"Rotenburg an der Wümme" a Rotenburg Travel Page by Airpunk

Sometimes during summertime, on my days off work, I take my bike for a larger tour. My favourite routes include Hamburg – Lüneburg and Hamburg – Bad Segeberg. In 2006, I looked out for a new destination and decided to make a daytrip to Rotenburg/Wümme.

But what the heck is Rotenburg/Wümme? Somewhere in northern Germany, between Bremen and Hamburg, there is an area where civilization only seems to exist in form of some train stations and a hard rock festival called hurricane. In this area, Rotenburg is perhaps the only town to mention. The town’s name probably comes from rote burg (red castle) or Rodungsburg (castle on cleared land) – a castle built in the 12th century. Unfortunately, the castle was destroyed in the mid-19th century after it has rotted away for hundreds of years. Due to several fires between the 17th and 19th century, an explosive growth after WWII (Rotenburg became home of many germans from now polish Silesia), and of course WWII itself, Rotenburg has lost most of its original character. The old town is dominated by modern buildings from the 20th century with only few older buildings surviving. On the place where once the castle stood, there is a so-called “Heimatmuseum” – a museum about the regional history. There, you will also find some pieces of the former castle.

It was on my way to Rotenburg that I remembered something seen earlier in the newspaper: It was the time of the world football championship – and Rotenburg was the hometown of one of the participating teams: Trinidad and Tobago. Of course, T&T was not a high-class team like Brazil, the Netherlands or Italy. But I think that both, Rotenburg and the caribbean football team, enjoyed these weeks a lot. For a few weeks, this small north german town lived a caribbean party – in a realationship with its guest team no other city head. Unfortunately, I just got a small idea of what was going on. The stages for soca bands were closed during the day and so were the small stands selling tropical fruit juices or cocktails. But many inhabitants and many shops showed their solidarity with the team from the small nation. In some parts of the city, there were even more T&T flags than german ones – in a summer where an almost annoying fanatism for the german soccer team was going around the country. I wished that other towns had developed such a friendship with their guest team...

Although the T&T team is gone now, Rotenburg is a nice destination for a daytrip from Hamburg or Bremen. Compared to these big cities, there’s not much to see in Rotenburg. But it’s OK to see how a smaller northern german town looks like – and to discover things which would easily be overseen in larger towns.