Göttingen Archives ⋆ The Passenger

May 21, 2023May 21, 2023

Stumpfe Eiche

Today Weende is a city quarter of Göttingen, Germany. It was an independent community until 1964 and as such it was (and it is still) remembering its fallen soldiers in both World Wars. In 1956 the stonemason August Voss had created a memorial made of sandstone which was placed in a small forest in a region called Stumpfe Eiche (after the former local name vor der stuven Eichen, referring to stubs of oaks once standing there). It is today a bit hidden, but you can see steps leading you from the street level into the forest. There the memorial is surrounded by seats. It is a nice place, but a problematic memorial.

May 6, 2023May 7, 2023

Pfalz Grona

In former times the kings and emperors in Germany didn’t have permanent seats, they had royal palaces spread out over their realm and were travelling between them. From 915 to 1387 one of these places called Königspfalz or Kaiserpfalz was located on the territory of Göttingen, the Pfalz Grona (also known as Burg Grona). It is one of the roots of the city quarter Grone (even as today it belongs to the Weststadt) and kings and queens, emperors and empresses were enjoying their stays there – but it is mostly forgotten. There are only street names remembering the past (Pfalz-Grone-Breite, Burg Grona, Unter der Pfalz) and a memorial stone hidden in the forest on top of the Hagenberg mountain.

January 21, 2023January 22, 2023

Fighting fascism

To engage in politics belongs to the DNA of Göttingen, Germany. Every week you’ll see rallies and demonstrations on local, national and international topics. The city has today a strong left scene which is because of the importance of the university (of the 120,000 inhabitants 30,000 are students), but also as a reaction to the fact that the city during Nazi times embraced the NSDAP fast. Already in 1930 the Nazi party received 37.8 % of the local votes.

December 26, 2022January 14, 2023

Flown away

In the south of Göttingen, in a quite prominent location at the intersection of the Geismar Landstraße and the Friedländer Weg you can find the stub of a memorial that is pretty much unknown to the citizens of Göttingen. It is the Süd-West-Afrika-Denkmal, commemorating the fallen of the 82nd regiment (once located at the city) during the uprising of the Herero and Nama against the colonial forces in former Deutsch-Südwestafrika, todays Namibia.

December 23, 2022April 23, 2023

Centerpiece

At the heart of the ancient city center of Göttingen you can find the Altes Rathaus, the old town hall building dating back to the year 1270 CE. It was changed multiple times over the centuries and was used by the city administration and city council until the year 1978. After that time both institutions use a skyscraper created outside the city center, the Neues Rathaus at the Hiroshima-Platz.

December 16, 2022January 3, 2023

Saline Luisenhall

Salt, also referred to as the white gold, is used for many purposes: for nutrition and cosmetics, to clear roads in winter time, to preserve food and many more. Sodium chloride (NaCl) is typically gathered from sea water (sea salt) or by mining halite (rock salt) underground. In few cases brine is gathered from the ground, a highly concentrated solution of salt in water – it is then heated to let the water evaporate. One of these places is the Saline Luisenhall at Göttingen, Germany; Europe’s last saline that uses giant iron pans to recover salt from brine.

December 10, 2022December 10, 2022

Four cellars

Ancient floor heating of the old town hall, Göttingen

You can learn a lot about the history of Göttingen by walking through its streets and visiting important places. But for some stories you have to explore the underground and have a look at the cellars in the city center. Fortunately, the tourist information organizes guided tours that show you hidden Jewish ritual baths, ancient floor heating systems, a sewer of a former monastery and a beautiful vaulted cellar. Some have been known all the time, others have been temporarily forgotten and rediscovered.

November 19, 2022November 20, 2022

Cities with new names

Stettiner Straße, Danziger Straße, Breslauer Straße; Göttingen; Map by OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA 2.0.

When exploring the south of Göttingen you will find a lot of streets named after former German cities. Cities that you can still find on maps but that have new names. Cities that Germany lost after World War II. And these streets are all lined-up along an axis that begins with the street Stettiner Straße (Szczecin) that becomes the Danziger Straße (Gdańsk) and later turns into the Breslauer Straße (Wrocław).

October 30, 2022December 7, 2022

Sheddachhalle

I was growing up in the northern part of Göttingen. Close to the home of my parents was the factory building of Sartorius, producing pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment. And this area was for sure closed, you couldn’t look behind the walls surrounding it. With the extension of the company and the continuous move to the industrial area in the city quarter Grone the former company area (now called Sartorius-Quartier) was opened up. It now contains a restaurant with a rooftop bar, a life science innovation hub, a hotel, shops, numerous flats and a new event location, the Sheddach-Halle.

October 29, 2022December 7, 2022

Diemardener Warte

In medieval times it was important to know very fast what’s happening around your city. Therefore Göttingen hat a set of watchtowers (‘Warten‘) and the Diemardener Warte is one of the few that are preserved. You can reach it when leaving Göttingen to the south in the direction of Gleichen. It was built in the year 1409 and you can enjoy views on Göttingen, Klein Lengden and Diemarden from there.