From a travel article about Hildescheim originally published after World War One:
I have always preferred a frame house to one of stone or brick; it generally looks less like an
institution and more like a place to live; its lines can be made less formal, more individual; and its
color possibilities are infinitely greater. It has always seemed, therefore, like a drawback, like a flaw
in what might otherwise be oftentimes a perfect picture, that the houses of even the most picturesque
of European towns are generally of stone or plaster. Of course, Toledo would be out of character in
anything less grim, and so would many another town that must be dressed in sober garb to play its
part, but there are towns that would blend so much better into their landscape if only they were built
from the forest trees of their backgrounds. But save Lubeck, that red brick city of the North that just
misses being a " picture town," and save the towns of the Netherlands, all the Continent houses itself
within stone or plaster walls -all except Hildesheim and its neighboring Saxon cities. In England it is
different, and a great part of the singular charm of its country villages and isolated farmhouses is
undoubtedly due to the halftimber buildings, blending so perfectly with their environment that they
seem an integral part of nature itself. Now our English ancestors came from Saxony, and still
preserved in the German speech of the land around the Harz are Saxon words an Englishman can
understand, and here in Saxony are timbered houses in which an Englishman would feel at home.
Nowhere else in Europe can just the like be found, so if one would know the domestic timbered
architecture of a medieval time he must seek it, south of the Channel, in these Saxon towns and
villages. And most beautiful of all the towns of northern Germany is Hildesheim, its streets a
bewildering, glowing museum of Gothic medievalism. None of these picture towns of which I am
writing is in the least like any other town, and Hildesheim's individuality is as strongly marked and its
characteristics as pronounced and as different, as of any city in Europe. For instance, the
medievalism here manifested is a very different phase of the life of the Middle Ages from that called
to mind by other relics of a past environment. Here it is life, not war, that comes back to you, for
there are no gates and walls, but houses where men and women lived at peace. There is no castle, no
dungeon; but market-houses and streets where flowed the tides of prosperity and of wealth. You do
not picture knights and warhorses, but fat, contented burghers. These streets were not made for
armed men, nor these pictured houses for warriors. Hildesheim is a chapter all its own in the
interpretation of ancient life, and it tells a different story than elsewhere can be learned.
In spite of the war I am very fond of Germany, probably because I have never been in Berlin, and it
is a matter of irritating amazement to me that so many Americans annually visit the capital, while less
than a hundred a year stop over at Hildesheim. Yet there is nothing in Berlin that cannot be found in
America, it has no distinction, no individuality; it is utterly cosmopolitan, a mere concentration of
modernity. On the other hand, the Saxon town not only preserves the medieval atmosphere, but
embodies it in a setting of strange and delicate beauty. You not only find a city of the past, but a city
that was and is like some antique piece of jewelry exquisite in form and color. Only in Venice can
elsewhere be found these two primary elements of beauty, form and color, in perfect combination.
Bruges approximates, but its color predominates; Rothenburg comes near, but beauty of form is there
the most conspicuous; but in Hildesheim the two combine in an achievement of complete,
well-balanced harmony. Added to the delight always to be found in the merely beautiful, and the
interest that attaches to places left unchanged by many generations of men, is a pervading sense of
romance. Here undoubtedly everything may happen that would be impossible elsewhere. Here
unquestionably fairy coaches are drawn through the streets by white mice, and the only reason you
fail to see them is because you don't happen to be on the spot when they go by; but they may be
coming now; they may be just around the corner. Whether it is the picturesque houses continually
appearing along crooked streets, or the color everywhere surprising you, or the thought of thus
walking literally into the past, or the sheer romance of it all, or whether it be all these things in such
unusual combination, I cannot tell, but this I do know, that nowhere else do you wander on with
such alert, tense interest. Carcassonne is more thrilling, Toledo more impressive and Rothenburg
more lovable in a sort of human way, but Hildesheim wakens more lively enthusiasm than any other
city. It is an exciting town, because of its very unexpectedness, and the dominant sensation it
produces is just keen joy that you are finding it.
But few people go there. Hamilton Wright Mabie found the town, though, and this is what he says of
it: "Hildesheim is so full of joy to the eye and imagination in audacity of color and quaintness of
timbered houses that it is one of the most enchanting records of a past so unlike our own age that the
very sight of its quaint beauty is a feast." And six hundred years ago an early traveler wrote, " In all
Saxony there is no town equal to Hildesheim in strength and beauty."
