Down the Rhine

A Bonn Voyage

Mitsuko Uchida commands the keys:  Sir Simon Rattle conducts: The Berlin Philharmonic follow instructions and the Largo of Beethoven's Piano Concerto N0 1 in C Major, Opus 15 fills my room......

In Germany (Memories of a Nation) Neil MacGregor writes that, No river, not even the Danube, runs so deep in the German imagination, is freighted with more cultural, historical or musical associations, than the Rhine.  It is the Rhine that flows peacefully in the evening sunshine as Heine's Lorelei combs her golden locks and lures sailors to destruction...... 

Well, I cannot speak for the evening sunshine, but, as we slip downstream from Rüdesheim through misty clouds I am certainly filled with cultural, historical and musical associations. Here is Wilhelm Camphausen's 1859 painting of General von Blücher and the first Army of Silesia crossing on the Rhine near to Kaub on January 1st 1814.  [Looks bloody cold,  Ed.]

 

And here, as we again pass the golden-haired Lorelei, is Friedrich Perlberg's 1880 painting (after a steel engraving by Carl Ludwig Frommel which had been printed 50 years before) of the River Rhine with Loreley:

Well, it’s a marvellous night for a moondance,  (Van Morrison)

At the beginning of the 19th century English writers such as Byron and Shelley travelled through the Rhine Valley on their way south, excited by the scenery, the history and the legends they encountered.  For instance:  

The river nobly foams and lows -

The charm of this enchanted ground,

And all it's thousand turns disclose

Some freezer beauty's varying round:

The haughtiest breast its wish might bound

Through life to dwell delighted here;

More could on earth a spot be found

To Nature and to me so dear -

Could thy dear eyes in following mine

Still sweeten more these banks of Rhine!

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage III lv 4

And this aroused the wanderlust in the Inter-railers of the day, and inspired tourism, which was further encouraged by the introduction of steam navigation in 1827 so much so that in 1830 the region received 16,000 English visitors.  In turn this led to a demand for pictorial souvenirs and artists such as George Clarkson [Surely not? Ed.] Stanfield, John Forbes Hardy and James Webb cashed in on this, and they soon became an obligatory feature in the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy....

St Goarshausen - George Clarkson Stanfield (1860)

Then, as we approach Koblenz, Burg Stolzenfels looms out of the grey:

Built by Archbishop Arnold von Isenburg of Trier, this castle was used to collect Rhine tolls until 1412. Then, in 1689, the French destroyed it during the War of the Palatinate Succession. Later it became the property of the city of Koblenz until, in 1823,  the ruins were given to the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia who rebuilt it as the epitome of Rhine Romanticism. [Portmeirion on Rhine, perhaps?  Ed.]

And so we pass the monstrous equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm I at Koblenz's Deutsches Eck (the German Corner, where the Moselle flows into the Rhine) and dock.  This statue was one of many dedicated in 1897 in gratitude for Kaiser Bill's unification of Germany. 

The statue was dismantled and melted down by the French military government immediately after World War II, and only the plinth was preserved as a memorial. However, following controversial discussions after the reunification of Germany, a replica of the statue was erected on the pedestal in 1993.... [O tempora!  O Mores!  Ed.]  

Anyway, just by our mooring, there is a more contemporary take on the state of the union by mother and daughter team Laura and Christel Lechner.....

And not far from here there are three segments of the Berlin Wall placed close to Wilhem's memorial. Lothar de Maizière, acting President of the GDR at that time, was present at the opening ceremony in June 1990. A bronze plate on one of the segments is a reminder of the victims of the German division between June 17th, 1953 and November 9th, 1989.  Perhaps this is related to Erinnerungskultur (memory culture in which the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime are commemorated) - a word I have only just learned but which I had seen evidence of in other cities.....

Koblenz (in German the stress is on the first syllable) was founded by the Romans and the name derives from the latin for confluence. It is a city of some 115,000 people, who mostly live in modern housing as almost all the old houses were destroyed in WWII. There is a vast castle above the East Bank of the Rhine here, which may be reached by cable car....

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Koblenz

But I find myself (having - on this occasion - passed by the Ludwig Museum) in the ultra modern Forum Mittelrhein:

Which houses a brilliant art gallery, concentrating on the art and history of the region:

The display covers sculptures from early Christianity to pictures from the present day.  I am particularly struck by this self portrait by Herm Dienz, subtitled My Way Back.  Painted in 1945, having denounced Hitler's destructive politics of violence (in Der Gefreite vermichtet die Welt - The Private Destroys the World) this picture reflects his personal, desperate, situation directly after the end of the war

Selbstbildnis - Mein Weg zurück - Herm Dienz (1945)

The explanatory notes, in German and English, are very informative, and with the place almost to myself, it is possible to be immersed in a colourful and stimulating world.

Am Rhein (Along the Rhine) - Emil Nolde (1906)

But outside it is Christmas....

