, Maria of Burgundy and that he married his second wife, Bianca Sforza, because of her dowry of 400,000 ducats.

Still, Maximilian kept incurring debts also during the imperial diet held in Freiburg in 1498. When Maximilian took leave from the city, he left Bianca behind as a pledge. She had to stay in Freiburg for some time until at least part of Maximilian's debts incurred during the Reichstag had been paid. Twenty years later, financial claims of over 20,000 guilders were still outstanding. Read more about Maximilian and his love for Freiburg in German.

Maria vun Burgund Kunigin

Frau Maria Blanka Ko Kunigin MDXX

The Burgundy Heritage

Ruling Burgundy acquired by marriage was important for the Habsburgs, also given French claims.

Duke Philip the Good had led Burgundy to bloom, but his son Charles the Bold wanted even more. So he went to war against the rest of the world. On 2 March 1476, Charles lost his hat in the Battle of Grausen (Grandson) against the Swiss Confederates and lost his estate in the same year on 22 June at Murten (Morat) against an alliance of Swiss, Lorraine, and Austrian troops.

That's not all, because, in the following year in one last show of strength when the Duke put all his eggs in one basket, he eventually lost his blood in the Battle of Nancy. Charles fate rimes in German: He successively lost his Hut, Gut, and Blut. He blew it all. Is this the reason that his statue is a head smaller than the others? Read about the history of Burgundy in German.

Philipp Herzog v. Burgund d. Gütige

Karl Herzag zu Burgund zu Brabant  zu Geldern Gave zu Flandern

There are two more historical spoliae inside Innsbruck's Hofkirche.

Tomb of Andreas Hofer,
a Tyrolean freedom fighter against Napoleon and his allied Bavarians

Commemorating the conversion of Queen Christina of Sweden to Catholicism.
Although the Hofkirche is run by the Franciscans,
 this surely must have been a Jesuit ploy or even plot.