The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-17

Prepared Dy National topographic SoClelyS
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
NREIBURG, gateway to the
Black Forest of Germany, not
only thrills tourists with it's
quaintness, but is city of histori-
cal monuments. Many of the mon
uments are churches, but numerous
lay monuments also flank Frei-
burgS streets.
Martin Waldseemuller, the geog
rapher who was the first to put the
name America" on map, was a
Freiburger and his ancestral dwell
ing not only still stands but flour
ishes. Martins father was a pros
porous butcher, who apparently
held views unpopular in Germany
even then, for he was known as
king of the Jews" and met vio-
lent death.
The family were at the time liv-
ing in what is now No. 9 Lowen-
strasse. then the Pixies Head
house, and Martin was a student at
the newly established Albert-Lud-
wig university. Later, when VALID
seemuller's "COsmographiae Intro
ductio" and the world map, on
which for the first time the newly
discovered Western World was
called America" became famous,
neighbOrs. probably remembered
that a family of that name had
lived on their street. But it was
only in recent years that a tablet
was placed over the door of the
little two-story yellow house, stat
ing that here from 1880 to 1892
twelt Martin Waldseemuller, who
in his famed World Atlas of 1907
bestowed on the continent of Amer
lea the name it bears.
1t is beauty shop now, with
shiny brass dish, sign of the hair
dresser, swinging over its door. No
one looking at its positively ''pris-
sy'' front would dream that it had
weathered the storms of 450 years.
L lie w maze hOuSc-Why w maze
no one seems to KNOWS probably
the most spectacular of all Frei-
burg's lay monuments. 1t was built
by Kaiser MaXimilian /, but only
three years after it's completion he
died, in 1919. Save for brief
month when Maximilian's grandson
visited Freiburg, it was never occu-
pied by royalty. But the place has
been meticulously kept up, and
now, one of the towns largest say
ings banks, it stands, all warm red
and glittering gilt, classical ex-
ample of the dwellings of a pros
porous medieval noble.
Oldest Inn in Germany.
The Bear inn is generally con-
ceded to be the oldest inn in Ger
many. There it is, a deep-yellow,
three-story stone building with a
high, dormer windowed roof and
maroon shutters, set slightly edge
wise and bulging a little with the
bend of the street; but natty with
al and rather swapping its fingers
to the 550-odd years that are
chalked up against it.
The inn appears on Freiburg's
town records as a going concern in
1890, and since that date the names
of it's proprietOrs are all on file.
This is something of a miracle
when you consider that the poor
old Bear has kept his ground with
his back against the city wall and
his nose uncomfortably near the
city's most vulnerable gate, and
that he has survived the onslaught
of Austrian, French and Swedish
armies.
All Freiburg's old buildings carry
their age well, though, and are sin
gularly lacking in a depressing mu-
scum atmosphere. They are kept
up and painted, and, above all,
lived in. About them hangs a jaun-
ty air of character and usefulness
SuCIl DIS NOu ste III SIuIuy OIu peO-
pie who refuse to be shelved. The
KaufhauS (MerchantS' HalD in the
MunsterplatZ, an amazing example
of Late Gothic in bright red and
gold, since it was begun, in 1924,
has been a trading center for the
SchWarZwald farmers.
The flat-faced yellow KOrnhaus,
or Granary, across the square, with
it's enormous step gables and its
red trimmings, was completed the
year after John Cabot visited
North America.
With the spread of Christianity, ,
monaSteries sprang up all over the
Schwarzwald. Now, although the
Rhine valley plain is known as
the Garden of Germany" the