Oh, those timbered houses! Not merely one or two, or even a row of them as in English Chester, but
block after block, street after street, for today over seven hundred of these ancient dwellings, dating
all of them from the fourteen and fifteen hundreds, help shelter the people of Hildesheim. The
second story projects two or three feet over the first, and the third two or three feet over that, and so
on till the whole structure is topped by a great pointed roof, that itself is often several stories in
height. Fancy the mysterious, semi-twilight effect these overhanging houses produce in a narrow
street that winds away along the crooked course of what was once a village cowpath. But this is not
all-the massive timbers that form the visible framework of these old buildings are literally covered
with curious and intricate carving. There are mottoes in Gothic script, and the queerest beasts and
birds ever gotten together outside of the Noah's ark of childhood, beasts and birds that never were on
sea or land; not the vicious-looking gargoyles of the cathedrals, but bland, pensive creatures, the
faces of some lighted by strange smiles, and others thoughtful and contemplative as they regard piles
of singular fruit or a row of fishes standing on their tails. Other beams are cut deeply into elaborate
conventional designs, suggestive of the Moorish work in Spain. Nor is this all, for beast, bird, fish
and fowl are each painted in the softest, richest hues imaginable. Not the crude, raw color of
Holland, but, old tones of exceeding beauty, touched here and there with gold. And it is this color and
carving and gilt and the quaint, queer shapes of the houses that make Hildesheim's distinction, and its
charm, and its unlikeness to any other town. Interspersed through this bewildering mass of carving
upon the fronts of these inexpressibly quaint old houses, are innumerable mottoes, quotations and a
wealth of observations wise and otherwise. On the front of one especially elaborate house the
egotistical builder proclaimed, " I hope for envy, for God gives to the one he likes." On the front of
another the pessimistic owner carved these words, " Truth has flown to heaven; Faith has gone
across the sea; Justice has been driven away; Unfaithfulness alone remains."
One house is covered with carving depicting scenes from the Bible. In the pinnacle are Adam and
Eve, then Moses on the Mount, the passage through the Red Sea, the spies bearing the clusters of
grapes, the raising of the brazen serpent, Balaam's ass, Samson and the foxes, Samson slaying the
Philistines, Samson carrying away the gates of Gaza, Samson and Delilah, the seven lean kine, the
seven fat kine, Jacob's dreams, his fight with the angel, Abraham leading Isaac to sacrifice, Abraham
driving Hagar into the wilderness, and Abraham and Melchisedec. In addition there are allegorical
representations of sight, taste, hearing, speech and feeling, together with many Scriptural quotations.
When it is remembered that this is only one of hundreds of houses most of which are carved with a
vast variety of subjects, the force of the saying that the streets of Hildesheim are a perfect museum
will be appreciated.
There is no especial beauty in the situation of the town, nor in the dress of its people, but its
architecture alone is sufficient to single it out as one of the most delightful of Europe's picture places.
There are two squares in particular that seem utterly removed from the present. To reach one of
these, the Andreas Platz, you go by the Goop House, a most astonishing thing with a tiny first story,
but bulging out into much space when the top floor is reached, and under another house that is built
straight across the street. The irregular, tree-set Platz is very quiet. At one end is an ancient church,
and circling round the other sides are the old, old houses, where in the setting of loves and hates of
long ago, men and women live out their lives today. I think that is the thing which surprises one the
most of all about these medieval homes, that they are actually homes today. The small latticed
windows are swung wide open on this summer morning, and pillows are hung out to air, and women
call from them to neighbors across the way, and talk of aeroplanes and railways, just as centuries ago
their ancestors talked of distant wars and tournaments and the gossip of a forgotten day. There is
something incongruous, something perplexing, about these moderns housed in these homes that
express only the lives of a remote generation.
A little way from the Platz the marketplace crowds back the houses and finds room. In the center is a
really beautiful fountain dating from 1540. On one side the Rathhaus, built in the thirteen hundreds,
projecting far over the street and supported by massive columns and great arches, under which is the
sidewalk, and opposite this the picture is completed by the finest timbered house to be found
anywhere. I know the same claim is made for the rare old house across from the cathedral at
Strassbourg, but in height and carving, and color and richness of detail this Butchers' Guild House at
Hildesheim so far excels as to leave no room for comparison. Near this Butchers' Guild was the place
of public punishment, and here stood the stocks and whipping-post, and here the scaffold was
erected. As the criminal was led across the square to meet the sentence passed upon him, there was
always one possibility of escape; for if some woman stepped forward and offered to marry him then
and there the convict was set free. I wonder if this was regarded in the nature of substitution and
equivalent.
The Rathhaus is externally a little disappointing, but within is a noble hall, the proportions of which, I
was assured by the distinguished architect who was my companion at the time, are absolutely correct
judged by modern canons, and he measured to see. But more important than its proportions are the
splendid frescoes covering the walls with some of the most beautiful mural decorations I have ever
seen, beautiful in design, and most beautiful of all in their soft yet radiant color. Next to the jewel-like
interior of St. Mark's in Venice I place this all but matchless interior of the Rathhaus at Hildesheim.
On one side of the wall is a line deeply cut, and underneath are the words, " This is the measure for
yarn." And this is the tale of that: Upon a. time a certain yarn merchant died, and, having
systematically cheated all his customers by giving them short measure, he did not go to heaven. One
night he appeared, smoking hot, to his wife in a vision, and finding her for once speechless, he spoke
thus, " Go quickly on the morrow to all my friends, the yarn merchants of Hildesheim, and say to
them that this is the measure for yarn." Saying which he threw upon the floor a glowing iron bar and
'mid sulphurous fumes departed. Now the bar burned through the chamber floor, and through the
cellar floor, and on down and down, for it was going whence it came. And on the morrow the good
wife awoke, and behold the vision was a true word, for there, still smoking, was the imprint of the
measure for yarn. And having told these things to the Burgomaster and the merchants, they placed
this record on the city hall, and there you can see it to this day on the north wall.
