Day Out: Birkenkopf

I guess I should really call this “an hour out” rather than a day out. Just a short drive from our front door is Birkenkopf — a man-made mountain called “Monte Scherbelino” by the locals which roughly translates to “Mount of Shards.” This “mount” was made from the ruin and rubble of the destruction of Stuttgart during World War II. It is said that Allied bombing missions destroyed 45% of the area and almost the entire city center. All of this destruction had to be cleaned up and moved in order to rebuild. Between 1953 and 1957 over 1.5 million cubic meters of debris were taken to Birkenkopf where the mountain became a memorial and a monument.

1957

View from the top.

My kids didn’t want to go and all moaned and complained about me making them leave the house on a Saturday, but the sun was shining (which has become super rare with the darkness and gray clouds of winter here) and I wanted to take full advantage of it. In truth, we all needed it.

We followed the spiral path around Birkenkopf to the top and quickly knew it will be a place we will come back to again and again. The panorama views of Stuttgart are unmatched, and the piles of rubble were sobering to see. The kids loved climbing all over them too.

The exposed rubble is everything from regular bricks to intricate carved masonry of old, impressive buildings that were here. I saw carved laurel wreaths, a lion, an eagle, and dates and words making the sadness and difficulty of that time all too real.

On on piece of a building there is a memorial plaque that reads, “Dieser Berg nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg aufgetürmt aus den Trümmern der Stadt steht den Opfern zum Gedächtnis den Lebenden zur Mahnung.”

It translates to, “This mountain, after World War II piled up from the ruins of the city, stands as a memorial to the victims and a reminder to the living.”

Poignant and important. I’m glad that my kids get to experience these things and have moments of pause with us to feel and see the reality of history.