Koblenz/ Confluence

Koblenz to Baltimore. earth on foot 11

On our last day in Germany, I took the IC train an hour from Mainz to Koblenz. I’d been told the night before, at a beer hall notable for its 5-foot-tall beer steins, that it was a lovely city with lots of history and great apple strudel.

On the train I sat at a table with a colorful print of a Shoots and Ladders game on top, having realized too late that I’d chosen the family cabin. I sat with two toddlers surrounded by snacks and their sleeping mother.

I arrived in Koblenz with a plan. From the the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), I walked in the direction of Deutsches Eck, an extreme point at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers where an enormous monument to William II stands tall. The name Koblenz, in fact, comes from Latin ‘Confluentes’, meaning what you’d guess. There’s something magical to me about the idea, so alluring about a place where things come together and mix, become something new. As in Slovenia, where food is Italian,German, or Austrian, but all still uniquely Slovenian, here, too, there exists new geographical, historical, and linguistic confluences.

I stopped at a wurst haus, and had a proper German vegan sausage (wait, what ??). It, along with the fries, was good!

So continues the ever-evolving world to include plant-based diets. (Didn’t find the apple strudel though!)

Julius Caesar built an arched bridge along the Moselle, one that you can still see. In 9 BC, the place—Castellum apud Confluentes—became a military outpost. The hilltop Ehrenbreitstein Fortress was built in 55 BC and still stands guard high above the rivers today. I took the cable car to the park up there and was reminded of my recent visit to Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin. Though much smaller, the area around the fort is similarly repurposed with parks and athletic areas. I discovered an enclave of surprising sculptures dedicated to stopping everyday violence, created in 2005.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city was conquered by the Franks, then, after the division of Charlemagne’s Empire, it went to his son, Louis the Pious, and then to Charles the Bald. I add the details because I love these names! Carolingian heirs discussed what became the Treaty of Verdun here, and the city then became part of Lotheringia under Lothair. I gather these treaties gave rise to our current Western Europe.

The confluence was also where, during the ecclesiastical senates, slavery was condemned, in 882. A long time ago!

It was sacked and destroyed by the Norsemen in 925, became part of the Eastern German Kingdom, later the Holy Roman Empire, in 1018; Henry II gave the city to the Archbishop-Elector of Trier, whose successors kept it going until the end of the 18th century. I’ll stop there…

While I wandered amongst the clouds around Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, I spent a lot of time with the evocative modern sculptures, as always charmed by a casual discovery of art. Everywhere I travel on foot, I love turning a corner and being surprised. And it happens all the time! For example, last night: I went to dinner with David and a merry band of physicists and, as we left the Korean barbecue restaurant pluming smoke everywhere (I still smell burnt!), there, amidst a chaos of asphalt, billboards, and old buildings, hid a spray-painted profile portrait of a man that was really good! I snapped a picture. I’m sure the scientists wondered why. 

I adore remaining a traveler, even in my own town. And a witness to beauty, wherever it is found in the world.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1107912910

ARTISTS AGAINST VIOLENCE

| [4 stone marks]

Sculptor’s symposium on the forecourt of the Ehrenbreitstein fortress 10. July – 7. August 2005

Concept: The topic of violence plays a major role in the media and in everyday life. Every person is constantly confronted with violence in some form of wars, child abuse, assassinations, violence in schools, etc. The artistic examination of the subject is in demand. The four works are a clear statement by Künstlem against the avoidable everyday violence.

Participating artists in order of the stones:

Hans Otto Lohrengel Bretscheid/NR | Stefan Voigtländer Lelpalg (2011) | Ula Schade Niederkirchen / Clemens M. Struglla Weisel