World Heritage Site-Wartburg Castle

World Heritage-Wartburg Castle

When looking through the many World Heritage sites, there was one that caught my eye. The Wartburg Castle. To me the word castle just brings beauty, integrity, history, and fantasy so I did a little research on the Wartburg Castle and found some very interesting information that was very new to me. On the World Heritage site I was able to look at different remarks from different people, famous to civilians. Reading these remarks the phrase I saw over and over was beauty, magnificent, delightful, and majestically. Now that makes me want to go visit Wartburg Castle in person. Another reason I would find it interesting to visit the Wartburg Castle is for the History.

The Wartburg Castle was founded by Duke Ludwig of Thuringia in 1067 A.D. The castle got its name when its founder first laid his eyes on the hill upon which the Wartburg now sits… He proclaimed...Du sollst mir eine Burg werde! (Wait, mountain—you should become a castle for me!)” (Guide-to- castle). Wartburg is also where Martin Luther hid out as “Knight George” from his return in 1521 from the diet of worms, living on exile for a year. It is said that Luther translated the New Testament into German, in the Lutherstube (room which Luther occupied which he translated), on his time spent at the castle. The sainted Elisabeth of Hungary also spent part of her life from 1211 to 1228 as consort of Ludwig IV (World Heritage Site). In 1777, Johann Wolfgang spent five weeks at the Wartburg Castle translating the bible also into German, and he once said that the Germans weren’t a people until Luther. “In 1817, the Wartburg Castle was the rallying site of the Burschenschaften (students protested the division of Germany into a host of tinpot principalities. Adolf Hitler engaged in a battle with local authorities to take down the cross and replace it with the swastika...Hitler proclaimed about the castle…’the most German of German castles’” (guide-to-castles).

Today the castle is a regional museum. The original furnishings are gone besides the odd exception of a whale vertebrae that lies on the floor. The museum in the Neue Kemenate has reformatted artifacts, paintings, sculptures, weapons, furniture and tapestries. The Wartburg castle has excellent representation of German architecture. “The Wartburg Castle was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, for its association with Luther and for its role as a ‘powerful symbol of German integration and unity’” (guide-to-castle). Wartburg Castle was seen as an “outstanding monument of the feudal period in central Europe” (World Heritage Site).

As you can see the Wartburg castle has many interesting and appealing facts. Knowing some of the history makes me want to visit this castle at least once in my lifetime. There are a lot of famous Germans who visited or even stayed at this castle. I plan to learn more about this castle as German 110 explores into culture a little further.

Sources—

World Heritage Site (worldheritagesite.org)

Guide-to-Castles (http://www.guide-to-castles-of-europe.com)