Hildesheim is distant but an hour or so from Bremen, and just at the foot of the Harz mountains, in
the very heart of that bit of country that is richer in folklore than any other spot in northern Europe.
Its very beginnings are steeped in the poetry of ancient faiths, in a legend rich in delicate beauty as
the town itself. Once upon a time, so the story goes, when the great Charlemagne had been but a few
years dead, his son, who reigned in his stead over this part of the world, was hunting down the
forest-covered slopes of the Harz, and with evening found himself separated from his followers. He
wandered on till dusk fell, and the midsummer night came on, then drawing his cloak around him,
and hanging his crucifix upon a rosebush growing there, he lay down to sleep upon a mound just at
the foot of the mountains. Now this little mound was Hilda's Heim, or the home of Hilda, Saxon
goddess. When morning dawned and the Emperor woke, snow covered the ground, and the cross
was frozen fast to the rose. In this the Emperor read the sign that the goddess had fled before the
true faith, and here upon her sacred mound he caused a great cathedral to be built, but in the cloisters
he left undisturbed the sacred rose. Now all this happened eleven hundred years ago, but the
cathedral is there today, and, strangest of all, upon its wall, in the quiet of its cloisters, there is
growing today a rosebush, bright with fragrant bloom, and it is a historic fact that back as far as the
cathedral records go, this rose was growing there, and all over Germany people know of the
thousand-year-old rosebush that grows on the walls of Hildesheim. The town might, indeed, be called
the City of the Rose, not only on account of its beginnings, but because of the countless roses that
grow along its streets in sweet profusion. Seldom are such roses found, and, as if in recognition of
the fact, there is a Rose Street One, and a Rose Street Two, and a Rose Street Three.
But the cathedral is remarkable for much more than its sacred rose. It was at the beginnings of the
Eleventh Century that Bishop Bernward made of Hildesheim the center of north German art and
culture, and gathered here some of the most beautiful things that are to be found anywhere in
Europe. The bronze doors of the cathedral, among the very oldest on the Continent, were done
under his direction, and in the treasury of the church are shown his cross and staff of most delicately
carved gold, all ablaze with jewels. In the nave hangs the most amazing chandelier I have ever seen.
It is nearly forty feet around and represents the walls and towers of the New Jerusalem. Here, too, is
the great column of stone carved by the Bishop in the manner of Hadrian's column at Rome, except
that this pictures the life of Christ.
The walls that of old protected the city have now vanished save where here and there an old tower
still stands on guard. The most interesting of these is the Turn Again Tower, concerning which a
pretty legend is told. From the beginning the town was under the special protection of the Maid of
Hildesheim, part saint, part fairy, whose guardianship brought prosperity to the inhabitants, and who,
in time of siege, would stand upon the battlements, unseen by the other defenders, and wave aside
the cannon balls of the enemy. Once upon a time the Maid became piqued at some fancied grievance
and took her departure, vowing never to return. Now, in this Turn Again Tower there hangs to this
day a magic bell, and whoso hears it ring must perforce turn back. And on that day when the
dismayed citizens learned that their fairy maid had left them, the bell in the old tower rang loud and
long, and afar in the forest the Maid heard its ringing, and, compelled by its magic, came again to the
city, which ever after she has continued to bless.
The kingdom of Saxony, of which Hildesheim was for many years the most important city, became
as early as the Tenth Century the most prominent among the German States. Saxon valor put a curb
upon invasion by the Northmen and definitely controlled the ambition of Hungary to extend its
dominion over western Europe. Culture, order and all the accompaniments of civilization marked the
progress of the Saxon people throughout the nine and ten hundreds; a university was established in
Hildesheim, and in 962, Otto, King of Saxony, became ruler of Germany, when crowned by the
Pope as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, that somewhat fanciful political conception which
Voltaire once said was " neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire."
Of all Germanic tribes the Saxon was the most defined by physical attributes, by speech, by his faith,
by his customs and his laws. Marriage outside the tribe was rare, and no foreign influence modified
these characteristics that individualized him. In Saxony more tenaciously than elsewhere the people
clung to their old faiths and ways, disguising pagan rites with Christian names and incorporating
ancient liberties into written law. These old traits are, in a modified degree, observable in the Saxon
of the present. The big, blond men are like their ancestors of a thousand years ago, and in the little
towns in and around the Harz traces of their pagan creed exist in the beliefs of today, so that, while
one phase of the present life of Hildesheim is modern and commercial, yet underneath it all is a
primitive strain of superstition. In the popular mind vampires still haunt the forest, ghosts walk from
their graves when the moon lies dead in the sky, and witches still meet with Satan on the summit of
the nearby Brocken.
But in these Twentieth-Century days all peoples, all towns, are rapidly approaching a dead level of
uniformity, so the traveler must hurry who would find the fairy streets of Hildesheim, and catch the
atmosphere of a medieval time that still lingers among its ancient dwellings. (end of article)