The Meier's German Adventure

Another day - another adventure! Our Catholic community here in Mannheim organized a Volksmarch (hike) today in nearby Heidelberg. The walk took place on the Heligenberg - Holy Mountain - which is across the Neckar River from the city of Heidelberg. The first stop along our Volksmarch was at an original Nazi Stadium. This was built in 1935 using forced labor which has created a stigma that has left the stadium rarely used for decades. The Nazis called this stadium a "Thingstätte." In early Nazi quasi-religious Völkisch ceremony and Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology, a "Thing" was an open-air gathering of the people, harking back to old Germanic pagan gatherings. Some 1200 "Thing" sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the Nazi hierarchy lost interest in the "Thing" movement in 1936. Another such site that remains today is the Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne adjacent to the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

# posted by Lisa, Scott, Kaitlyn & Jake @ 1:26 AM