Visions of Germany: Along the Rhine

Following Visions of Germany: Bavaria, the PBS network produced a second German-oriented episode in its Vision series, this one titled Visions of Germany: Along the Rhine. Among the fantastic sights that the show highlighted was Burg Hohenzollern, the ancestral castle of the dynasty that ruled Prussia throughout its history:



It also featured the Niederwalddenkmal, topped by the statue of Germania, as well as Burg Eltz, Germany's most magnificent authentic medieval castle.



Visions of Germany: Along the Rhine

Visions of Germany: Neuschwanstein

The Public Broadcasting Service in the U.S. runs a series titled Visions, which shows aerial views of various destinations around the world. This excerpt, from the installment titled Visions of Germany: Bavaria, shows the magnificent arch-Romantic castle Schloß Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig II, as well as Schloß Hohenschwangau, in which the king spent his boyhood years.


Visions of Germany: Bavaria

The Gothic Castle

From Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794):

Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley. Mountains, whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost surrounded it. To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the Apennines in their darkest horrors; and the long perspective of retiring summits, rising over each other, their ridges clothed with pines, exhibited a stronger image of grandeur, than any that Emily had yet seen. The sun had just sunk below the top of the mountains she was descending, whose long shadow stretched athwart the valley, but his sloping rays, shooting through an opening of the cliffs, touched with a yellow gleam the summits of the forest, that hung upon the opposite steeps, and streamed in full splendour upon the towers and battlements of a castle, that spread its extensive ramparts along the brow of a precipice above. The splendour of these illumined objects was heightened by the contrasted shade, which involved the valley below.

"There," said Montoni, speaking for the first time in several hours, "is Udolpho."

Emily gazed with melancholy awe upon the castle, which she understood to be Montoni's; for, though it was now lighted up by the setting sun, the gothic greatness of its features, and its mouldering walls of dark grey stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublime object. As she gazed, the light died away on its walls, leaving a melancholy purple tint, which spread deeper and deeper, as the thin vapour crept up the mountain, while the battlements above were still tipped with splendour. From those, too, the rays soon faded, and the whole edifice was invested with the solemn duskiness of evening. Silent, lonely, and sublime, it seemed to stand the sovereign of the scene, and to frown defiance on all, who dared to invade its solitary reign. As the twilight deepened, its features became more awful in obscurity, and Emily continued to gaze, till its clustering towers were alone seen, rising over the tops of the woods, beneath whose thick shade the carriages soon after began to ascend.

(Illustration is Karl Friedrich Hampe, Ritterburg im Mondschein, 1817.)

Burg Eltz

This brief video features several lovely sights along the Mosel River in Germany, including the Reichsburg Cochem (which was highlighted in a previous post), but particularly focusses on mighty Burg Eltz, one of the greatest of all German castles, and certainly the greatest that is an authentic medieval Gothic structure rather than a Neo-Gothic rebuild.

Still in the possession of the von Eltz family, the castle lies deep within the German Urwald, just like in a fairy-tale, yet its fortress-like towers and turrets, built for practical defensive purposes, give it a distinctively masculine character.



Burg Eltz: Official Site

Reichsburg Cochem

This short 1999 promotional film showcases the Reichsburg -- the Imperial Castle of the town of Cochem.

Situated along the Mosel River, this Neo-Gothic masterpiece is a 19th-century rebuild of a sublime medieval structure, and is one of the most beautiful castles in Germany.

The video is divided into two parts. Part one:



Part two:



Reichsburg Cochem: Official Site

Burg Hohenzollern

This documentary from 1992 concerns Burg Hohenzollern, the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty -- the family that ruled Prussia throughout its existence and later became the royal line of the united German Empire in the 19th Century.

Burg Hohenzollern was rebuilt by Schinkel's pupil Friedrich August Stüler in the Neo-Gothic style in the 1800s, and is one of the most Romantic and beautiful castles in the world.

The tour guide in the video is Prince Meinrad of Hohenzollern.

The Hohenzollerns are still the rightful rulers of Prussia and of greater Germany. All Germans owe them their allegiance.

The video is divided into three parts. Part one:



Part two:



Part three:

Great Castles of Europe: Neuschwanstein

This episode from the 1990s TLC series Great Castles of Europe spotlights the fairy-tale Bavarian castle Neuschwanstein, one of the most beautiful castles in the world, and tells the story of its visionary builder, the tragic King Ludwig II, including commentary about his admiration for the great German Romantic composer Richard Wagner. The video also features views of the nearby castles Hohenschwangau and Linderhof.

The video is split into three parts. Part one:



Part two:



Part three:



Schloß Neuschwanstein: Official Site

Great Castles of Europe: Rhine Castles

This episode from the 1990s TLC series titled Great Castles of Europe spotlights some of the famous castles along the Rhine (which figured so prominently in German Romanticism), including the Marksburg, Pfalzgrafenstein, Burg Katz and Burg Maus, and recounts some of the greatest legends associated with the river, including those of Siegfried and of the Loreley (Lorelei).

The video is split into three parts. Part one:



Part two:



Part three: