GB Halliday Home Page      
German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents

SEEKING OUR GERMAN ROOTS

Chapter IV

May 23-25, 2003

TRIER and REIL
Butzen Family History

Trier, Saturday, May 24

By 9 a.m. we had breakfasted and were off on a walking tour of the Roman parts of Trier. We headed first for the Mosel River, just a few blocks from our hotel. There, we had a nice view of the "Römerbrucke," the successor to a 2nd century bridge. Five of the seven pylons holding up the bridge were constructed by those Romans about 150 A.D. for the original bridge. The tourist literature says the Römerbrucke’s main claim to fame is that it is the oldest bridge in Germany. (Hmmm, didn’t I hear a tour guide say that same thing about the bridge across the Danube at Regensburg????) Well, anyway, the Römerbrucke is on the UNESCO`s list of World Heritage Sites.

And, when General George Patton took Trier in February, 1945 he found that the Germans had blown up the northern bridge over the Mosel, but he captured the Römerbrucke intact. History is not yet through with Trier!

Click here for a general guide to Trier

An excerpt about the Römerbrucke from an EXCELLENT history of Trier:

During World War 2, Trier was again heavily bombed and many medieval buildings were damaged. Trier was on the southern shoulder of the Battle of the Bulge behind the German "west wall" in late 1944. By February 27, 1945 General George Patton had advanced within six miles of Trier. Patton relished the opportunity to travel along "Caesar’s Road" to Trier. He had the use of the 10th Armored Division from a prior battle at the Saar River and was supposed to have returned it to the control of the Allied Headquarters (SHAEF) by February 23rd. He persuaded Allied Headquarters to give him a 48-hour extension with the division. In one of his books, Patton later complained "It always made me mad to beg for opportunities to win battles." He later secured another extension until the 27th from General Bradley for the express purpose of taking Trier but by the 27th he had still not captured the city. Patton was slowed by minefields and German troops who were regrouping around the city. Bradley and Patton spoke again on the 27th and Bradley agreed to sidestep the subject as long as he could with headquarters. Under the light of a full moon, a task force was sent in by secondary roads on the evening of 28th with the goal of taking the bridges over the Mosel. The Germans had blown up the northern bridge but the "Romerbrucke", a Roman Bridge which dates to 144 AD, was captured intact. The next morning Patton received a communication from Allied Headquarters ordering him to bypass Trier since it was believed it would take 4 divisions to capture it. Patton replied "Have taken Trier with two divisions. What do you want me to do? Give it back?" On May 7, 1945 the Germans surrendered. After the war, Trier became part of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Our next stop was at some VERY old Roman baths, called, ahem, the "Baths of St. Barbara." We HAD to see these! Most of what is left of the baths is below ground level, but apparently when they were built about 150 A.D. they were very impressive. According to a sign on the site: "These Roman baths were used for several centuries and were once the largest in the world, but little remains of their past glory. Their derelict condition requires a vivid imagination to visualize, although the effect of ‘ruined ruins’ can be quite romantic."

One web site about the baths remarks, "Mainly because the old walls, like those of the Amphitheatre, served as a conveniently situated quarry until the 17th century, the ruins are not so impressive as those of the Imperial Baths." The Barbara Baths were dismantled to build a school, back in the 17th century. Another sign at the Baths said, "Only the foundation, cellars and sections of the 1800-year old heating system remain of these baths."

If we were to look closely around Trier, we’d probably see that the Baths were still there--as a brick here, and a brick there in some other buildings!

Click here for more detail on the Barbara Baths

After an hour of walking from the Mosel River, with many stops along the way, we reached the "Imperial Baths," one of the major Roman ruins of Trier. These baths did not suffer the severe dismantling of the Barbara Baths. They are stunningly beautiful structures, and it was easy to believe the signs that said these Imperial Baths were among the largest in the Roman Empire.

The Romans used an interesting flat, thin brick to build the baths. Very colorful, and the overall impression is that the architecture could be contemporary, instead of dating to the 4th century A.D. By the time the baths were constructed, Trier had become perhaps more important even than Rome and Emperor Constantine resided here.

Click here for more about the Imperial Baths

It would have cost us 5 Euros each to tour the underground tunnels and various parts of the Baths, but with our limited time in Trier, we thought we’d get a better picture of its history at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, which adjoins the Imperial Baths. This museum chronicles the history and culture of Trier and the Mosel Valley with an emphasis on its Celtic and Roman heritage.

The museum gave us a very nice gadget that provided narration of any numbered exhibit. It must have been digitized, because we could jump from number to number, rather than having to carefully follow a tape. These devices make museum-viewing much more enjoyable--you don’t have to "share" the chatter of another tour group and people tend to keep quiet while listening to the narrator. They had even included appropriate bits of music or other sounds that helped to set the scene for the exhibit. We were impressed.

Click here for more on this museum

We wandered through the various exhibits which are housed on two levels, plus some outside sculptures are in the museum’s gardens. Extraordinary Roman mosaic floors from their villas were on display.

There were huge Roman triumphal arches, and columns from Trier’s Forum which could easily have been in a museum in Rome--the main difference being that in Italy the arches and columns were of marble, here they used limestone and sandstone, coated with plaster and adorned with colorful decorations.

There was lots of evidence of the wine grape in the museum. The Romans are given credit for bringing the wine grape to the Mosel Valley, but one Celtic sculpture of a wine god makes me wonder. The narrator in my "gadget" told me that the Celts were the inventors of the wine cask and also, that they predated the Romans by at least a thousand years. Hmmm, a little historical conflict here.

Like Rome and most other European cities, any time there is excavation below the current ground level in Trier, up pop more archeological artifacts! The museum was displaying a beautiful mosaic floor, just found in 1995, in downtown Trier.

Our hour or so in the museum gave us a much better picture of the history that our Butzen ancestors must have experienced.

Back at our hotel, we picked up our bags and indulged in a taxi ride back to the train station. Getting to Reil required two train rides. First, we traveled northeast from Trier to Bullay which is a few kilometers beyond Reil and on the opposite bank of the Mosel River. Then, we had exactly two minutes to catch the little local train back to Reil. Well, two minutes proved to be not quite enough for us to drag our bags down the steps at the Bullay station, and then back up on the other side of the tracks where the Reil train would depart. As we came up the last few steps, we saw the train for Reil….leaving! And, if you miss the 1:18 p.m. train to Reil, you must wait an hour for the next one.

Karen called Martina Arns, our hostess for the next two days, and alerted her that we would NOT arrive as scheduled, but would be on the next train. She said, "Fine, we will meet you at the train." We spent a quiet hour in the Bullay train station--which was pretty much deserted. It looked like the station was undergoing a complete renovation and seemed quite modern for this little village. When the train appeared (all one car of it) we jumped aboard, and then had a few minutes to wait until it pulled out. To our surprise, it was the nicest train car we’ve seen so far. Described on the side of the car as an "environmental train" it had solar cells on the roof, very comfortable seats and nice big windows.

The "Environmental" Train running between Bullay and Reil

 

GB Halliday Home Page      
German Roots Trip 2003 - Contents