As soon as the cruisers got back from Rothenburg, the Princess prepared to set off for our next stop; this time we really would dock in Wurzburg. Our arrival was just around breakfast time, with both excursions set for 9AM. The Ramblers had visited Wurzburg on another Uniworld cruise and expected to be docked in the center of town, with a paved promenade alongside and a view of the Marienberg Fortress across the river. What we didn’t realize was the because of the many cruise ships on the river at this peak time of the year, we would end up at the Alter Hafen with a view of electric power lines and train tracks.
Alter Hafen means “old port” and this sounds like it would be quaint and enjoyable but such is not the case. If the Rambler had know this, she would have signed up for the tour of the Prince Bishop’s residence even tho the Ramblers had visited it on the previous cruise. However, we had expected to enjoy a leisurely stroll along the Main, people watching and perhaps stopping at a cafe. A look around from the sun deck quickly showed us that there was absolutely no place to walk. The princess did offer a shuttle bus into town in the afternoon, which would be our only option to see something of Wurzburg. Even that turned out to be a disappointment. More about this later.
Of course it was a beautiful day in the mid-seventies, but I have to say, we didn’t enjoy it as much as we could have. From our lovely day in the small village of Volkach, we now had a vew of the industrial old port on all sides. Our friends had all gone on the tour of the Bishop’s Residence so we had leisure time on our hands but not much to fill it.
In doing research for this blog, I found that the Alter Hafen dated to the 19th century but when the Main was canalized to improve navigation and lessen flooding, commercial river traffic was shifted west of Wurzburg after WWII and the existing port buildings and warehouses have gradually been conveted to a cultural center, concert venue and night club as well as an art museum. There was a rather strange large vase-like standing not far from our docking spot, and the Rambler is sure it was a sculpture of some kind, but she hasn’t found any information about it on the web…yet. If anyone knows, please send me an email.
Unfortunately the Ramblers weren’t aware of the repurposed buildings and from our docking spot the was no indicaion they existed. Even if we had known, they wouldn’t be as much fun as aa stroll along the promenade.
However, there is somthing our readers should know about Wurzburg’s history. In the last days of WWII, only 2 months before the end of the war, 80% of the city, including its historic center was reduced to rubble in a giant firestorm. The mostly civilian poppulation of Wurzburg, at that time, a city of 100,000 suffered through an unimaginable event. Afterwards, three thousand terribly burned bodies were buried in a mass grave. Two thousand others were never found, and almost all of the survivors suffered burns of some kind.
In one night, historic Würzburg disappeared forever. The attack came on the night of March 16, 1945, less than two months before World War Two ended. At this point, Germany’s defeat was clearly imminent. Yet, at around 9:30 PM on that March evening, 236 planes filled the sky over the ancient city of Würzburg which had little to no strategic significance. On the same night, another 280 planes were headed out to destroy another centuries-old city of great beauty: Nürnberg which had the misfortune to be considered the archetypical German city by Adolf Hitler.
According to official statistics between 360,000 to 380,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Wurzburg in three waves, including 180 to 220 high-explosive bombs weighing 500 kg each. Soon Würzburg was an inferno racked with 1,000 to 2,000 degree Celsius heat by midnight. The intensity of the heat and fire destroyed what bombs could not. There were few bomb shelters and most of the residents of the crowded historic area, cowered in their basements as the bombing began. However, the cellars provided little protection and as the fire raged, people ran from their overheating cellars to the Main river, screaming and praying for help. The death count at the time was at least 5,000 civilians.
Over 3,700 of the casualties were women and children, most of them painfully burned to death. Four fifths of the living space was destroyed and 35 churches and almost all public buildings and cultural memorials were absolutely ruined. The city was transformed from a magnificent mecca of culture and art into two and a half million cubic meters of rubble, ashes and burnt flesh. In 1939, Wurzburg had a population of 112,997. By 1950, it was reduced to 86,564. There had been no priority factories and no armaments in Wurzburg.
The British airplane crews had been told that it was an “important center of communication” yet the vast majority of bombs dropped were incendiaries with diabolical time delays dropped on residential areas.
The Prince Bishops’s Palace which our tour group visited this morning was almost completely burnt out and only the central building with the Vestibule, Garden Hall, Staircase, White Hall and Imperial Hall survived the inferno, however their roofs were destroyed.
From the attic the fire ate down through wooden ceilings and floors, and all the furnishings and wall panelling which had not been stored elsewhere were devoured by the flames. Much of the furnishings and large sections of the wall panelling of the period rooms had been removed in time and thus escaped destruction. As German forces faced defeat, the people of Wurzburg had removed some of the irreplaceable items to safer places. Among them were the most precious relics and statures from the churches in the historic district.
The strong stone vaults of the Residence withstood the collapse of the burning attic. However, because the roofs had gone, further damage was incurred in the ensuing period due to dampness. In the Court Chapel, for example, most of the ceiling frescoes by Byss succumbed to the subsequent consequences of the fire, in spite of the intact vault, and had to be laboriously reconstructed. Fortunately, there were still craftsmen availble who understood the ancient art. However before the restoration could begin, the area had to be cleared of a huge amount of rubble, most of which was carried away by “rubble women,” who made up a large part of the labor pool with many of their menfolk either killed, wounded or prisoners of war. To their credit, the United States troops did their best to help stabilize the existing buildings and ruins. Amazingly, a decade later many of the building exteriors had been exactingly restored and looked just as they did before the war, even tho they were built up from almost total ruin.
After lunch we decided to ride the bus into Wurzburg to at least get a glimpse of the city. Here again, we were disappointed. The bus stop was quite a distance from the historic area. The Ramblers were not the walkers we had been even a few years ago, and sadly we didn’t get to see much of anything.
Even the famous bridge was too far away. Sadly we walked around a not very interesting part of Wurzburg for 45 minutes until the shuttle bus back to the Princess returned. We did see the parish church of Saint Burkhard, which had some beautiful altars and statues. Although it didn’t look it, the oldest part of the church dated to the 11th century.
One of the most interesting artifacts in the church, although I didn’t realize it at the time, was a small carved plaque which commemorated the restoration of the church. Evidently, if you know where to look, there are a number of these memorials all over the cty. Wurzburgers have not forgotten that terrible time.
Before we knew it, we were back on the Princess, still docked in the Old Harbor. We were set to leave at 5 PM; our next stop was one of the prettiest towns on the Main, Miltenburg. Hopefully tomorrow would turn out to be much more fun.
