Lahr (Baden) - my hometown

Well, we are all from somewhere. My 'other home' besides San Francisco is a small town in the Black Forest region of Germany. I thought you might be interested where I am from, so here we go. Lahr has approximately 44,000 inhabitants. It has quite some history starting as early as a small Roman settlement dating back to 200 AD. Due to many wars it was home of the German, French and Canadian armies and air forces. The most famous person of Lahr is an engineer with the name of Wankel, who developed a special type of car engine called a rotary combustion engine. See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Wankel. Believe it or not, but our city park has actually a red wood tree that grew from a small sapling to a pretty significant height.

It has been a long time since I actually lived here, but I do have fond memories of my childhood and am really proud to be a 'Lohrer'. Soon after my graduation from high school in 1985 I joined the German Army for the mandatory military service. After that I went off to Munich to go to school. Technically I have lived more years outside of Lahr than actually in Lahr. Probably because I only come here occasionally for a brief visit it really pains me to see that the city is not prospering as it should or could. It is a great place to live and raise children, good schools, great offering of social and sports activities, one of the largest airports in the region (the former Canadian air base) ..... but somehow it feels (to me) that all the neighboring cities prosper and grow while Lahr faces many challenges. I still do have many childhood friends here and I am really thankful that they always welcome me as if I would have never left. It is fun to chat about the 'old times' sipping a beer in a nice street cafe or Biergarten. Below is an aerial shot of Lahr that I 'borrowed' from the cities homepage with some other shots in this posting (www.lahr.de), I hope they don't mind that I promote this cute town a little :-)

Lahr (aerial photo)






















The city of Lahr was founded in 1218, when the Family of Geroldseck started to build a castle at the entrance of the valley of the river Schutter. Starting with few houses for the constructionworkers and their families the settlement gaind the right of a city in 1278. The only remains are parts of the old city wall and one tower of the castle, the 'Storchenturm' (see below). The print to the left shows the city in 1620.

This photo shows the main shopping area 'downtown'. As in many cities in Germany there are no cars allowed, only pedestrians. There are lots of coffee shops and restaurants that have tables outside - very nice in the summer time, sipping a coffee, reading a newspaper and watch people walking by.

Storchenturm

This tower is the only remaining part of the castle, which was originally build in 1220 and destroyed by French troops in 1677. Later in the 18. Century the tower became a prison for some time. On top of the tower is a stork nest, which gave the tower its name. Unfortunately in the most recent years no stork family chose this site to raise their chicks, however at least in neighboring villages and cities there are stork nests that recently house stork families - a good sign.

Hohen Geroldseck - An old castle ruin

This is the second castle built in the area by the family of Geroldseck. From this location the family was able to control the trade from the Rhine Valley to the Black Forrest. It was the location of many battles and finally in 1688 primarily due to the arrival of modern artillery it was destroyed and burned. For many years it was used as a source of building material, several large houses and farms in the region used stones from the ruin. It was forgotten for many centuries until it was rediscovered in the 19. Century.

Well, a nice zoom lens would have helped quite a bit here, but nevertheless it gives you a great impression how the castle sits on top of the mountain, controlling the pass road that runs below its walls .... ready to collect a fee.