Gold kranach in Swiss francs : A whole place in the Humboldt-fever

the Lord of The Castle welcomes with a smile and with a crunchy whole-grain bread, baked from an ancient Rye variety, white dusted. "Humboldt-bun," says Hartmut Koschyk, and also shows on the original loaf that is next to: Humboldt-bread. In Koschyks Empire of Alexander von Humboldt is everywhere and in all forms of the present: as bread, beer, Rose, and especially as an Inspiration for cultural and scientific events. Perhaps the great naturalist and America-travelers here in Franconia, where he worked at a young age as a Prussian mining official, his most loyal Fans.

Because there is already a Humboldt-Forum in a castle, long since opened and active, however, it is not Under the Linden, but in Goldkronach on the edge of the Fichtelgebirge. In this place, with its heritage-protected old town is since 2008, the "Alexander von Humboldt cultural forum castle gold Kronach e. V." is home, an Initiative of the CSU-politician Hartmut Koschyk, formerly member of the German Bundestag, state Secretary and Commissioner for repatriation issues and national minorities. To him the castle, the square tower and turmlos in the centre of the town and more of a Fortress is like.

Earlier, the building served as the seat of Margravial administration, today, the forum of culture and revived the whole Region. From the dialect of the afternoon on the challenging song of the evening until the concert of Thai musicians, of the "Kosmos - lectures" on the topic of dementia to the pleasure feast with regional specialities: Everything takes place in the castle, his garden, or in cooperation with churches or other operators in the area.

The origins for everything that came after it

What does that have to do with Alexander von Humboldt? Now, he, too, has revived this area and taken forward. After the young nobleman had studied from Tegel in Freiberg mining, he was from 1792 to 1797 as a senior hill climb champion in the then Prussian provinces of Ansbach and Bayreuth, and happy to finally have their inclinations to pursue it.

he Tirelessly traveled between the stations back and forth, lived in Steben, in Naila, gold Kronach or Bayreuth, inspected the huts and tunnels, made suggestions for improvement and helped the mining industry in Swiss francs to new heights. To him life was, and to improve the working conditions of the people: In Steben, he founded at his own expense and with self-written Textbook is a mountain school for the workers and their children, and he invented a light holder, as well as a breathing mask for miners, who had to contend with bad weather, toxic gases and oxygen deficiency.

The Frankish Phase of Humboldt's life is dealt with in biographies, usually only briefly, because his travel to the Americas (1799-1804), and Russia (1829) are spectacular, his decades as a researcher, author, and lecturer in Paris and Berlin, and scientifically important. But in Humboldt's mining activities, the origins for everything that came after: his interest in all natural phenomena above and below ground, the connection of science and practice and social commitment. How very him the Franconian period of time shaped me, in the beautiful book "Alexander von Humboldt in Franken" by Frank Holl and Eberhard Schütz Lüpertz (Schrenk Verlag) read.

Museum Park with display boards

Especially now, seems to be the beginning of the Humboldt year 2019, the whole place to goldkronach by Humboldt to be of enthusiasm to be taken. The gold mining Museum diagonally across from the castle, which, since 2004, in an appealing way, the history of gold mining in the Region, is preparing a special exhibition on the 250. Birthday of the researcher. Annette Taubenreuther, the Vice-Chairman of the Museum, a professional designer, to the Geopark-Ranger training.

"The first mine in Goldberg, the mine-Prince, was opened in 1363, at times, has brought out the four kilograms of Gold per week," she says. After the easily accessible gold deposits had been depleted, weakened the mining industry, however, epidemics of plague and the 30 years war brought him to a Standstill. Only Humboldt's ideas, a brief new flowering. If Annette Reuther Pigeons on the Humboldt path to the visitor's mine "Medium Name of God", dressed up as Alexander von Humboldt. And explains with Verve, the legacies of mining and the "Franconian line", those fracture zone in the earth's crust, this area is still so interesting for geologists.

In all variants. The Humboldt Beer.Photo: Dorothee Nolte

The Franconian line, is also in the vaulted cellar of the castle gold Kronach visible, there, where, today, an exhibition with display boards on Humboldt's time in Franconia remembers. Next to the castle is a bronze, stands on a Stele, bust, and grow around, from the Winter exhausted, kleine Humboldt-roses: a particularly insect friendly breeding for the 250. Birthday of the researcher, the mind always as a botanist.

Behind the castle, the Alexander von Humboldt Museum Park is currently being built according to plans by two Berlin-based landscape architecture students: Here with European and Latin American plantations and with the display boards, stations from Alexander von Humboldt's life to be comprehensible, attractive for tourists, Locals, and environmental educators. The Connections to Berlin are closely. The Advisory Board of the Museum Park, Patricia Rahemipour from the Berlin Botanical Museum and the Humboldt-expert Tobias Kraft, Ulrich Päßler and Ingo Schwarz are sitting, among others; and visited the lectures of Hermann Parzinger, and Humboldt already researchers Ottmar Ette in the small town. Conversely, trips took the gold kronacher in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt to Berlin and to Cuba. In the spirit of the brilliant NetWorker Humboldt, the culture is networked forum. Among other things, the international fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will meet here once a year.

Not everywhere the Name is held in honor

Alexander von Humboldt is for the 3700 inhabitants of the place had become, so to speak, to the gold piece. Even the signs on the nearby A9 point meanwhile, the "gold Kronach – Alexander von Humboldt". But not everywhere, his Name is held in such honor.

Hartmut Koschyk shakes his head when he told Steben Bad, that place Humboldt later wistfully recalled. There you have the opportunity to acquire Alexander von Humboldt's former house for the community and turn it into a Museum, to pass the house was privately purchased, the collections and furniture in all the winds sold.

goodbye, Hartmut Koschyk handed over three bottles of dark export beer, brewed in a brewery in the area of goldkronach for the first "Alexander von Humboldt Enjoyment." Tastes!

Info: www.humboldt-kulturforum.de. The daily mirror offers in may, July and September, a four-day readers ' travel in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt in Franken, Saxony and Thuringia. All information and the booking facility you will find on the 23. February in the daily mirror, as well as under reisen.tagesspiegel.de.

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250 years of Alexander von Humboldt, the leader of a new world-viewing

Rüdiger Schaper

Of Dorothee Nolte appeared "Alexander von Humboldt. A picture of life in anecdotes" and "Wilhelm von Humboldt. A picture of life in anecdotes“, both in the owl mirror publishing house, both of which have 128 pages and costs 9,99 €.