*myth and reality
The last Zähringer Bertold V died in 1218, 800 years ago, a welcome reason to commemorate the House of Zähringen. The exhibition opened last Friday in Freiburg's Karl Meckel Halle and will tour other so-called Zähringerstädte (see below) in the coming months.
Laudatio: On stage, from right to left, the makers of the exhibition: Dr. Heinz Krieg, Dr. Hans-Peter Widmann, Dr. Johanna Regnath. They offer a special Zähringer LEGO edition to Thomas Walz (left), group leader events/PR of Freiburg's Municipal Saving Bank being the main sponsor of the exhibition. In the back, two reproductions of stained glass windows by Fritz Geiges showing the two founding fathers of Freiburg on the left, Bertold III, and on the right, Konrad. |
Already before, in 1114, he was defeated when he went to war against Cologne, at that time the biggest (40,000 inhabitants) and wealthiest city on German territory. He was captured but kept in "easy" custody as a prisoner of war, waiting for the ransom to be paid. While strolling around the vibrant city, it is said that he had the idea of transforming the village back home at the foot of the castle his father had built into a marketplace.
Model of the Zähringer castle on Freiburg's Schlossberg on display at the exhibition. Today, only overgrown scree is left. |
Already ninety-eight years later, the dynasty of the Dukes of Zähringen died out. Bertold V, who had started Freiburg's Munster church around the year 1200, was buried in the same building in 1218. Bertold V was the last Zähringer, for he only had two surviving daughters, Agnes and Anna, whose husbands not only quarreled over the heritage between each other but with King Friederich II too. Eventually, Egino of Urach, Agnes' husband, inherited the Breisgau and its city and subsequently called himself Count of Freiburg.
Back to the Dukes of Zäringen; they not only founded the city of Freiburg im Breisgau (1120) but another Freiburg im Üechtland (1157), i.e., in Burgundy, nowadays a canton in Switzerland. In addition, the dukes laid the cornerstones for the following cities or developed older agglomerations into towns as there are: Villingen (1119), Rheinfelden (1130), Murten (1170), Burgdorf (1175), Neuenburg (1175), Thun (1180), Bern (1191), and Bräunlingen (1203).
For those who like to read German, here is the link to an illustrated history of the House of Zähringen.
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