AYF 2021/22

American students are back in town for the Academic Year in Freiburg 2021/22.

The AYF exchange program dates back to 1960, with a celebration scheduled in 2020, but it had to be cut short in the same year. Due to the spreading pandemic, all AYF students were ordered to return home. The program set up for them was canceled, including the events planned by the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft (FMG). The  FMG is in contact with Madison, WI, Freiburg's sister city in the United States.

 No student arrived for the AYF 2020/21, so we were all glad when Ulrich Struve, the AYF program director, announced that 26 new students from Madison and Michigan would come to Freiburg this fall.

©US

Red Baron was proud to open the FMG student program. On September 8, I led a guided tour of Freiburg's historical places. This year, I had a record audience of 19 students participating.

As usual, I concentrated on the Reformation's time, although Freiburg, a Habsburg outpost on the Rhine, always stayed Catholic. Nevertheless, the effects of the religious division on Freiburg were dramatic.

Haus zum Walfisch

Witnessing the iconoclasm at the Basel Minster, the great Erasmus of Rotterdam left the city in May 1529 and settled in Catholic Freiburg at the House of the Whale. My followers who read German may look for the full story here.

  

Basler Hof

I told the story of the Basler Hof on Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, in which the chapter of the Basel Minster Church found refuge in April 1529, fleeing the radical reformists in their town.

Finally, our group ended up at Minster Square, admiring "the most beautiful steeple in the world," according to art historian Jacob Burkhardt.

Learning phase: The left tracery window shows the progression
from early Gothic (RHS) to High Gothic style.

The transition from Romanesque to Gothic style came as a surprise to the builders of the Freiburg Minster. Their attempts to build Gothic window tracery were pitiful. But when they called in colleagues from Strasbourg, their successive arches looked more refined.

 
Although all students were vaccinated and their masks were in place, it was a surprise when we were asked to leave the church. We were too many. Only ten people per group are allowed to visit the interior of the Minster.

So here are three pictures of what I had intended to show and explain inside the Minster Church.

The builders had to raise the initial Romanesque columns
to accommodate the higher Gothic vault ribs.

Inside the Minster, at the transition from transept to nave, the change in style required some construction acrobatics to fit the higher Gothic arch onto the supports for the Romanesque arch.

©miJoergens/Wikipedia

The photo above shows Geigesgate. Freiburg's city council mandated the famous Fritz Geiges to complement broken stained-glass windows at the Minster Church. Compare the two pretzels, which are original and recreated. Read the full story here.

During my guided tours, I always show the ruins of Freiburg following the British air raid on November 27, 1944, as my last photo.

People still call it a miracle that the Minster Church stood while all the buildings around were in ruins. One reason is that the builders have solidly constructed walls and arches. They didn't know how to calculate the structural stability at that time, so they over-dimensioned all building elements. Present calculations indicate that the safety factors incorporated into the construction are at least seven times greater than those required by modern architecture. This is one reason why the Freiburg Minster Church, although it is under permanent restoration and repair, will likely survive for another couple of centuries.

         

Honoring Madison's coat of arms ©US

We wish all AYF 2021/22 students all the best for their Academic Year in Freiburg.

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