{"id":7566,"date":"2026-06-06T19:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T19:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/?p=7566"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:13:24","slug":"gottingen-friday-june-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/gottingen-friday-june-5\/","title":{"rendered":"G\u00f6ttingen: Friday, June 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was our G\u00f6ttingen day. This famous university town which generated famous academics and philosophers basically since its founding in 1937 was also the town where my parents met (as students, what else?) and where I was born in 1966, although I never lived in the city and was too little to have any memory even of the region before we moved away from a nearby village in 1968. My mom met us here today mid-day and took us on a tour down HER memory lane from her time here 60 years ago, so that’s what most of today’s entry will be. But we did start our day with a more general exploration, so I’ll start with a little photo tour of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a somewhat cramped night in our windowless box we had a lovely breakfast at a bakery across the street that got us ready for our long day (we walked about 12 miles today, all told). We started out at a historic cemetery, Bartholom\u00e4usfriedhof, which only has a few graves left, but all from the 18th and early 19th century. Some of the famous writers that lived in G\u00f6ttingen are buried here, above all the physics professor and famous author of witty sayings<\/a>, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The graves of Lichtenberg and his wife at the Bartholom\u00e4us Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This grave was striking, the only one with a large figure. The inscription explained: <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Carl v. Hahn, of the House of Postenden in Courland [Latvia], born 17 March 1778, died in G\u00f6ttingen 27 December 1797 from the consequences of a fencing blow, which he receives as he sought to prevent a fight between students and ensigns. May his bravery and civil courage be a model for us. Monument created in 1802 by Professor Johann Christian Ruhl, of Kassel, donated by the parents, the Imperial Russian Counsel Adolph v. Hahn and his wife Charlotte, n\u00e9e v. Fircks. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the cemetery, we went to the modern(ish) part of the university campus, which lies just North of the city center (and which was for the most part not there when my mother studied here). We found this lovely tree sculpture carved in situ from a tree that once stood here, in front of the building that now fittingly houses the departments of linguistics, German and English literature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you look carefully, you don’t only see a pile of books and the founding date of the university, 1737, but also seven owls. These stand for the “G\u00f6ttingen Seven”–more about them below! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finding our way out of the Botanical gardens through a tunnel that cuts through the former city walls! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a quick walk through the lovely “Old Botanical Gardens” which are the segue from the campus to the downtown area, we stopped at the hotel to get our bags before the 11 am check-out time and headed to the train station. We stored our luggage for the day and wandered around along the river Leine, which flows on the other side of the train tracks (of course looking out for birds–we saw a heron from a distance and a bunch of little guys as always). Then we went back to the train station and sat in a little cafe until it was time to gather my mom, who made the 3-hour trip here without a hitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The river Leine, which runs on to Hannover and then joins the Weser, which empties into the North Sea by Bremerhaven. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In front of the train station, there used to be an equestrian monument to the king who ruled here 1837-1851, Ernst August of Hanover (one of the sons of King George III). When he became king in 1837 at the death of King William IV of England and Hanover (i.e. as Victoria ascended the throne in the UK), he rescinded the constitution of 1833. In 2015, the sculpture was removed and this inscription was added by the artist Christiane M\u00f6bus: “To the Father of the Country, from the G\u00f6ttingen Seven.” <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The G\u00f6ttingen Seven<\/a> were seven professors at the university, under the leadership of the historian Friedrich Dahlmann, who had been part of writing the Hanoverian constitution of 1833, who protested and tried to prevent annulment. Other professors and the university at large did not dare to follow their example. All seven, including the BROTHERS GRIMM (Jacob and Wilhelm) were fired and several were forced into exile from Hanover. They are now celebrated for their willingness to stand up for the rule of the law. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Ready for our G\u00f6ttingen afternoon with Imke!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Once my mom got there, we found ourselves an Venezuelan caf\u00e9 for lunch, but on the way there we did visit the plaza where the G\u00f6ttingen synagogue was located. We did not spend a lot of time exploring the history of the Jewish community in G\u00f6ttingen (which, in spite of the city being 10 times larger than Halberstadt’s, was comparatively small, about 2% of the population at its height). But we did see several inscriptions and monuments. The university is very much aware of this part of the city’s past, because Jewish faculty were expelled by the Nazis and forced into exile early on. The synagogue was destroyed during Kristallnacht in November of 1938, and the monument lists all the G\u00f6ttingen victims on bronze plaques in the space underneath the sculpture. Two resources gave me an overview of the history of the community until 1900<\/a> and what happened during the Third Reich<\/a>. The city is large enough that there is a small but active Jewish community now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Platz der Synagoge \/ Synagogue Plaza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After our lunch break, we wandered the small but beautiful historic downtown of G\u00f6ttingen (not as seamlessly old and half-timbered as Quedlinburg, but very pretty and of course much busier, because it is a larger city, has many students, and the historic city center functions as a big outdoor shopping mall, just as in Osnabr\u00fcck and elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The famous “G\u00e4nseliesel” (Goose Girl) fountain on the central market square, in front of the town hall (on the left). The tradition is that when the fraternity brothers had gotten their degrees, they would clamber up the sculpture and kiss her. I even saw a large-size ad poster that referred to this, suggesting that the people of G\u00f6ttingen use Tinder to find someone rather than just kiss the goose girl. