Kyffhäuser, a mountain ridge in Thuringia, north of Weimar. It is the legendary site of the cavern in which Barbarossa (see Friedrich I, Kaiser) waits to come to the assistance of the German nation in time of need. In 1896 a colossal monument, known as the Kyffhäuserdenkmal, was erected on the Kyffhäuser commemorating both the Emperor Wilhelm I and Barbarossa. The Kyffhäuser became a symbol of German nationalism and of pan-German sentiment.
Kyffhäuser
| German Literature Companion: Kyffhäuser |
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Kyffhäuser |
Kyffhäuser (kĭf'hoizər), forested mountain, c.1,550 ft (470 m), Saxony-Analt, central Germany. It is crowned by the two ruined castles of Rothenburg (7th cent.) and Kyffhausen (12th cent.) and by a huge monument to Emperor William I (erected 1896). According to legend, Emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa) sleeps bewitched in a limestone cave in the mountain, sitting at a stone table through which his beard has grown; there he awaits the time when he will go forth to restore German greatness. The legend, treated in poems by Uhland, Heine, and others, probably originally applied to Emperor Frederick II (reigned 1220-50).
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 | Sondershausen (city, Germany) |
| Bruno Schmitz (architecture) |
| Hohenstaufen (German royalties & statesmen) |
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 | German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Sondershausen (city, Germany)
- Bruno Schmitz (architecture)
- Hohenstaufen (German royalties & statesmen)
- Kaiser Friedrich I (person)
- Frederick I (Holy Roman emperor and German king)
- Kyffhäuser (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft)
- Kyffhäuserbund
- Kyffhäuser
- Bundesstraße 85
- Kyffhäuser Monument
- Kulpenberg
- Deutscher Kriegerbund
- Goldene Aue
- Bruno Schmitz
