Thingstatte

Today we traveled up the holy mountain in search of the open air amphitheater. After driving through narrow streets and tiny german neighborhoods, we finally found the parking lot to the Thingstatte.


You can reach this by walking up philosopher's way, but after our first attempt, where we hiked for hours without finding it, we decided to drive. The parking lot had this cool map of what you could find at the top of the hill. The path goes in a circle and there is a beer garden, the Thingstatte, and some monestary ruins.


I put Carosn in the wrap (boy, is he getting heavy) and Ben put Maddox on his shoulders, then we headed up the path. A little up hill walk led us to the front wall. We walked through the opening and found this:


We took some pictures and climbed to the top.






Maddox found a puppy on the way up.


View from the top of the other side (I should have counted the steps.)


Instead of retyping the history of this place I am going to be lazy and quote the Atlas Obsura website:
"As part of his mission to indoctrinate the entire German population during the Nazi regime, Joseph Goebbels started the "Thing" movement in 1933 to build huge outdoor settings where thousands of people could gather in specially constructed outdoor amphitheaters called Thingplatz or Thingstatte. At the Thingstatte, which often incorporated bodies of water, ruins, hills of historical importance, rocks, and trees, people would get together for propaganda presentations.

More than 1,000 Thingstatte were planned by Goebbels, but only about 45 of them were finished as the movement never gained popularity with the people of Germany. The first was built in 1934 and the last in 1936.

The Thingstatte in Heidelberg was started in 1934 and finished the following year. Situated on the Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain), the amphitheater covers 25 meters of sloping land and overlooks the city. The mountain is littered with ancient burial grounds and once hosted a Roman temple at the summit dedicated to the god Mercury.



Designed by the architect H. Alker, who worked for the Reich Labor Service, the Heidelberg Thingstatte features two hexagonal towers constructed to hold flags, lighting, and sound. On the opening day, 20,000 people turned out to hear Goebbels himself. After the Thingstatte fell out of favor, this site was turned into a public park and remains one to this day."




Once we got to the top, we kept walking up the hill to find the St. Micheal's Monestary ruins.






Here is the history cited from the Heidelberg Tourism website:
St. Michael’s Monastery, today surviving only in ruins, sits at the top of the Heiligenberg, and can be reached by the Philosophen Weg. (You can also drive up to near the top of the hill, and walk the rest of the way to the monastery.) The first church was constructed on this location in 870 by Abbot Thiotroch von Lorsch. In 1023, Abbot Reginbald, who later became Bishop of Speyer, built St. Michael’s Monastery, and it is these remains which are still visible today. After the death of Abbott Friedrich in 1070, the monastery became a place of pilgrimage. In 1503, the last three monks living in the monastery were killed in their beds when part of the steeple collapsed. After that, the monastery became abandoned and was forgotten.

Here is the headstone of Abbott Friedrich. Miracles are said to happen at his gravesite and people still place flowers and candles on his grave.

Past the Monestary ruins there is a stone wall that was once thought to be from the middle ages and a part of the monestary. Now it is believed that they are much older than the monestary itself. We didn't see this wall on this trip. Something to save for next time...