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A half-timbered building from 1495 , then part of a convent within the city walls (fully restored 1980-81) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But we were specifically stopping at the spots that were significant for my mom, first and foremost at the university library, which also doubles as that state library for Lower Saxony. This is an imposing but now very quiet building, where only offices and the Reading Room are located, whereas the “real” library is on the university new campus and (of course) focused on an electronic catalogue and digital access (to 10 million “media objects”). But when Imke got her degree in library science and started working at the central catalogue for the region (Nieders\u00e4chsischer Zentralkatalog) at the university, this was still the main library. We were able to go into the archival reading room, which has been recently renovated, but still shows the old structure underneath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The big old historic library building where Imke used to work (1965-1968), now very quiet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Imposing entrance, with reading room behind me (and an image of the old reading room at the center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Imke on the second level of the newly renovated reading room. We were later able to confirm with a nice digital librarian who was crossing our path that the card catalog that she worked with (including with the first computer punch cards!) is all gone now, because it has of course gone electronic and integrated into the general catalog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The University’s main building right in the historic downtown. It now houses the president’s offices and high-level meeting \/ lecture rooms. But when my mom was here, this is where she was matriculated.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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St. Jacobi (St. Jacob’s church), a Lutheran church in the city center where my mom sang in the choir for a little while when she first came to G\u00f6ttingen as a student in the fall of 1962. The columns, all white when my mom was here, are painted again in the manner they were done in the Middle Ages. The volunteer who greeted visitors described it as “Escheresque.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We also went on a treasure hunt to find the rented rooms \/ apartments where my mother lived as a student. She moved four times; the fourth apartment, which she shared with my dad, was in Weender Strasse, but we could not narrow down on which block or in which house. But: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My mom’s first apartment in G\u00f6ttingen was right along the “Wall,” the promenade that replaced the city walls in the mid-18th century. But not in the castle-like monstrosity on the left, which was in fact a noisy German frat club house, but in the red brick next door, and unfortunately…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… on the side facing<\/strong> the noisy frat, which featured the traditional German “Studentenverbindungen” drunken saber fights. My mom and a female friend shared the two windows at the top left, one small, one large, toilet on the landing and no sink or shower in the rooms. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The second apartment, on the first floor of this building in the Mauerstrasse, was not much of an improvement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Imke’s third apartment was on the top floor of this house on Theaterstrasse, facing the back of the building. While she didn’t recognize the super modern store front, she knew there had been a shoe store and then the name rang a bell. We went in and asked how long a store of the name had been there, and the saleswoman said “For about 90 years.” So that was the store in the 60s–but it also means that it was opened in the mid-1930s and thus likely and “aryanized store” taken away from a Jewish merchant. (The next cross-street was “J\u00fcdenstrasse,” so not unlikely.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a little restorative cake and coffee at the lovely Caf\u00e9 Botany at the Old Botanical Gardens with their fabulous trees and flowers, we meandered around a little bit more and made one more important stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A beautiful rose bush by St. Michael’s Church, the only Catholic church in the historic downtown (G\u00f6ttingen was part of the Lutheran house of Hanover), where my mother and father were married in the summer of 1965. She converted to Catholicism in order to be able to marry my father and also attended her classes here in preparation for conversion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My mom lit two candles in memory of that wedding 60+ years ago. My parents divorced in 1994, but stayed in touch, and my mom visited my dad mere days before he died in March of 2009. We both cried a little and hugged each other tight. For the record, I WAS present at their wedding. In utero, but nonetheless a very important guest. \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around 5:30 pm, we made our way back to the train station on the green belt around the inner city, where the former city wall was turned into a beautiful promenade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The oldest Linden tree on the “Wall” promenade, dating back to 1765. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is a map of G\u00f6ttingen with all these sites marked. From the station, we then took the train to the small town of Leinefelde, about 30 minutes southeast of the city, where we will be staying in a spacious vacation rental until Monday. To find out why you’ll have to wait until tomorrow… more trips down other memory lanes, streets, and alleys!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This was our G\u00f6ttingen day. This famous university town which generated famous academics and philosophers basically since its founding in 1937 was also the town where my parents met (as students, what else?) and where I was born in 1966, although I never lived in the city and was too little to have any memory … Continue reading “G\u00f6ttingen: Friday, June 5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2026-vienna","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7566"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7623,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions\/7623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}