It’s still very hot here and this is what I saw when I went out to get the paper this morning:
It suits him very well. People sit outside the restaurant and café and around the fountain very late in these temperatures, and this is what some of them got up to. The three rather wishy-washy-looking figures are the original three rulers of Fürth – the dean (Dompropst) of Bamberg, the margrave of Ansbach and the imperial city of Nuremberg. The fact that there were three rulers rather than one led to the freer regulation of trade in Fürth and the presence of many foreigners, still so deprecated in Nuremberg today.
They may not have needed this voucher for soft icecream at IKEA, since they stand in front of an Italian ice cream parlour.
Would that be the same margrave of Ansbach who so ruthlessly put down the peasants’ revolt in the 1520s? (I know about this only because I’m currently reading the recently published “A Mighty Fortress” history of Germany by Steven Ozment).
I suspect not. I had to look this up. I know the Dreiherrschaft ended in 1792, but when did it start, and was it continuous? Apparently, up to 1698 there were two Nuremberg and two Bamberg mayors, until 1719 three Nuremberg and three Bamberg, and from 1719 three Nuremberg, three Bamberg and three Ansbach mayors. Still, one can visit Ansbach and take a tour of the Residenz.
But on second thoughts, it looks as if the Ansbacher were involved earlier, before they were represented by a mayor.