Grenzen erleben

The theme of the Freiburg Saturday University for the spring semester of 2026 is "Nachbar Frankreich."

At the opening of the Studium Generale for the 2026 summer semester, its director, Prof. Werner Frick, pointed out that the 250th anniversary of the United States would have been the natural choice for the Saturday lectures. For obvious reasons, that idea was set aside. Instead, the committee opted for the topic "Neighbor France."

Dr. Claire Demesmay opened the lecture series with "Experiencing Borders - Between Openness and Delimitation."

Claire delivered her talk with verve and charm, what else?

In the European Union, border regions hold particular significance, as they cover 40% of the territory and are home to 30% of the population. They account for roughly one-third of the EU's gross domestic product. The strategic role of border regions is becoming increasingly apparent. It is there that the strengths and weaknesses of European integration come to light.

Since the Peace of Westphalia, sovereign nations in Europe have developed, drawing borders to strengthen national cohesion. These legally defined lines served to stabilize the balance of power.

The result of this nation-state system was bloody wars in Europe, almost always intended to shift borders.

After World War II, far-sighted European statesmen such as Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi, and Konrad Adenauer concluded that enough is enough. They underlined what a high-ranking Brandenburg official had noted after the devastating Thirty Years' War, "We found the entire country [i.e., Europe] in such a pitiful state that one must feel greater compassion for the innocent people everywhere than can be adequately expressed in writing." Or, to put it more bluntly, using an analogy from farming, "Die Karre ist tief in den Koth geschoben (The cart has been pushed deep into the shit)."

Already in 1667, Prussia's Great Elector Frederick William drew his conclusion in his political testament: Der Friede ernährt, der Krieg aber verzehrt (Peace nourishes, but war consumes).

The Treaties of Rome, signed on March 25, 1957, by France, West Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries, established the European Economic Community. They marked the shift from cooperation to integration.

As a result, national borders came to be seen as places of encounter and cross-border cooperation, and border regions became key players in European integration.

The Schengen Agreement of 1985, initially signed by Germany, France, and the Benelux states, marked the beginning of the dismantling of border controls and the creation of a common European space. With the abolition of internal borders, the external borders became, in the wake of migrant flows, the line of defense for the European space.

But, right-wing parties are questioning the system of external borders and, caught in the tension between security and mobility, are calling for the reintroduction of internal border controls, thereby following a logic of separation that contradicts the desire for cooperation and togetherness.

In fact, there are still obstacles to mobility, particularly between France and Germany, which are largely due to differences in wages and purchasing power on the other side of the non-existent "border". On the French side, pressure on the real estate market from German neighbors is becoming noticeable.

Recruiting qualified workers is also becoming difficult because proficiency in the other country's language is declining.

In a policy of small steps, Strasbourg MEP Brigitte Klinkert has presented concrete recommendations to strengthen cross-border cooperation.

- This includes mutual recognition of environmental stickers. 

- Educational partnerships are to be intensified. 

- Cross-border companies are to receive special status within the framework of European inter-programs. 

- The population on both sides of the border is to be involved in shaping their "shared living space" through local events.

Then Claire presented her study, in which she closely accompanied 12 families from the Saar-Mosel region between October 2024 and May 2025 and interviewed them about their situation in the border region.

The results presented were interesting, but not conclusive, for they can hardly be applied to the situation along the Rhine between Baden and Alsace. While Germans in the Saar region cross the border to France almost daily, the French limit their border crossings to twice a week. 

One interviewee said, "So the point is, there are no borders." You go left and right- sometimes you're in Germany, sometimes in France; Dad is French, Mom is German. What I mean is, this is completely normal; for us, I think it's perfectly natural. When you cross the street, you immediately come to this side, and on the other side is simply France.

As a "bone of contention" between France and Germany, the Saar region has a history similar to that of Alsace, though with the opposite outcome and a shorter duration.

In 1919, following World War I, the Saar region was separated from Germany under the Treaty of Versailles and placed under League of Nations administration for 15 years, while France gained control of the coal mines.

