Albrecht Dürer, trial to the Nazis, toys: three key issues about Nuremberg

Nuremberg is one of the most beautiful and prestigious cities of the Bavaria region, in the south of Germany, where Bavarian fine landscapes and traditions meet the historical roots of Franconia.

The town preserves a medieval centre, whose semicircular shape is characterized by a double circle of walls, dating back to XIV-XV centuries: this defensive construction has about 80 towers and it is walkable for all its 5 kilometres of length.

In spite of the huge walls, the heart of the city, called “Altstadt St. Lorenz”, identifies itself with St. Lorenz’s Church, from where Königstrasse, the main street of the centre, starts.

This core has grown over time, developing a harmonic concentric road network, which Second World War bombings have spared.

Nevertheless, Nuremberg, beyond its pleasant atmosphere and religious monuments, must be quoted for three features, which distinguish it from other urban realities and approach it to art and contemporary history, till to the world of childhood and play.

Let’s know these traits better.

 

Albrecht Dürer, a touch of Renaissance in Nuremberg

Albrecht Dürer is one of the major exponents of northern European Renaissance and probably the greatest German artist ever, the one who favoured the meeting between Italian painting and Nordic culture; this mixture of styles induced him to think about different components which constitute an artwork, from the importance of colours to a precise scientific approach, till to the inner meaning of many creations.

Thanks to his travels across Europe, above all in Italy, Albrecht became aware of the difference between an artist and an artisan, developing his technique both as an engraver and as a painter, becoming, moreover, a far-sighted entrepreneur.

He exploited his talent in order to work independently, creating a source of income based on market needs; in this sense, he anticipated current marketing studies, trying to satisfy customers’ tastes and requests, focusing on easily reproducible engraving techniques.

Let’s deepen his biography

Albrecht Dürer was born in 1471 in Nuremberg, the third son of eight children: his father Albrecht Dürer, who was nicknamed “The Old” to distinguish him from his son, was a Hungarian engraver and he settled in Germany when he was young.

Albrecht Dürer The Old opened his own shop, where he put into practice his brilliant qualities as an artisan; in this context the son, just a teenager, started working with his father, proving immediately his excellent artistic skills: in this period, Albrecht Dürer measured himself with metal engraving and, at the same time, he admired Flemish painters.

This pictorial discovery pushed him to leave the paternal shop, with the purpose of undertaking an authentic and polyhedric training course: when Albrecht chose to become a painter at sixteen, he continued his apprenticeship at Michael Wolgemut’s studio, not far from home, the greatest xylograph and painter in those years in Nuremberg.

In 1490, at the end of his internship, Albrecht Dürer began to travel across Europe, because he wanted to widen his knowledge and to confront himself with other cultures and diverse ways to look at art.

He operated in various countries, such as Holland, Northern Germany, France and Switzerland and, during these first decades of movable type printing spread in the Old Continent, his main tasks were illustrations for scholars and printers.

Especially in Basel and Strasbourg, important editorial cities, Albrecht dealt with xylographs for books and prestigious prints, thanks to which he refined his attention for accuracy and originality, capable of communicating a story and a precise symbolic value, contained in each artwork.

This interesting and formative journey lasted four years, but the trip to Italy was decisive for Albrecht’s artistic maturation: he was attracted by chromatic vivacity and cultural ferment, which involved the country during the Renaissance, one of the most prolific historical ages for Italian art and literature.

He moved to Italy in 1494 and repeated the experience in 1505: the artist visited many places, starting from Northern Italy, as well as his watercolours attest.

Venice was an important stop for his studies since Albrecht was fascinated by Giovanni Bellini’s artworks, where the attention to details is primary, and he learnt the principles of perspective construction; furthermore, he appreciated the cosmopolitan climate of the city and the high consideration of which artists enjoyed in Italy.

Regarding methods and artistic poiesis, Dürer’s paintings acquired psychological introspection, giving much importance to settings also in portraits, in order to achieve perfect harmony between portrayed subject and landscape.

When he came back to Italy for the second time, Albrecht probably met Leonardo da Vinci, whose teachings underlined a balanced relationship between human and nature, showing the element of reality reproduction, a distinctive one of Dürer’s career.

These concepts permeate many studies at the beginning of XVI century, focused on flora and fauna, and they helped the unknown engraver from Nuremberg to create marvellous masterpieces, praised throughout Europe and mainly made by watercolours; the famous drawing of “Leveret” (1502) is so accurate to seem a photo.

During the last years of his life, Albrecht devoted himself to astronomy and architecture, until he died in 1528 in his home town, maybe due to malaria.

