1936 On the Continent

to make a day excursion from there to Rothenburg.
    I was never more eager to see any town than Nüremberg. With Berlin it is probably the best-known German town.Politics have played a great part there in the last few years, for whilst in other parts of Germany National Socialism had a hard struggle, in Nüremberg Hitler already had a considerable following. This was to a large extent due to the activities of Julius Streicher, the Frankfürter, who as representative of the most extreme anti-Semitism worked furiously for Hitler. The first great Party Day of the ruling National Socialists took place in Nüremberg, and Hitler has been loyal to it since he came to power. The public and private political demonstrations of the Third Reich take place every year in Nuremberg. It is important for tourists to know this, as in the old town there are a lot of buildings erected especially for the Party Day.
    The political importance of Nüremberg, however, is overshadowed by its cultural significance. German culture of the Middle Ages had its nursery here; Albrecht Dürer, the greatest German painter of the Middle Ages, was born here and worked in the town for many years. It was the home also of the great silversmiths and sculptors, Veit Stoss, Peter Vischer and Adam Kraft. Music-lovers the world over know the Nüremberg atmosphere from Richard Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” through which the shoemaker and poet, Hans Sachs, who is so popular a figure in Germany, is famous in foreign countries also. From the sixteenth century the medieval glory of Nüremberg faded, but even then Nüremberg was called the little treasury of the German nation, which it still is to this day.
Hotels in Nüremberg: The Old Town
    By a lucky chance I came to Nüremberg in the evening, after one of the most beautiful of my journeys. I had decided to stay at the Württemberger Hof, one of the big hotels near the station (room price to marks with bath), and I was already curious to see the town at night. On the way there I saw the Grand Hotel, which I heard is still more luxurious but a little dearer. Good hotels are important, but where Nüremberg is concerned I find it almost frivolous to talk about them and similar modern institutions. I know the most beautiful towns in England and am rightly proud of their wonderful buildings, preserved through the centuries. But Nüremberg is differentfrom the ancient English towns and also from all other large towns in Germany for the reason that here in the heart of it, vivacious as it is, busy and strongly industrial, stands the medieval Old Town, completely undisturbed and unchanged. It is still surrounded, as it was 500 years ago, by the mighty town walls, and a quiet stroll in Old Nüremberg, with no definite objective, is an unforgettable experience. In the dark, the gables of the old patrician houses show up even more beautiful in the moonlight than in the light of day: the quiet, the loneliness of the night hours help in the true enjoyment of Nüremberg. One of the most bewitching old houses is the famous “Bratwurst-Glöckle,” where Hans Sachs and his companions were habitués, and where to-day the Bratwurst, the speciality of Nüremberg, is prepared in the same manner, in the same rooms and at the same tables as it was five hundreds years ago.
Nüremberg: River and Townsfolk
    Yet the morning following these evening walks brings yet more beauties. One may stand in the Nüremberg market-place, where in a setting which no poet could more beautifully devise, even the everyday crowds of the flower and vegetable market are so glorified one would not willingly miss seeing them. You can go down any side street, and it will repay you. One comes at last to the bank of the little river which flows through the Old Town, the Pegnitz, stands on one of the bridges and sees before one in all its noble beauty the lovely old town of the Middle Ages. All along the bank of the river are to be seen friendly-looking inns, in ancient surroundings, where you can get the freshly cooked Pegnitz fish.
    Quite near the river lies the house of Hans Sachs, where he may have made very good shoes but not the best poems. He was most industrious and wrote more than a thousand poems, for which, however, he had plenty of time, as after a peaceful and happy life he died at the age of eighty-three. In Hans Sachs’ house, which is now an inn—carp is one of its specialities—can be seen the setting in which lived this