Iron treasures found in Germany

[divermike]

As time allows, I will post pics of those items I saw as worthy of placing here on this wonderful site. It does me no good to do so however if no one comments on them, so I'm looking forward to hearing your reactions. We did mad Von Ludwigs castles, and churches and just cool old towns, everything from metal doors, to sign holders and mail boxes, so if you seem interested, I'll keep posting.
1. an ornate window grill in the side of a chateau.
2. a gate in Rudeshiem, Rhien river region.
3. An ornate door handle in Rothenburg.
4. An old wood door in Rothenburg.

[John McPherson]

Interesting stuff, however: it needs to be Photoshopped to trim down the backgrounds and reduce the overall size. I found myself panning down a wall looking at screw heads, or a screen full of wood grain with no iron in sight.

I know that I am guilty of this myself; it looks fine in my preview window with automatic shrink-to-fit, but the attached photo is HUGE. And cameras keep adding more megapixels every year, so the newer the camera, the worse the problem.

Not meaning to sound harsh, but some of us are still on dial-up, or shared wireless routers. :(

[Wayne]

If you get a chance, head over to the chateau haut Koenigsberg in the Alsace near Strasburg. When that regionwas held by the Germans the Kaiser had the castle rebuilt and there is ironwork all over.

[Marksnagel]

Mike,

Thanks for sharing your trip with us and showing us things that most of us will never get over there to see.
I really liked the ear of corn at the top of the gate in picture #3, no #2 (your pics are in reverse of your listing). Doesn't really matter though, cool pics.
The old wooded door had an extra pin at the top on the wall. I reckon it was from a door in the past.

Thanks,
Mark<><

[archiphile]

Mike,

Those are some fantastic pieces. I wonder if the ball finials are cast or forged? On the door pull, was that inside or out. I am wondering why they painted it. Thanks for sharing and I am looking forward to more pictures.

Tschuss

[divermike]

Thanks guys, the pics can be reduced by hitting the control (-) minus button, as to the handle it was exterior, the pieces as far as I could tell were forged, not cast, I have many more to come, if they are too large, sorry, I don't know how to do anything about it.

[ThomasPowers]

When I was last over there I got permission to photograph one of the ornate hinges in Neuschwanstein after explaining I was a smith and was greatly impressed by the workmanship. (High school german for the WIN!) The company that did the ironwork for the castle is still in business!

As to being mad; well maybe but he was declared mad by a Dr that had never examined him and who's information came from talking to the guy next in line for the throne. Seems the family was upset with his spending the family fortune on his grandiose building spree. Funny that nowadays those same building are an immense cash cow for Bavaria bringing in metric tonnes of euros every year...His death in a boating accident was a bit "odd" too as he had arranged for a carriage and 2 sets of horses to be waiting on the other side of the lake from where he was under "house arrest". His personal Dr drowned also later that day in *another* accident.


Nurnberg's Schöne Brunnen is some nice iron work too. And close to there Lauf a.d. Pegnitz has a water powered smithy that was working into the 1970's IIRC and is still fired up at intervals for demo days---nice to see lufthammers run from a waterwheel!

Many of the open air museums have smithys; when I visited Bad Windsheim I showed the smith there a billet I had brought and asked if he could weld it up. He siad "No" and when I said I could he picked me up over the crowd rope and handed me a hammer and I got in a several hour forging fix showing him billet welding. He was in his 80's back then and so is probably gone now but it's a fond memory.

[ironstein]

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing with us Mike!

[divermike]

Here is a rain gutter terminator at the castle TP was discussing, such an elaborate decoration, I had to get it!!

[ThomasPowers]

My ancient high school german was good enough that I could ask about books and tools at local fleamarkets in Germany. I found that some of the OLD guidebooks had pictures of ironwork that disappeared in WWI (or WWII). I also picked up a copy of "Schöne alte Wirtshaus-Schilder" "Beautiful old inn-signs" a great reference for making great ornamental ironwork signs and a 1939 copy of "Geschmiedetes Eisen" .

[divermike]

My ancient high school german was good enough that I could ask about books and tools at local fleamarkets in Germany. I found that some of the OLD guidebooks had pictures of ironwork that disappeared in WWI (or WWII). I also picked up a copy of "Schöne alte Wirtshaus-Schilder" "Beautiful old inn-signs" a great reference for making great ornamental ironwork signs and a 1939 copy of "Geschmiedetes Eisen" .

ok enough making me jealous, those are NOT easy to find!!

