Preservation, Tourism and Nationalism: The Jewel of the German Past

Since its discovery by German romantics and nationalists, Rothenburg has been an established icon of the German nation and its medieval past. By tracing Rothenburg's historical development as a place of national importance, this book examines the cultural politics of historical preservation and tourism in general. It firstly explores the shifting practice and importance of tourism in Rothenburg and relates this to broader debates about German culture and identity. By examining the cultural assumptions motivating travel to Rothenburg, the book offers an interesting and original perspective of the changing dynamics of German, and more broadly European and North American, uses of romanticized historical landscapes and events to further national cultural and political agendas. It also analyses the changing practices of historical preservation, and in particular, how historic preservation in Rothenburg often reflected a desire to make it more historic, more medieval, more German. Following on from this, the book asks what it means to be German, how Germans relate to the past and how the answers to these questions have changed over time. This richly illustrated and indepth volume offers a long-term historical narrative of the rise, evolution and contestation of one of the central places of memory in German culture.