Albrecht Dürer’s works and stylish image have crossed centuries and the house, which he bought in 1509, has been turned into a museum: it exposes master’s graphic works and some of his most famed paintings’ copies.

The building, located near the medieval castle, has preserved sixteenth-century original structure, with the characteristic half-timbered frame.

The dark page of Nazism

Nuremberg isn’t a cultured and captivating art city only: it is also remembered for being Hitler’s favourite town and one of the most important hubs of Nazism.

Unlike many other urban realities, Nuremberg has decided to face his uncomfortable past, inviting citizens and tourists to meditation and memory.

This temporal tour, dedicated to the saddest chapter of German history, starts from a basic stage, the Dokumentationszentrum: it is a modern glass and steel building and represents a documentation centre about Nazism, proposing a permanent exhibition entitled Faszination und Gewalt (Charm and Scare), which tries to investigate Nazi dictatorship’s causes, features and consequences.

The museum has been set in a huge and incomplete Kongresshalle’s wing; the construction, inspired by Roman Colosseum, has been conceived by Nazis to become the biggest congress hall in the world, capable of hosting 50.000 people.

The area surrounding the site, called Reichsparteitagsgelände, was one of the most sacred places for the regime because here the most impressive demonstrations were held, as Leni Riefenstahl’s documentaries report.

Since 2000 the chamber number 600 of the city court has been visitable: here the trial to Nazi hierarchs was celebrated and now it hosts the Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse, a historical exhibition about the Nuremberg trial.

To ultimate this unusual trip, just outside the city, the gracious village of Fürth is the headquarters of the Jüdisches Museum Franken (Franconian Jewish Museum), which illustrates the Bavarian Jewish community’s vicissitudes, since the Middle Ages.

Doubtless, this aspect of the city isn’t the one that conveys happiness and lightheartedness to the best…

But let us not be fooled by it: if the Nazi past spreads a veil of coldness on our curiosity, Nuremberg hides a surprising side that has nothing to do with wars or obscure discriminations.

Let’s get ready to dive into the world of fun, creativity and childhood.

Nuremberg, the toy world capital

This is an uncommon as much as prestigious award: Nuremberg can be considered the unrivalled toy town, with a rooted play culture that dates back to the Middle Ages, when the doll maker profession was very popular.

Over time, tradition has evolved and enriched with variegated aspects and categories, from pewter figures to tin toys, valuable handmade stuffed animals and model making for collectors, until a museum about this secular pride was set in 1971.

The Nuremberg Spielzeugmuseum (Toys Museum) is one of the most engaging attractions of the city: it is located in a bourgeois house of the seventeenth century, with fine Rococo interiors, and the exposition is displaced in four floors and shows different thematic areas.

At the beginning of the visit, there is an introduction, thanks to which the guest has the first contact with the topic, viewing numerous kinds of toys from diverse ages, such as dolls, castles, cars and soldiers, made with varied materials, from wood to plastic.

On the first floor, the kingdom of dolls is ready to catch our glances in an instant: none of the preserved dolls are alike and they are accompanied by stunning miniature dolls’ houses, furnished in minimum details; these last reveal themselves as evidence of bourgeois lifestyle in the nineteenth century.

Upstairs, this museum section explains the birth of the modern industrial toys production in Nuremberg, with the sensible game evolution in the last century; the protagonist of this floor is the big representation of a railway station, consisting of hundreds of pieces, from rails to station buildings.

On the top floor, some electronic games, like game-boy and robots, close the exhibition.

But the journey in the Nuremberg as “toy world capital” isn’t finished yet, since play culture isn’t a museum topic only: the Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg (International Toy Fair of Nuremberg) is the biggest worldwide fair dedicated to plays and toys and it attracts exhibitors and industry experts from every country since over seventy editions.

It is organized by “Spielwarenmesse eG”, a society, which provides fair services, specialized in the toys field, based in Nuremberg.

Every year one million products, among which 70.000 are new, are presented during the event and, after two cancelled editions due to the Covid pandemic, the 72nd International Toy Fair, scheduled for February 2022, promises many novelties and a hopeful revival of the sector.

Probably there isn’t a more amazing paradise for toy fans than it, even if the fair isn’t open to any public, but trade visitors are admitted only.

Even if many of us cannot visit the Spielwarenmesse, let us propositive: these artistic, historical and playful traits make Nuremberg a very multifaceted city, where mankind opposite aspects harmonize each other.

Albrecht Dürer’s heritage cohabits with Nazi atrocities, while toy cult drives the town towards the most optimistic frontiers of imagination, capable of overcoming any uncertain period.