[ThomasPowers]

ABEBooks' german site lists 3 copies of Schöne alte Wirtshaus-Schilder
http://www.abebooks.de/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Sch%F6ne+alte+Wirtshaus-Schilder&x=52&y=6

And 50 copies of Geschmiedetes Eisen---including 1 for sale here in New Mexico. Various printings and at least 1 1939 and several 1940's. At some point the book was re-edited to remove National Socialist designs and the modern re-prints are therefore slightly different than the older ones.

abebooks.com the english site has several for sale for under US$20 including the first english version (1969) for folks preferring their books in translation.

Usually the problem is finding out about books written in other countries. Once you know they exist it's a whole lot easier to find a copy!

(though not always; I lost my cite to a work on "iron age smiths graves in the Alps" and have never been able to find it again!)


A couple of words that helped me a lot were:

Kunstschmiede "ornamental iron forging"

Altes Eisenwerke "Old ironwork"

[Frank Turley]

I'm enjoying the pictures. I was stationed in Germany (peacetime) in the 1950's, and then took college German upon my return. What I've retained however, is very rostig (rusty). I finally got to return briefly in 2009, and was always looking at the wonderful ironwork. "Geschmiedetes Eisen" was translated into English under the title "Wrought Iron."

http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

[Holzkohle]

Mike: I hope that while you were at Rudesheim, you took the time to visit the Asbach Uralt distilery. They turn out an excelent product.

Unfortunately when I was in Germany, I was not interested if iron work. My loss.

Jerry

[Dillon Sculpture]

Nice pics, leaves me scratching my head.

[Iron Clad]

Nice pictures. I love old Euro iron work. Post more pictures, please!

[divermike]

ok, here are a few more,a window grill incorporating a ring thing that Mark Aspery teaches, a nice little candleabra, and a really cool metal box in the museum of torture in Rothenburg. Thanks for the info on the books, and yes some of this stuff leaves me in wonder as well, lots more to come!! Mark, I don't have your direct e-mail, so you can pull em off of here if you want.

[ThomasPowers]

Don't forget the Deutsches Klingen Museum in Solingen if you go by Koln!

[divermike]

ok, here's todays treasure pics, a beautiful chandelier, a couple of the headsmans axes from the museum of death in rothenburg, and a nice railing at the air tram from the Germania statue in Rudeshiem!

[Marksnagel]

Mike, thanks for taking us on your trip.

Mark<><

[divermike]

While in the walled city of Rothenburg Germany, I was able to see the museum of torture and death, here are a couple pics of devices that would have made life extremely unpleasant!! A cage and a set of shackles, imagine the position you would have to be in, in either case!!

[ThomasPowers]

Did you go to the Imperial City Museum as Well as the Medieval Criminal Justice Museum? Did you walk along the top of the city walls? When we were last there we had a great tour given by the city night watchman (I think it's now called the lamp lighter's tour).

We've been to Rotheberg odT several times over the years.

[Bentiron1946]

I really liked the axes and beheading stumps, I know strange, but it took a powerful man to seperate head from body, not your average man was up to the task.
Last week on eBay I was watching a small "goose wing" axe from 1600's Germany go for some $1,900 and I mean small axe, very nicely done though, started at $100 and rose like a rocket!

[divermike]

TP,
This is my second trip to the Town, the first time I took that tour, this time I wanted to just walk the streets and wander and look. Did all of that, found an excellent eatery in the back alley, and just had a fabulous time.

[ThomasPowers]

I once spent 89 days in Germany on a business trip and my wife and kids came out for 6 weeks too.

We did weekend trips together (based from Bad Homburg near Frankfurt---BTW did you visit the Roman Museum in Saalburg? Nice *modern* museum and re-built fortification on the Limes boundary!)

So one weekend we stopped by the Hotel board for Rothenberg coming back from a trip elsewhere looking for someplace we could afford for next week's trip. While we were there a lady drove up and asked if we were looking for a place to stay---she had a B&B just outside the city wall near a small gate and for far less than the price of a hotel room we got two rooms---one for the kids!---and fresh baked goods each morning with jam from her garden and honey from her Uncle's hives. One of the great "unexpected happenings" we had while in Germany.