Following the "occupation period," the people of the Saarland voted in a 1935 plebiscite to rejoin Germany, with an overwhelming 90% majority.

After World War II, a similar procedure took place. The Saar region, occupied by France, became the Saar Protectorate in 1947. The Saar was politically separated from Germany and economically tied to France. The people of the Saarland had their own citizenship and even their own Olympic team. 

Konrad Adenauer, the fox, saw the Saar as a stumbling block in Franco-German relations and pushed for a referendum on the Saar Statute. The key points were:

- The Saar would not return to Germany immediately
- It would become a "European territory" under the authority of the Western European Union
- It would be politically autonomous but economically linked to France

The people of the Saar went to the polls on October 23, 1955. 

Commentators viewed the acceptance of the Saar Statute as a cementing of the status quo under French influence. A "no," on the other hand, was widely understood as a desire to join West Germany. 

The referendum result was clear: 67% voted "no."

 

After brief negotiations, the Saar became a new state of the Federal Republic of Germany on January 1, 1957. 

One of the biggest differences between the Saar and Baden is not the width of the Rhine River separating France and Germany, compared with the small Saar being the border river between France and Germany at only a few points. Traditionally, in the Saarland, French is the first foreign language taught in many high schools, followed by English. In contrast, in Southern Baden, the standard German model applies: English is almost always the mandatory first foreign language starting in the 5th grade. French usually comes as the second foreign language starting in 6th grade or later.
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Mitläufer

... are people who, during the Third Reich, were merely ordinary Parteigenossen (PG) of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and thus were not involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime.

Law on Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism of March 5, 1946,
commonly known as the Liberation Act (©Alexander Buschorn/Wikipedia)

After Nazi Germany’s defeat, the victorious Allied powers wanted to denazify the about 8.5 million members of the NSDAP. They established so-called Spruchkammern (denazification tribunals). These ad hoc courts classified all Germans into five categories based on their involvement in Nazi crimes. Here is what Wikipedia knows:

V. Persons Exonerated (German: Entlastete). No sanctions.

IV. Followers (German: Mitläufer). Possible restrictions on travel, employment, and political rights, plus fines.

III. Lesser Offenders (German: Minderbelastete). Placed on probation for two to three years with a list of restrictions. No internment.

II. Offenders: Activists, Militants, and Profiteers, or Incriminated Persons (German: Belastete). Subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment up to ten years, performing reparation or reconstruction work, plus a list of other restrictions.

I. Major Offenders (German: Hauptschuldige). Subject to immediate arrest, death, imprisonment with or without hard labor, plus a list of lesser sanctions.

To reduce the workload of the Spruchkammern, the Allied Control Council decided that members of the NSDAP born after 1919 were exempted because they had been brainwashed. Disabled veterans were also exempted.

Within Category I were the war criminals, whose leaders were convicted during the Nuremberg Trials and executed by hanging.

My loyal readers know that I was born in Essen and spent my early school years in the city on the Ruhr River. At the time, my parents and I lived in the Recklinghausen district, at Goldammerweg 4. There I had a friend named Ursula.

At Goldammerweg 6 lived a family with a son, Wolfgang, who was two years younger than me. My parents were such good friends with neighbors Eugen and Friedel B. that in the summer of 1940, we spent a vacation together at Kühlungsborn on the Baltic Sea.

From the right: Eugen, Friedel, Wolfgang, my mother, and father, Manfred.

Eugen was an architect, athletic, and a member of a fencing club. Friedel, also athletic, was the Westphalian breaststroke champion at the time.

From left to right: Manfred, Wolfgang, and Eugen on a walk on the Kühlungsborn promenade

I often saw my father, an engineer, sitting with Eugen in our living room. As far as I could understand as a five-year-old, they talked a lot about technology, especially cars. I also picked up on the fact that Eugen was a staunch Nazi.

 
He must have convinced my father to join the NSDAP during our Baltic Sea vacation.