And everyone is having fun:

So I join in:

And wake up in Bonn.....

Where the writing is (literally) on the wall:

Just outside Beethoven's house:

Though he's not in - he is feeding the birds in the market place:

Ludwig only lived here for three years, and obviously took his furniture with him when he moved on. There isn't much of a view from the window:

And the garden is a bit gloomy, filled with grumpy statues:

But it is worth a visit - the last time I came here it was closed....

However, it is time to sail on.....

To Cologne (where the Oh! comes from....)

Rheinauhafen: The Crane Houses (2009)

Where the people (Cologne has a population of about one million and has approximately six million visitors every year) are crammed into the Christmas Markets:

And the Cathedral could do with a brush up:

The gothic Catholic Cathedral of St Peter

I have visited before (if interested please see the link at the end to my previous blog piece published in July 2019).....

The Golden Bird sculpture by H A Schult
above the City Museum

And there is a familiarity about the place. So I duck into the Brauhaus FRÜH am Dom for a quick Kölsch..... And I am welcome:

So much so that almost without thinking I find myself dancing with a buxom lady in the Museum Ludwig:

Black Nana - Niki de Saint Phalle (1968/69)

Better that than standing outside George Segal's 1967 Restaurant Window 1....

Or falling asleep in the stairwell.....

It is an enormous gallery, with a labyrinth of corridors and rooms, housing a collection that includes the most significant trends of twentieth-century and contemporary art.  It was founded in 1976 with a donation of 350 works of art from Peter and Irene Ludwig.  The building, conceived by Cologne architects Peter Bussman and Godfrid Haberer, was opened in 1986, but reorganised and reopened in 2001.

There's too much. I feel I am in one of Cy Twombly's enormous canvases.... Time to move on.....

And, so, passing the last German Emperor (Wilhelm II, or, to give him his full name, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert of Prussia) on his high horse at the beginning of the Hohenzollern Bridge....

I weave through the crowds to the east bank of the Rhine and make my way back to my ship, admiring the views as I go:

It has indeed been a Bonn Voyage.  At 760 miles (1230 kms) the Rhine is the second longest river (after the Danube) in Western Europe. I have just been on a short trip up and down the Middle Rhine, and even here it is a formidable flow of water. It is a chilling thought, however, that, according to the International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR) the changes in our climate may cause the river to massively decrease in volume, or even dry up completely within the next 30 to 80 years, which is why I will leave you with this suggestion:

And so, as a torrent of notes from Stephen Kovacevich ushers us out with Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 21 in C Major, Op 53, Waldstein, I wave goodbye to the Rhineland- Palatinate, and thank my friends Sue, Jenny and Valerie for their company, Tour Manager Scott Shillington, Riviera Travel, and the Captain and Crew of the SS Geoffrey Chaucer for looking after me.....

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The river descends rapidly and winds between hills, not high, but steep, and of beautiful forms. We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices, surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible. This part of the Rhine, indeed, presents a singularly variegated landscape. In one spot you view rugged hills, ruined castles overlooking tremendous precipices, with the dark Rhine rushing beneath; and on the sudden turn of a promontory, flourishing vineyards with green sloping banks and a meandering river and populous towns occupy the scene.

Frankenstein, Chapter 18

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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Dedicated to someone I know who likes 4711

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And, should you be interested, this is the link to my earlier piece about Cologne:

https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2019/07/ode-to-cologne.html

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Up the Rhine

To Rüdesheim

It is no night to drown in: 

A full moon, river lapsing 

Black beneath bland mirror-sheen, 

The blue water-mists dropping 

Having arrived in Köln (Cologne) in the dark, after a long day's travel, the quiet of the River Rhine at dawn is very soothing. I wake to shrouded trees and murky mists, to the gentle swishing of the Rhine, as pink clouds stain the horizon, the reflections of bare poplars bent by our bow wave. :

Scrim after scrim like fishnets 

Though fishermen are sleeping, 

The massive castle turrets 

Doubling themselves in a glass 

All stillness.....

Lorelei

Sylvia Plath

Then, as we enter the Middle Rhine Valley, the current tenses as the river narrows between rising hills, and great castles begin to loom out of the clouds. Here is Marksburg, the core of which dates from the year 1200.  This is the only one of all the castles we see that has not been destroyed or reconstructed.   

Marksburg

Marksburg

Further up river we pass the castles of the Hostile Brothers, one of which is Burg Liebenstein, perched above the village of Kamp-Bornhofen.....

Liebenstein Castle

And then, near the diminutive Burg Maus (Mouse), we see the imposing Burg Katz (Cat), which was originally built in the 14th century but which was bombarded by Napoleon's forces in 1806 and then entirely rebuilt at the end of the 19th century.

Burg Katz - St Goarshausen

Burg Katz

Burg Katz - St Goarshausen

On the opposite bank here there is the great medieval ruin of Rheinfels Castle:

The Fortress of Burg Rheinfels

And then we approach the dangerous charms of the Lorelei, associated with the narrowest, swiftest, deepest, most treacherous part of the Rhine Gorge, with a 430 metre cliff overhanging a tight bend in the river....

