A Little German History

AM visiting Bad Herrenalb, a spa town in the northern Black Forest in what is now Baden-Württemberg.

It grew up around a Cistercian monastery, founded in the mid-1100s on a bank of the River Alb, a tributary of the Rhine.

Ruins of the church of the Cistercian monastery, around which Bad Herrenalb developed 

The church was badly damaged in the Peasants' War in 1525 and again by Swedish troops in the 30 Years War in 1642.

Notice anything strange about the rear view (below) of Bad Herrenalb's Cistercian ruins?

Don't worry about the timber-framed building on the left - concentrate on the doorway in the ruins

In this close-up a pine tree can be seen growing out of the arch above the entrance

The tree started growing about 200 years ago, with its roots forcing their way down through the wall to take nutrients from the underlying soil.

Another view of the pine

Today Bad Herrenalb's 8,000+ population lives less than 20 miles from the French border.

View from my hotel balcony

In about 1840 a sanatorium, based on cold-water therapy, was founded in what was then a village, the settlement's upgrade to town status coming in 1887.

A well that was bored down 600 metres in 1964 reached a thermal spring, which led to the building of thermal baths and the granting of the prefix Bad (Spa) to Herrenalb in 1971.

Bad Herrenalb's memorial to the two world wars is in the centre of town, near the Cistercian ruins.

The central plinth has a quotation, in German, from John's Gospel, chapter 15, verse 13: "No-one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his brother"

The 1914-18 plinth has the names of people who died in Russia, Poland (an interesting inclusion since Poland did not exist as a country from 1795 until after WW1), France (easily the commonest place of death), Germany, Belgium and "Missing"

As is true with most countries, the 1939-45 plinth contains many more names, and over a wider geographical spread: Russia (easily the commonest place of death), Romania, Poland, Finland, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Tunisia and "Missing"