Rothenburg ob der Tauber

While Courtney and her family were here visiting, we took a road trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany.  Rothenburg, the "Red fortress above the Tauber" is a walled, medieval city that is very well preserved. The city was established before 950 A.D. and grew to be quite wealthy.  Rothenburg was sacked during the Thirty Years War (1631) leaving it poor and nearly empty.  This was followed by the Black Plague which hit the town in 1634, killing many more.  The once wealthy, prosperous city was left without money or power and stopped growing.  The combination of disasters kept Rothenburg from growing throughout the next couple of centuries, preserving the medieval quality of its buildings.  The town wall still circles the entire city and is one of the highlights of the city.

Beginning in the 1800's, Rothenburg gained a reputation as a historic, medieval site and started prospering from the tourism.  During the 1930's, Rothenburg was hailed as "the most German of German towns".  It was the epitome of what a traditional German 'Home Town' was, representing all that was quintessentially German.

In March 1945 in World War II, German soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg to defend it. On March 31, bombs were dropped over Rothenburg by 16 planes, killing 39 people and destroying 306 houses, six public buildings, nine watchtowers, and over 2,000 feet of the wall. The U.S Assistant Secretary of War, John McCloy knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, so he ordered the US Army to not use artillery in taking Rothenburg. The local German military commander ignored the order of Adolf Hitler for all towns to fight to the end and gave up the town, thereby saving it from total destruction by artillery. American troops occupied the town on April 17, 1945, and in November 1948, McCloy was named Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg. After the war, the residents of the city quickly repaired the bombing damage. 

This is one of our favorite old towns to visit--well worth the time to go and see it.

An old hotel that we stayed in during our visit

Market Square

Old houses in a residential area

Medieval building still being used today

Side street in Rothenburg

One of the main streets

Gate outside of a courtyard

Another side street

Herrngasse Street--once the favorite residential street of the town nobility

Court outside of a house on Herrngasse Street

The castle gate

Rothenburg

Small village below Rothenburg

One of the fountains in town

The architecture is beautiful

St. Jacob's Church-the primary church for Rothenburg

Buddies out for a walk in Rothenburg

The Castle Gardens (The castle was destroyed by an earthquake in 1384 and never rebuilt).

Castle Gardens

A view of the city from the walls

Tauber River valley

Exploring the city

Three Amigos checking out Rothenburg

One of the gates in the city wall

Taking a break at on of the water reservoirs

St. George's Fountain at the Market Square

Beautiful old buildings

Kathe Wohlfahrt's Christmas Village is amazing.  There are more Christmas items than you could imagine.  She has two huge stores right across the street from each other. 
If it is for a German Christmas, you can find it here.  There are more than 50,000 items
including ornaments, nutcrackers, Christmas pyramids, and clocks.

The local farmers held an antique tractor exhibition while we were in town.