The Lorelei (herself)

The legend here is associated with the potential danger of this stretch of the river, and it has passed into literature and folklore, with a famous poem by Heinrich Heine (in 1824) becoming a popular song in German, but then many more appearances in different cultures, including poems by Apollinaire and Sylvia Plath, music by Schumann and Shostakovich, and songs by, among others, Townes van Zandt and The Pogues....

You told me tales of love and glory

Same old sad songs, same old story

The sirens sing no lullaby

And no one knows but Lorelei

The Lorelei (from downstream)

The Lorelei (from upstream)

We sail on, oblivious to the siren murmurs:

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle, Kaub

But then, not far away, in a Wagnerian twist that may not be totally unrelated, I am bewitched by the three Rhinemaidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde:

Or am I mistook?  Could these be they?

Or might Flosshilde have leapt to her doom?

The Rhinemaidens are the first and the last characters seen in Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen  [Me neither: Ed]  These damsels of indeterminate origin (though possibly related to the poor Lorelei) have been described as morally innocent, yet with a range of sophisticated emotions, including some that are seductive and elusive.....

But let's move on:

We are now high above the vineyards of Rüdesheim, where the Rhine spreads and flows East to West, so the northern slopes catch the sun all day and also benefit from reflected light off the shining waters, while the wooded hill crests protect the vines from chilly winds from the north....  This area is known as the Rheingau and it is Germany's most prestigious wine-producing region, despite it only producing 2.5% of the country's output.  80% of the wine from here is Riesling.

Brömserburg Castle (which used to contain a wine museum)

At the top of the cable car, within gardens laid out in 1763 by Johann Friedrich Karl Maximilian Amor Maria Count of Ostein (1735 - 1809)  [Ah yes - Him!  Ed.] there is the Niederwald Monopteros, with idyllic Arcadian views across the Rhine to Bingen [Get on with it.... Ed.]

And then we meet the Prussian Madonna, aka Germania, a monument which commemorates the founding of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, when 25 individual states were united into one empire (the Second Reich) embodied by Germania, and the Prussian King was proclaimed Emperor William I.  With her crown raised and her sword peacefully lowered, Germania looks towards the new state, keeping watch on the Rhine.....

Das Niederwalddenkmal (The Niederwald Monument at Rüdesheim)

The erection of monuments such as this (the Berlin Victory Column in 1873, and the Hermann Monument in the Teutoburg Forest in 1875) was intended to awaken German national feeling, something that nowadays has to be contextualised as it expresses a culture of remembrance.  As with other monuments I have seen in Germany there is an ambivalence, but also a recognition that not all history is to be lauded. 

Far more subtle and yet easily as worthy is this modest stone near the river in Rüdesheim which commemorates the great republican poet of freedom, Friedrich Schiller:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken.

Tochter aus Elysium,

Wir betreten, feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.

Deine Zauber binden wieder,

Was die Mode streng geteilt,

Alle Menschen werden Brüder,

Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Joy, immortal incandescence,

Daughter of Elysium!

Breathing fire from thy presence

To thy temple-ground we come.

Whom the world estranged from others

Thy enchantments reunite,

Making mankind into brothers

Where thy gentle wings alight.

Friedrich Schiller

Ode to Joy (1786)

{I am indebted to my friend Dr Easton who reminded me of the following debate: At the outset, Schiller’s poem was conceived as an Ode to Freedom. The switch from freedom to joy must be understood as widening the scope of the Ode. Freedom may represent the basic foundations of our human condition, but Joy is the very blooming of this condition. Schiller revised the Ode around 1803. It is this revised version which Beethoven used to erect the impressive musical-textual monument of the fourth movement of his last symphony. He also modified Schiller’s text quite drastically in places, adding, by way of an introduction, a whole strophe of his own. I am still a little unsure, however, as the argument about Freude (joy) and Freunde (friend) doesn't account for the fact that freedom is Freiheit in German - I much prefer Freedom to Joy, though there are personal reasons for that.... }

And in the Christmas market in beautiful Rüdesheim with a hot glass of Weißer Winzerglühwein to keep out the cold, there is certainly an odour of joy, mingled with the Flammlachs and the Bratwurst....

And in the meantime, as the freight trains roll past, and the Rhine flows on, time, that imperturbable scourge of eternal youth, hastens us to dreamy sleep.....

River, river, have mercy

Take me down to the sea

For if I perish on these rocks

My love no more I'll see

But if my ship, which sails tomorrow

Should crash against these rocks

My sorrows I will drown before I die

It's you I'll see, not Lorelei

Philip Chevron

Lorelei

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Dedicated to the Rhinemaidens and to my Lorelei

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To be continued

Part 2

{wittily entitled Down the Rhine}

will follow shortly.....

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