Recently, the National Archives partially opened its Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675–1958, and so I was able to make a copy of my father‘s approved membership application.

Application for admission: October 22, 1940; admitted on January 1, 1941

Since I know that our Papi was a thoroughly apolitical person, PG number 8302911 was a Mitläufer.

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Deus Vult?

Since May 2025, War Secretary Pete Hegseth has hosted unprecedented monthly evangelical worship services at the Pentagon. The war minister’s understanding of Christianity is one that would dominate American life and cast those who disagree with him as God’s enemies.

The worship services have included Doug Wilson, the founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, of which Pete is a member. Wilson has stated that homosexuality should be a crime and that women shouldn't have the right to vote.

Following complaints, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has stated that the services show that Christian personnel are favored over their Jewish, Muslim, or other non-Christian peers in the Department of Defense. These favors would only be given if non-Christians attended the services, which is discriminatory.

Soon after the start of the U.S. war against Iran, there were reports that military leaders told their service members that the war was "part of God's divine plan" and that President Donald Trump was anointed by Jesus. One commander ought to have quoted the Book of Revelation, saying that the war will bring the second coming of Jesus Christ.

A new crusade against Islam that Deus vult?

Multiple members of Congress sent a letter to the military Inspector General stated, “If accurate, these outrageous statements—justifying a war based on interpretations of biblical prophecies, and informing troops that they are risking their lives to advance a specific religious vision—raises not only glaring Constitutional concerns, but potential violations of Department of Defense regulations regarding religious neutrality and breaches of professional obligations and standards expected of military leadership.”

Leading the Operation Epic Fury against Muslim-majority Iran, Pete is in his element as a crusader. So on the Wednesday preceding Palm Sunday, Hegseth prayed for U.S. troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy … We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”

The War Secretary has repeatedly praised the Crusades and supports the idea of “his” war being a holy war. People who enjoy the "benefits" of Western culture should "thank the crusaders.”

Two of Hegseth's tattoos reference the Crusades
©Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia

Multiple former high-ranking military officials, heads of the chaplain corps, some veterans' groups, current Pentagon staff, and current officers criticize the Pentagon’s shift from historical norms as dangerous. Some of these critics made their statements anonymously, fearing retribution from the Trump administration.

However, retired Army Col. Larry Wilkerson spoke out, “The American military has had a remarkable ride of equanimity and fairness and justice and all manner of good adjectives with regard to religion. It’s done this in a way that’s really remarkable — until now. Hegseth’s actions are totally violative of everything that transpired before it.”

And an anonymous (sic!) said, “If troops are trained to believe that ‘God is on our side,’ what precludes us from doing anything we want to win?

This reminds Red Baron painfully of the buckle the soldiers of the Nazi-Wehrmacht wore, “God is with us”, committing war crimes.

"Gott mit uns" (Nobiscum deus) is a quote from Matthew 1:23 and has served as the motto of King William I of Prussia from 1861 onward. It adorned the buckles of German soldiers until 1945.

However, all concerns about religious freedom and about the separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution pale in comparison to Pope Leo XIII’s reply.

Steven Colbert presented the clip on Monday this week.

According to the prophecy of Zechariah (Zech 9:9): “Your king comes to you … humble and riding on a donkey.” By not entering Jerusalem on a horse, Jesus makes it clear that he is not the expected warlike Messiah to liberate the Jewish people from Roman occupation. He is the king of peace.

Still, many in the crowd hoped for a Davidic king who would overthrow Rome, and cried, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna*!”
*Meaning Save us!

Instead, we read further (Zech 9:10), “And I will cut off the [war] chariot from Ephraim, and the horse (sic!) from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.”

Later, at his arrest, Jesus tells his disciples, “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt 26:52)
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The Langemarck Myth

Starting in 1946, Red Baron attended a high school in Hamburg that had been founded in 1944 as the Langemarck School.

