Nuremberg (Germany) -- Description and travel; Nuremberg (Germany) -- History
down in 1420, rebuilt in 1428, and called the Walpurgiskapelle. These
constituted the Burggräfliche Burg--the Burggraf's Castle. The rest of
the castle was built on by Friedrich der Rotbart (Barbarossa), and
called the Kaiserliche Burg. The old Five-cornered tower and the
surrounding ground was the private property of the Burggraf, and he was
appointed by the Emperor as imperial officer of the Kaiserliche Burg.
Whether the Emperors claimed any rights of personal property over
Nuremberg or merely treated it, at first, as imperial property, it is
difficult to determine. The castle at any rate was probably built to
secure whatever rights were claimed, and to serve generally as an
imperial stronghold. An imperial representative, as we have seen, took
up his residence there.[2] Gradually round the castle grew up the
straggling streets of Nuremberg. Settlers built beneath the shadow of
the Burg. The very names of the streets suggest the vicinity of a camp
or fortress. Söldnerstrasse, Schmiedstrasse, and so forth, betray the
military origin of the present busy commercial town. From one cause or
another a mixture of races, of Germanic and non-Germanic, of Slavonic
and Frankish elements, seems to have occurred amongst the inhabitants of
the growing village, producing a special blend which in dialect, in
customs, and in dress was soon noticed by the neighbours as unique, and
stamping the art and development of Nuremberg with that peculiar
character which has never left it.
Various causes combined to promote the growth of the place. The
temporary removal of the Mart from Fürth to Nuremberg under Henry III.
doubtless gave a great impetus to the development of the latter town.
Henry IV., indeed, gave back the rights of Mart, customs and coinage to
Fürth. But it seems probable that these rights were not taken away again
from Nuremberg. The possession of a Mart was, of course, of great
importance to a town in those days, promoting industries and arts and
settled occupations. The Nurembergers were ready to suck out the fullest
advantage from their privilege. That mixture of races, to which we have
referred, resulted in remarkable business energy--energy which soon
found scope in the conduct of the business which the natural position
of Nuremberg on the South and North, the East and Western trade routes,
brought to her. It was not very long before she became the centre of the
vast trade between the Levant and Western Europe, and the chief emporium
for the produce of Italy--the _Handelsmetropole_ in fact of South
Germany.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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