{"id":11064,"date":"2019-09-05T15:34:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T15:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11064"},"modified":"2019-09-05T23:39:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:39:10","slug":"neuschwanstein-is-150-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/neuschwanstein-is-150-years-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuschwanstein is 150 years old! And it has a surprise up its sleeve"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve heard of this place. And you have definitely seen it, or a version of it.\u00a0Schloss Neuschwanstein\u00a0<\/em>(Castle Neuschwanstein)<\/a> is celebrating its 150th birthday today, on September 5. We say herzlichen Gl\u00fcckwunsch! <\/em>But there’s more: it comes with a special Geburtstags\u00fcberraschung <\/em>(birthday surprise)!<\/p>\n

Grundsteinlegung<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Picture of the Schloss <\/i>in around 1900. The castle was only completed 8 years prior, in 1892 (Image public domain at Commons.wikimedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

Schloss Neuschwanstein <\/em>is one of Germany’s most famous sights. With its m\u00e4rchenhafte\u00a0<\/em>(fairytale-like) look and location, incredible interior and the magical and crazy story behind the castle (read more on that in our previous blog on the castle!<\/a>), it is kein Wunder <\/em>(no wonder) that it is a true Touristenmagnet\u00a0<\/em>(tourist magnet)!<\/p>\n

And so today 150 years ago, the\u00a0Grundstein\u00a0<\/em>(cornerstone) was laid. And it wasn’t just any other Stein<\/em> (stone). It has a\u00a0Hohlraum\u00a0<\/em>(cavity) which contains Goldm\u00fcnzen\u00a0<\/em>(golden coins)\u00a0gepr\u00e4gt\u00a0<\/em>(minted) during the life of the\u00a0Bauherr\u00a0<\/em>(builder) K\u00f6nig Ludwig II von Bayern <\/em>(King Ludwig II of Bavaria), a\u00a0Portrait\u00a0<\/em>(portrait) painted on\u00a0Porzellan\u00a0<\/em>(porcelain) and more. Here’s the original document signed by the King 150 years ago and a rough English translation:<\/p>\n

GERMAN ORIGINAL<\/p>\n

Die in den Grundstein eingelassene Urkunde des K\u00f6nigs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wir Ludwig II. von Gottes Gnaden K\u00f6nig von Bayern usw. urkunden hiermit, da\u00df wir zum Schlusse gekommen sind, an jener Stelle, wo einst die Burgen Vorder- und Hinterschwangau ihre Zinnen erhoben, ein neues Schlo\u00df f\u00fcr Uns und Unsere Hofhaltung erbauen zu lassen und da\u00df Wir zu diesem Behufe bereits die n\u00f6thigen Befehle an Unseren Hofbaurath Eduard Riedel \u00fcbertragen haben.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wir befehlen diesen Bau in den Schutz Gottes, der Heiligen Maria, als der Patrona Bavariae und des Heiligen Ludwig und bestimmen, da\u00df gegenw\u00e4rtige Urkunde nebst Unserem auf Porzellan gemalten Bildnisse, dann mit Bauplan und mit je einem St\u00fcck der w\u00e4hrend Unserer Regierung in Bayern gepr\u00e4gten Gold- und Silberm\u00fcnzen in den Grundstein gelegt und da\u00df dieser sodann in die bereits begonnene Grundmauer des Herrenhauses eingef\u00fcgt werden soll.<\/em><\/p>\n

Geschehen Schlo\u00df Berg am W\u00fcrmsee, den 5ten September 1869<\/strong><\/p>\n

ENGLISH TRANSLATION<\/p>\n

(The king’s certificate laid into the cornerstone<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We Ludwig II by God’s mercy King of Bavaria etc. hereby certify that we have decided that at the place where once the castles Vorderschwangau and Hinterschwangau raised their crenels, we let a new castle be built for Us and Our court and that we have already given the necessary orders for this purpose to our royal architect Eduard Riedel.<\/p>\n

We order this construction in the protection of God, the Holy Mary, as the Patrona Bavariae and the Holy Ludwig and determine that this certificate, along with Our likeness painted on porcelain, blueprint and with each a piece of gold and silver coins minted during Our reign in Bavaria shall be laid into the cornerstone and that this block shall then placed into the already started foundation wall of this manor.<\/p>\n

Took place Castle Berg am W\u00fcrmsee, on September 5 1869)<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what’s the birthday surprise?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The folks from the Landeskriminalamt<\/em> are trained for situations like this! (Image by Flophilla88 at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Even though all this is known about the\u00a0Grundstein<\/em>, it was never known where it could be found exactly. The\u00a0Baupl\u00e4ne\u00a0<\/em>(blueprints) indicated in which room the\u00a0Grundstein\u00a0<\/em>was located, but it was never found there. Until now! Just a week ago, the\u00a0Grundstein\u00a0<\/em>was located. To the inch. How?<\/p>\n

With an\u00a0elektronisches Minensuchger\u00e4t\u00a0<\/em>(electronic minesweeper). By whom?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Sprengkommando des Bayerischen Landeskriminalamts\u00a0<\/em>(demolition squad of the Bavarian Office of Criminal Investigations).<\/p>\n

Yes, really.<\/p>\n

The wall in front of the\u00a0Grundstein <\/em>had a Messingkapsel <\/em>(brass capsule) laid in to mark the location of the cornerstone. And Messing<\/em> is something those minesweepers detect! So it turns out these\u00a0Kommandos\u00a0<\/em>do more than defuse dangerous WWII bombs, as they did in Dresden last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

After 4 hours of work, they made the find. What a perfect birthday surprise for the castle’s 150th anniversary!<\/p>\n

However, the Grundstein <\/em>will not be removed. The Bayerische <\/em>Schl\u00f6sserverwaltung <\/em>(Bavarian Castle Administration) decided to leave the Grundstein<\/em> where it is.\u00a0Denkmalschutz\u00a0<\/em>(monument protection). And even if they removed it, there would not be much to learn: what is inside is known already anyway!<\/p>\n

It is a kleine historische Sensation\u00a0<\/em>(small historic sensation), as one historian called it.<\/p>\n

Have you visited the castle? Are there amazing places like these in your country? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

You’ve heard of this place. And you have definitely seen it, or a version of it.\u00a0Schloss Neuschwanstein\u00a0(Castle Neuschwanstein) is celebrating its 150th birthday today, on September 5. We say herzlichen Gl\u00fcckwunsch! But there’s more: it comes with a special Geburtstags\u00fcberraschung (birthday surprise)! Grundsteinlegung Schloss Neuschwanstein is one of Germany’s most famous sights. With its m\u00e4rchenhafte\u00a0(fairytale-like)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":11069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,7,8],"tags":[8883,376027,13],"class_list":["post-11064","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-holidays","category-language","tag-german-history","tag-travel","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11064"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11071,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064\/revisions\/11071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}