That is why I was particularly interested in a traveling exhibition of a joint remembrance-and-peace project by the Belgian municipality of Langemark, the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, and the University of Kent. The exhibition has been and will be shown in cities with streets named Langemarck.

Veterans wrote about their romanticized memories.

Early in the First World War, on November 10, 1914, German troops attacked the Allied front near Langemark* in Belgium. More than 2,000 young, inexperienced recruits lost their lives. From this military defeat emerged the "Langemarck Myth" as a symbol of the supposed willingness of German youth to make sacrifices.
*In German, an ungrammatical "c" was added to the original name

Commemorative ceremonies, publications, monuments, and street names emerged in the postwar period.

Following the French Campaign, the Daily Order for Langemarck Day 1940, signed
by the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army (OKH), Walther von Brauchitsch.

Young men willing to sacrifice themselves for their country were exactly what the Nazis needed for their Wehrmacht.

Der Führer visiting the Langemarck site in 1940

The regime permanently anchored the "Langemarck Myth" in the public sphere. 

Macabre: During World War II, young Flemish men were invited
to enlist in the Langemarck Assault Brigade of the Waffen-SS.

Across Germany, more than 30 streets are named after the small Belgian village of Langemarck.

An exhibition at the Freiburg city archives took the material from the traveling exhibition and expanded it to include information about the unique situation in Freiburg.

Admiral-Spee-Straße and Langemarckstraße in Freiburg's Heldenviertel

Initially, the Höllentalbahn, climbing the heights of the Black Forest, ran through the heart of the Wiehre district* at street level. As traffic increased, the required railroad crossings became increasingly problematic.

*Red Baron lives here

On the right, the four-lane Baslerstraße passes under the north-south
Rhine Valley Railway and, further up, the newly built Höllental line.
Note the undeveloped area between Basler Straße, the railroad bypass,
and Merzhauser Straße running through the photo diagonally.

Consequently, the Reichsbahn decided to reroute the Höllental line, featuring cuttings and bridges along the edge of the Wiehre district. Construction started in 1930, and trains began operating in 1934.

The zoning plan for the area west of Merzhauser Straße includes streets named after "heroes" and battle sites from World War I. Consequently, the Freiburges called this part of town Heldenviertel. 

 In 1996, a citizens' group drew attention to this fact.

      

In 1934, the streets in this neighborhood were named after battles, places, and soldiers from World War I. The names of the fallen, who were exploited for the ideological purposes of the Nazi regime, serve as a reminder of the importance of peace and international understanding.

Meet the heroes

Calls to rename the streets grew louder, but this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the name is erased; on the other, residents are forced to change their addresses, which involves effort and expenses.

One additional argument for retaining the "warlike" street names in the Heldenviertel is that people and places are part of our (inglorious) German history that must not be forgotten.

In 2012, Freiburg's city council engaged a commission of experts to assess the names of Freiburg's streets in terms of persecution of minorities, dictatorship, antisemitism, militarism, nationalism, chauvinism, and colonialism. They cautiously proposed to rename a dozen streets. Among those was the Gallwitzstraße in the Heldenviertel.

Max von Gallwitz (1852–1937) was a general in the First World War. He strongly supported the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth) and was a revisionist of the Treaty of Versailles, viewing it as a Schanddiktat (dictate of shame).

Did they overdo it? Who will read those two loaded explanatory signs?

After World War II, contested street signs were often supplemented with explanatory notes, as was the case in Bad Wildungen.

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The Forgotten Coat

This was a lecture in the series "Freiburg en détail: Eine Kulturgeschichte in Objekten" of the Studium Generale at Freiburg University in the Winter Semester 2025/2026. Dr. Julia Wohlrab, Director of the Dokumentationszentrum Nationalsozialismus, had chosen as the object "The Forgotten Coat."

The bronze coat left behind lies on the railing leading up to the Wiwili Bridge, which spans the tracks at Freiburg main station. A bronze plaque with the following text explaining the monument is affixed to the wall below.

