oh, when I get low
By loading the map, you agree to Google's privacy policy.
Learn more
This post is about a day of sightseeing in Worms. We see the Martin Luther Monument, the cathedral, and the Nibelung Museum.
Worms was one of the places most closely associated with Martin Luther. It hadn’t gone down well with the Catholic church that Luther had asked for reforms in 1517, and a few years later, the big-lipped emperor Charles V summoned him to Worms where he was declared a heretic.
monument
So we went and looked at the Luther Monument. It was from the mid-19th century, when Germany was trying to establish its national identity. Luther, it seemed, had two conflicting historical roles: one the one hand he was an ecclesiastical reformer, which divided people along confessional lines. On the other hand, however, his translation of the bible was one of the defining events in German cultural history, something that pulled people together.
church
It was a bit odd to think that Worms Cathedral, which was mostly finished in the 12th century, had already been old at the time when Luther was there.
The outside of the church looked a bit like a castle. Maybe it was because of the towers. Or because of the tiny windows. On the inside it was dark and had a crushing vibe to it. This was something that many churches did to me, particularly the ones from that time period: they made me feel a certain pressure. They made me feel low.
audio guides
Worms being the city of the Nibelung meant that there was a Nibelung museum. We went and bought tickets. They gave us an incessantly blabbering audioguide and released us into the museum. It was all a bit confusing.
One fundamental problem was that the Nibelung itself was a myth, which meant that there were no historical artefacts to display in a museum. And so the exhibits mainly consisted of props from theater plays and of book pages and maps. It reminded me of a Journey of the West exhibition I had visited in China years earlier.
And for reasons of our own making, the visit got more and more confusing until it culminated in a dinner at Burger King.
pictures
sightseeing in Worms:
Martin Luther monument in Worms
Worms Cathedral from the back
inside Worms Cathedral
crypt in Worms Cathedral
colored windows in Worms Cathedral
Worms Cathedral is dark
Worms Cathedral with its garden
old city wall of Worms
inside the Nibelung Museum in Worms
weird installations in the Nibelung Museum
time to leave