Burg Hohenzollern – April 21, 2007

We spent the afternoon touring this castle with the entire Breitfeld clan. It was a reunion of all of Martin’s foster brothers: Peter, Rainer and Jochen, and their families, along with Bernd Nedele, another foster child. Our crew of 16 people was almost enough to get a group tour rate. The castle is fascinating because the Hohenzollern family was a very big player throughout German history, at one point controlling vast areas including Prussia. Frederick the Great was a Hohenzollern, as was the last German Kaiser. This castle is where the dynasty originated. The castle itself dates back to 1061, but has been rebuilt numerous times after being sacked and burned, falling into ruins, etc. That is one thing that is very different here in Europe: the concept of history. The sheer age of many building is staggering. The simplest farm house can easily date back to the 1500’s. There are many preservation laws here for old buildings. That means that property owners must care for and renovate buildings using specified guidelines. Most of the medieval half-timbered buildings have been meticulously maintained. Every city has an Altstadt (old city) where the streets are too narrow for modern transportation and each building has seen more history than we can imagine.