On October 22, 1940, more than 450 Jewish citizens from Freiburg and the surrounding area were deported from the freight depot of the former train station to the Gurs camp in southern France on the orders of the Nazi regional leadership. Many of them perished in Gurs from starvation and disease; most were murdered in the Auschwitz extermination camp.

City of Freiburg, October 2003

The express freight handling facility on a siding at the Freiburg Central Station

An eyewitness recalls the events in her youth, "From our school, the Hindenburg School [now the Goethe Gymnasium], we saw people being loaded onto trucks. Somehow, everyone knew they were Jews. And one of my classmates said, 'This is the best day of my life - the Jews are finally leaving.' Another classmate also saw people being loaded onto trucks at the Martinstor. Of course, it was the same in other streets as well. People saw this and were indifferent. The Jews were considered less than animals - vermin, parasites, as they were always called. Many were delighted. People were mostly even more malicious than the laws."

Only a few photos - none in Freiburg - captured the moment when Jews were arrested prior to their deportation to Gurs.

Children watch as Jews are loaded onto military trucks in Kippenheim.

There is a charcoal drawing of Freiburg by Fritz Löw, which he created in Gurs.
On the police truck are prisoners, including a boy

Gauleiters Wagner and Bürckel had planned this deportation so ...

Hitler receives visitors at his headquarters in Hornisgrinde in the Black Forest during the French Campaign.
In the photo, from left to right: Josef Bürckel, (?), Martin Bormann (?), Robert Wagner, Adolf Hitler,
and Hitler's valet Heinz Linge.

... that they could proudly report to their Führer on October 23, 1940: Der Oberrhein ist als erster Gau des Reiches judenrein (The Upper Rhine is the first Gau in the Reich to be free of Jews).

Public auctions in Freiburg ...

... and Lörrach

No sooner had the Jews been deported than their former property was sold off.

Among those deported were the Leifmann siblings from Goethestraße 33: Robert, Else, and Martha. While Robert died in Gurs, his sisters survived and lived in Zurich until their deaths.

As early as June 7, 1954, Else Liefmann urged the promotion of a culture of remembrance in Freiburg in a letter sent from Zurich to Mayor Wolfgang Hoffmann, "The fact that Freiburg has not - or not yet - decided to erect such a memorial is, for Jews or Christians living abroad - to the latter group of whom I also belong - a sad testament to how indifferent, how forgetful so many Germans are toward that memory which they would prefer to erase, as if nothing had happened. Yes, we who come from abroad ask ourselves whether such an attitude does not express a fear of those many who still - or once again today - adhere to the spirit of the Thousand-Year Reich in Germany, and against whom the authorities themselves are perhaps divided in their sentiments and apparently too weak?"

Aleksandra Assmann writes about forgetting in her book Forms of Forgetting: "Not remembering, but forgetting, is the foundation of human and social life. Remembering is the negation of forgetting and generally entails an effort, a rebellion, a veto against time and the course of events. Just as cells are replaced in the body of an organism, so too are objects, ideas, and individuals periodically replaced in society. Forgetting happens silently, unspectacularly, and everywhere. Remembering, by contrast, is the probable exception, based on certain conditions." 

Here stood the synagogue of Freiburg's Israelite community, built in 1870 
and destroyed on November 10, 1938, under a regime of violence and injustice.

It was not until 1961 that the city of Freiburg erected a memorial stone at the site where the old synagogue had stood until Kristallnacht.

With all the troubled water, the text on the memorial plaque is difficult to read.

The memorial stone is set into a water surface on the Square of the Old Synagogue. The outline of the surface represents the floor plan of the synagogue building that was burned down on November 10, 1938.

On the 60th anniversary of the deportation, October 2, 2000, the citizens of Freiburg donated
 this commemorative plaque, which provides extensive information about the Wagner-Bürckel Action.

On October 22, 1940, within a few hours, 6,504 Jewish men, women, and children from Baden and the Palatinate were taken to central assembly camps and deported by transport trains to the Gurs camp in southern France. The oldest of the deportees was 97 years old. Among them were also about 300 Jewish citizens from Freiburg.

