March 1993
remnants
Esslingen was occupied by U.S. troops starting in April 1945, at the very end of World War II. During the war the city suffered very little damage, and it was peaceably surrendered to the approaching allied forces, thus the medieval character of its city center has been mostly preserved.
(Wikipedia)
On Matt's First Big Trip to Germany one of MAP's stops for me was Esslingen. Stuttgart was an industrial hub during World War II so that city and most of the area surrounding had been bombed heavily. Little Esslingen which dated back to the Middle Ages survived unscathed. Not much to see beyond its little, historic core, it was still a great stop for me who wanted nothing more than to see "old stuff" in Germany. Esslingen was the only city center we visited near Stuttgart that was old and original - literally everything else had been a reconstruction.
I think of the destruction that I have seen in all my travels due to war or just "modernization" which tends to leave small pockets of history here and there. Those little patches of the past are eventually discovered and revitalized while people bemoan the loss of cultural and character of the place. "It's a shame more could not have been saved". Esslingen is a small part of the Stuttgart metro area that, by chance, was not bombed and now is a little gem for tourists to enjoy. I wonder about Ukraine and when that conflict finally ends, what will be its little untouched bits that will be preserved for future tourists and residents to enjoy. I think of Beijing's mad dash to modernization where ancient neighborhoods were bulldozed one after another. No place is ever completely destroyed and even those that are, are sometimes reconstructed as an act of defiance like Warsaw's old city square [see: Beijing to Athens]. A reconstruction is never the original though.
Time is indeed the most destructive force we must face and only with effort can we resist its unavoidable consequences. We are also a part of time. Although we cannot stop its passing, we can at least modify its flow. How much has been lost because of people's myopic views of history, modernization, and cultural heritage?
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