Stortebeker – silverfox175
The old part of Rostock (rebuilt after WW2) – the white piano was being played while we walked around and it was very pleasant to hear it in the background.
The day was warm and the children seemed to be having great fun dodging the intermittent water fountains.
Rostock was to be our last port of call for this Baltic cruise, before we headed back to Southampton. This year is the 800th anniversary of the town.
Our guide was a twenty eight year old university student, who was very good and offered his services as a tour guide in his spare time. His English was excellent.
Our coach transported us from the port to the old part of the town, which was about a twenty minute ride.
During WW2, Rostock was targeted by the RAF because of two aircraft factories in the vicinity. Bombing the factories also meant that the town received a lot of hits.
Both above & below from the internet – note the church which is still standing today.
The market square and the building in front of which the cars are parked, is the town hall.
The same square today, with a small market in operation, and the pink building is the town hall.
The guide told us there aren’t any photographs of the destroyed city on display, and the only public acknowledgment is a painting inside St Mary’s,which was the only church that survived.
Rostock has become one the most popular ports for cruise ships in Europe, and tourism is now one of their biggest industries.
We started are walking tour near the modern shopping are.
Kröpelin Gate – first mentioned in 1280,
Rostock used to be a walled defensive city and you entered via one the many gates, this gate is 54 mtrs (177 ft) high. It is now a free museum.
Part of the old wall.
They’ve reconstructed the support system for the defenders to fire over the wall.
I think this columned building part of Rostock University.
The university –
The yellow columned building is to my left, and the children playing in the fountains are just behind me.
The university was founded in 1419, which was seventy three years before Columbus discovered America. Today they have 14,000 students and 2933 staff.
On the 500th anniversary of Rostock University Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate in 1919, which made the university the first place of higher learning in the world to honour Einstein in such away. Unlike many other academics, Einstein’s doctorate was not revoked during the Nazi period.
No 14 was our guide – the statues I think depict various virtues, justice, modesty, diligence etc.
The coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, which existed from 1815 to 1918, is displayed at the very top top of the university entrance ‘tower’.
In the park in front of the university there is a statue –
depicting another solider of the Napoleonic wars, and I was very surprised to see him because I didn’t realise that he came from Rostock.
Gebhard Leberecht von Blüche
The one consuming passion of Field Marshal (and later Prince) Blüche, was to beat the French under Napoleon. Blüche had been a solider most of his life, mainly fighting the French. His life story reads like a boys own adventure story.
During Napoleon’s ‘one hundred days’, after he had escaped from the Mediterranean island of Elba in 1815, the British (with contingents of Dutch & present day Belgium troops), and the Prussians under Blüche’s command, marched to combine their forces so as to face the French. Napoleon’s tactic was to aim his army at the allied weak spot, which was the join of the two main armies, and force them apart, so that he could deal with each army individually.
This is what happened at Charleroi, and according to Wellington, who was surprised at the speed of Napoleon’s advance, commented that he (Wellington) had been ‘humbugged’. He also said about Napoleon, ”By God, that man does war honour’.