Only a few of those imprisoned in the camp were saved. Starting in August 1942, most of them—provided they had not already died of starvation and disease in Gurs itself—were deported to the extermination camps in the East, primarily to Auschwitz and Majdanek. Over 5,200 of those deported to Gurs died as victims of violence.

Too many looked the other way back then; too few resisted. This must not and will not be repeated.

Freiburg's new synagogue on Engelstraße

The commemorative plaque at the new synagogue cites Job 16:18 "O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place." and reads: Under the Nazi dictatorship, on October 22, 1940, the Jewish citizens of the city of Freiburg were deported to Gurs in southern France. The city remembers with shame and sorrow, Freiburg, October 22, 1990.

The city of Bad Nauheim incorporated the symbol of the forgotten coat into its memorial bearing the names of the city's Holocaust victims.

 
In the ensuing discussion, someone asked how one could explain that a deportee who was wearing his coat in the autumn month of October could have so easily forgotten it?

The name "Forgotten Coat" for the memorial has caught on among the people of Freiburg. That is why Red Baron suggested trying "The Left-Behind Coat."

The coat was left behind by a deportee, intentionally or unintentionally, as a memento.

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Kenzingen

Last Saturday, Red Baron took part in an excursion organized by the Alemannisches Institut to Kenzingen, Kirnhalden, and Muckental.

   

Rudolf II von Üsenberg

Kenzingen was built like a Zähringen city at a crossroads, but it was founded in 1249 by Rudolf II von Üsenberg. The Lords of Üsenberg were an important noble family in Breisgau and Markgräflerland. Today, a 1824 fountain with a statue of the town's founder marks the intersection.

The medieval town of 1249 developed around the long market street and the parish Church, dedicated to St. Laurentius (Lawrence), first mentioned in 1275.

In the crypt: 13th-century frescoes

A sensational find

I had to ask ChatGPT: The icon depicts Jesus Christ together with Saint Menas (ΑΠΑ ΜΗΝΑ), an Egyptian martyr saint. Iēsous Christos (IC XC) holds the Gospel book in his left hand and places his arm around the saint's shoulder in a gesture of friendship. This motif symbolizes Christ's spiritual friendship and protection for the saint.

This Coptic icon dates from the 6th–7th century, was found in the Egyptian monastery of Bawit, and is now in the Louvre in Paris. It is one of the oldest surviving icons and was discovered only at the beginning of the 20th century, so it is not among the works Napoleon looted during his Egyptian campaign.

Kenzingen was first mentioned in a document in 712.
Rudolf II von Üsenberg founded the town of Kenzingen in 1249.

Kenzigen's history is carved into the four sides of two stacked sandstone cubes in the churchyard.

In 1352, Heinrich IV, margrave of Hachberg, bought the lordship of Üsenberg, which included Kenzingen and the Kirnburg castle. However, the Üsenberg territories were technically held as fiefs from the House of Austria. So, the Habsburgs claimed that the sale violated their feudal rights.

In 1358, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, obtained an imperial judgment recognizing Austrian rights over the territories that Heinrich IV refused to comply with. He continued to rule Kenzingen as his possession. So an imperial ban (Reichsacht) was declared in 1366 against Heinrich IV and the town of Kenzingen. 

In 1369, the ban was lifted, and Kenzingen came under the rule of the House of Habsburg, being part of Further Austria.

Through an alliance with several Upper Rhine cities, Kenzingen obtained the status of an imperial city in 1415, though in practice, the Habsburg influence remained strong.

On the left is the Kenzingen town hall, built around 1520 in the Renaissance style; on the right, a stately home of a wealthy citizen.

In 1522, Kenzingen's city council appointed the Lutheran preacher Jakob Otter, who held services in German, administered communion in both forms, and enjoyed great popularity.

