"As mighty as the Roman Empire once was"

The decision was made in Wiesbaden. Kaiser Wilhelm II had come to his father's favorite spa town on October 18, 1897 to unveil a memorial to the 99-day Emperor. A banquet with 112 place settings was held in the royal palace, the former residence of the Dukes of Nassau and later the state parliament of Hesse, as the “Berliner Börsenzeitung” reported the following day.

“The Emperor expressed his thanks to the city of Wiesbaden for the magnificent monument unveiled today; he remembered the many connections that connected Kaiser Friedrich with Wiesbaden and the numerous visits that brought him and his house here." But he only got to the main point afterwards: "Finally, His Majesty expressed the intention of turning the Saalburg near Homburg into a museum for to make antiquities.”

At that time there was not much left of the walled Roman fort on the Hessian Taunus ridge. For centuries, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages had removed stones from the ruins as building material. Over time, the remains of the Roman heritage entwined around the roots of the trees, and it was only in 1747 that they were recognized as a "Roman redoubt". But it was not until 1818 that Landgrave Friedrich V of Hesse-Homburg punished further stone robbery from the ruins; two years later, the Duchy of Hesse-Nassau bought the property with the remains.

It took another almost 80 years before the idea of ​​a reconstruction caught on. Although there had been the first systematic excavations since 1841, the Saalburg Association was founded in 1872. But another historical building project was the focus of interest: the completion of the High Gothic Cologne Cathedral, which Wilhelm I was able to celebrate in 1880.

Only his grandson Wilhelm II made the Saalburg a personal task. He had already pushed through the long-blocked founding of a Reichs-Limes-Konferenz headed by the ancient historian Theodor Mommsen, which began work in April 1892. The Homburg architect Louis Jacobi (1836 to 1910) was responsible for researching the Limes in the vicinity of the Saalburg as "route commissioner". He had already reconstructed a corner of the wall as a test in 1885, but he lacked the funds for a complete reconstruction. That changed now.

Because Jacobi had often received the emperor as a guest in the still tranquil spa town of Homburg and convinced him to let the castle rise from the ruins. This is how the Saalburg came into being as a completely constructed Roman fort.

On October 11, 1900, Wilhelm II was there once again for the laying of the foundation stone of the praetorium; on this occasion he sent a telegram written in Latin to Theodor Mommsen. Then came the actual ceremony. "So I consecrate this stone," said the Kaiser, dressed in infantry uniform and spiked helmet, at the ceremony, "to the future of our German fatherland, which may be destined to do so in future times through the unified cooperation of the princes and peoples, their armies and of its citizens to become as mighty, as firmly united, and as authoritative as the Roman Empire once was.”

By 1903, the Saalburg had been largely reconstructed - to the extent that a plaque was hung above the main gate with the inscription, also in Latin: "Wilhelm II, son of Frederick III, grandson of Wilhelm the Great, in the year 15 of his rule commemorates and In honor of his ancestors, the Saalburg fort of the Roman Limes was restored.” In fact, the work was only completed in 1907.

The former Hessian state archaeologist and former head of the Saalburg Museum, Egon Schallmayer, calls the rebuilt Saalburg a "total work of art, which the Wilhelmine zeitgeist obviously saw as a striving goal". The reconstruction reflects the state of research at the time. However, compromises were made when planning the reconstruction, for example in order to be able to use the facility as a museum.

The emperor wanted to see the Saalburg as an archaeological object of interest, especially for young people. At the same time, Wilhelm II planned to create a museum park as a tourist magnet. And of course he wanted to stage himself - in the spirit of the time: the laying of the foundation stone was designed as a costume party. Numerous extras in Roman attire watched the ceremony. There were also backdrops made of wood and papier-mâché instead of the not very advanced reconstructions.

You can also find "World History" on Facebook. We are happy about a like.