Thingstätte at Heidelberg

Heidelberg beim Abendrot (Heidelberg at sunset)

Gorgeous. This is enough to describe the view of both sides of the neckar river, the Philosophenweg on one side and the Altstadt on the other. Although Heidelberg is only 20minutes away from Mannheim, one looked like paradise, the other looked like an industrial leftover. While I have been to Heidelberg a couple of times already, this is the first time that I came here during sunset at 9pm. Yes, thats how it looked at 9pm here, because we are into the summer season while the sun set late.

The side of the Philosophenweg, a route that cuts through the hill at the middle lower part, just slightly above the houses. The neckar river

The side of the Altstadt and Schloß

Walpurgisnacht in der Heidelberger Thingstätte

The Walpurgisnacht, or Hexennacht (witches night), as it is called here, takes place on the night of the 30th April here. It was believed that witches would hold a huge celebration on the Blocksberg mountain in the north of Germany during this night to welcome spring. As a result, it has become a tradition to celebrate this night with a big bonfire.

In Heidelberg, the Thingstätte, an amphitheatre which was built in the 1930s by the Nazis for their rally purposes hidden within the hill above the Philosophenweg.

The Thingstätte could hold a capacity of up to 20000 people, and this is how it looked like on a normal day.

As a result, it was natural for people to think of using this place as a celebration. And so everyone made their way up to hill in the dark when the sun set. It was quite a difficult walk up as visibility was practically nothing. Back to the army days at night when we had field exercises.

When we finally reached the Thingstätte after about 1 hour of hiking up the hill, this is what we saw. Everyone was partying, dancing, getting drunk, playing with fire, as well as bbqing.


The huge bonfire at the centre stage of the Thingstätte

Some interesting observations

Such an event reminded me of an aspect of the deutschen Volkskultur (German folk culture). Long hikes up hills or castles perched on hilltops through forests with friends has always been an aspect of such a culture that has existed since centuries ago, even before the unification of Germany in 1871. Today such practices are still common even among the young. Of course, despite the tiring walk up, everyone was singing and drinking along the way. Some people were already drunk even before they reached the Thingstätte. And more importantly, people were hiking up the hill with heavy crates of bottles of beer. I remember someone saying that he was totally gone after all that alcohol that he did not remember how he managed to find himself at the bottom of the hill the next morning.

Another very interesting observation is the way some guys there conduct their bbq. It was so primitive that they used twigs to stick their sauages and cook the meat!

http://picasaweb.google.com/vintagebin/30AprThingstTteAtHeidelberg