The Lutherans were a thorn in the side of the Catholic town of Freiburg, which sent troops to Kenzingen in 1524. To avoid punishment, Otter went to Strasbourg, accompanied by around 200 citizens. But it was to no avail. The Old Believers held a strict court. The mayor was arrested, the citizens who had left were refused re-entry to the town, and the town clerk was beheaded.

In 1814, 88 houses burned down.

In the Peace of Pressburg, Napoleon reorganized the German territories on the upper Rhine. Kenzingen became part of the Grand Duchy of Baden in December 1805.

In 1971 and 1974, Bombach, Nordweil, and Hecklingen were incorporated into the town of Kenzingen.

Inside St. Laurentius church, I searched for a picture of the patron saint of barbecuers. Nope, but here are some photos of my favorite saint.

One of the buildings surrounding the Kirchplatz is known as the Epstein House.

In 1574, Jews were expelled from Further Austria for nearly 300 years. They returned to Kenzingen only after the Grand Duchy of Baden granted Jews full civil rights in 1862, allowing them to settle freely. Their number in town oscillated between 20 and 30 persons.

The Epstein family in Kenzingen was well known. It included Alfred Epstein, a merchant with a shop at Kirchplatz; Leo Epstein, an accountant/bookkeeper; and Michael Epstein, a cattle trader and respected member of the town's civic committee. The three Epsteins were well integrated into local society, exercising typical Jewish occupations. The cattle trade, in particular, connected Jewish merchants with farmers throughout the region.

Under the Nazis, some members of the Epstein family were able to emigrate to South America. Others were deported to Gurs as part of the Wagner-Bürckel Aktion. Alfred joined the French Resistance, was captured, and executed as a partisan.

Our group moved on and passed the townhouse of the Benedictine monastery of Andlau in Alsace, which was built in the 13th century. Large monasteries owned houses in towns that served as lodgings for their abbot and his envoys.

The inscription above the door reads, "Porta patens esto nulli claudaris amico (Let the door stand open; be closed to no friend). This saying reminds us of the important social tasks performed by religious orders in the Middle Ages. Anyone in need who knocked on a monastery door was given warm soup. The sick were cared for in hospitals. The monks ran Latin schools, thus maintaining a certain level of education.

Kenzingen had a whole series of monasteries. As our group approached the former Franciscan monastery, Saint Lawrence suddenly stood on a high pillar in front of the church, holding his grill. The Franciscans, who had been documented in Kenzingen since the late Middle Ages, rebuilt their monastery after the Thirty Years' War between 1659 and 1662. 

Inside the monastery church, a painting of Saint Francis with a well-fed baby Jesus.

The church, also built in the 17th century and featuring a 16th-century crucifix, has served as a place of worship for the Protestant parish since 1891.

©Stadt Kenzingen

The Johanniter monastery existed from the beginning of the 15th century until secularisation in 1806, when the municipal prison was built on the site.

Kirnhalden in 1872

After lunch, the group went by car to Kirnhalden, where the Pauline monastery "Zum Heiligen Kreuz" (Holy Cross) has been documented since 1360. It was secularized in 1806. 

Spa in 1910

After that, "Kirnhalden moved from the Paulines to a sanatorium to a sustainable residential and cultural project." 

When the facility ceased to be used as a nursing and retirement home in 2017, the buildings stood empty. A group of young people took over the site and, in 2022, founded the Kirnhalden residential and cultural project as a cooperative. The plan is to renovate the buildings for experiencing, living, learning, and working. 

Experiencing Kirnhalden means running a café, learning comprises a seminar facility with rooms and overnight accommodations for 40 guests, and working includes various workshops and studios. The gradually renovated rooms in the buildings designated as historic monuments are available as living spaces and will be expanded to meet residents' needs.

The current facility from a bird's eye view.

Mostly young people are working hard to get their projects off the ground.

Our last stop was the water-powered forge in Muckental.

The agricultural and horticultural tools forged and on display were in big demand, especially at the beginning of the 20th century.

The master explained the art of blacksmithing to us laymen.

Thank you, organizers, for an informative and inspiring excursion.

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