Augsburg with Friends

We're off for a weekend in Augsburg with our dear friends - Ilsemarie and Ulli, Johanna and Klaus.  We do these weekends now and again, though it seems that since most of us have retired or semi-retired, it is harder to find dates when we can all get away together. That makes no sense, but so it is. 

We always go by train.  Six in a car is hard/impossible to do in these days of smaller cars, and besides, time on the train is never wasted - we  can all talk, snack, rest, interact, do puzzles, stitch (that's me, of course). It's all quality time.

Augsburg claims to be the second oldest city in Germany, after Trier. Some dispute which city is the oldest, depending on what sort of documents you cite from, oh, 15 AD. (To be more up-to-date and politically correct, it is 15 CE, the Current Era, as opposed to BCE, Before the Current Era.  But we'll put those niceties aside.) So, Augsburg was founded by the (step)sons of Caesar Augustus, Tiberius and Drusus, just a few months after Trier was founded -- 2000 years ago, or about that.  Ancient by any standard.

Besides that, they have their own special holiday in Augsburg, celebrated by no other city in Germany, called the Peace Accord, celebrating a peace between the Catholics and the Protestants.  It coincides with our wedding anniversary, 8 August.  Coincidence? 

Sadly, there are no extant ancient ruins in Augsburg as there are in Trier. Nevertheless the city revels in its history. We arrived Friday late afternoon, took a short walk around our hotel and headed to dinner at a restaurant Ilsemarie had checked out via internet.  Great choice!  Good food and personal service.

We were collectively impressed by the bill.  Six adults, beer, schnapps, wine, salads, main courses, and still the bill was not even on the high end.  And the food was GOOD.  We immediately made reservations for the following evening and they greeted us like old friends.

Ulli had arranged a city tour for us six on Saturday.  Thank you, Ulli!  What a great idea.  Our guide was always fun, sometimes funny, and incredibly well informed.  I learned more than I wanted to know!

WE met at the Ratshaus, Town Hall. There's always a clock it seems and of course bells to go with it.

First, we talked about the older fountains in Augsburg, all erected in the 1600s when there was lots of money and city pride.  Here's Augustus, (step)father of the city founders, presiding over the fountain in front of the Rathaus.  I'll dispense with the references to other antique statues of Augustus and just say, it's a goodie.

Then into the Ratshaus and the Golden Room.  It's suitably named since so much of the wooden carving is covered with gold leaf.  POUNDS of gold leaf in this huge room.  Of course, the place was decimated during the bombing of WWII so almost all of what you see today is reconstruction, but reconstruction based on original designs.

Then to the Maximilian-Museum that houses the original bronze sculptures of many monuments in the city (and many other works of art) and where we later heard a concert on stone instruments. Yes, instruments of stone.  More on that later.

Then it was the Fuggerei.  Yes, that's a really funny looking word for English speakers.  But Jakob Fugger, The Rich, later made a Prince, is known to all school children here in Germany.  He's often called the Father of Capitalism.  He was in his time the richest person in the world they say and some suggest he was the richest person ever in the world ever.  In his lifetime, he controlled 10% of the wealth in Europe.  Imagine that Bill Gates had 10% of the wealth of only the USofA.  So, Mr. Fugger was r i c h.  Here's his Doppelgänger, roaming the streets.

He felt he should give something back to the community so he established a foundation to support the poor of Augsburg.  Nice. Generous.  Good.  Folks who qualify today can live there for 88 cents a year plus heating and electricity.  A good deal, very it is.  The apartments are small, about 650 square feet, but OK. You are required to sweep your front sidewalk once a day.  Also OK. You get a bit of garden to plant veggies.  Very OK.

That said, Prince Mr. Rich had lots of preconditions. Then as now, you have to be a resident of Augsburg, be Catholic, have no self-incurred debts (as in lured into a sub-prime loan or have charged too much on your credit card), had to be married (widows were evicted when the husband died! Thankfully, that rule has been changed), cannot be a member of a "questionable" trade. Now that's weird.  So, if you are a butcher, you can't get in even if you meet all the other requirements - because those guys tend to put too much fat in the meat and cheat the customers.  Same with the millers who are wont to put ground plaster in the flour.  Or weavers who don't put enough threads per inch in the cloth.  Man, that's hard!

And don't forget, most important, every resident has to offer a special prayer three times a day to request blessings on Prince Mr. Prince and his work, and also, all the donors to the project.

But the concept was original and the Fuggerei is still the oldest operating social housing arrangement in the world. It too was seriously damaged by bombing during the war, but the foundation paid for all the reconstruction.

Here's a view of how the kitchen and the bedroom looked 200 years ago (or maybe even before the war, who knows).  Adults and maybe a kid or two slept in the bed, which looks big enough for me alone, and the extra kids, and there were always extras, slept under the bed.  But better than on the street by far.

Then we split up.  Four of us went to the St. Anna Church.  So many churches here.  I do love visiting them.

And then quickly to the concert at the Maximilian-Museum with the stone instruments - a gong, a stone "harp" and a stone marimba.  OK.  Not totally my thing, but Werner was all thumbs up!  Minimal modern music is one of his favorites.  The artists were students at the local music college and gave a wonderful performance.

After another stop at the Fuggerei to visit the museum that's housed in the air-raid shelter that was built to protect the residents during the war.  And then to dinner at the restaurant where they treated us like long-loved customers.  And the food was equally good as the night before, the service was even better, and we stayed even longer talking and solving all the problems of the world.  We can do that well.

Ah.  Weekend done.  Back to the train station after another fantastic breakfast and take a restful trip home. Ilsemarie had to read a fascinating brief about an upcoming case.  Ulli, well, he's like Werner.  Give him a chance to take a nap and he will.

The question remains, Where to next???