Emerenz Meier Statue

Europe 2018 Episode 12: Passau

Considered one of Europe’s most beautifully situated cities, Passau stands at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, the Inn, and the Ilz.

A pleasant promenade leads alongside the Inn River. On the opposite shore stands Mariahilf Kirche, a twin-towered hilltop pilgrimage church dating to 1627.

Dating to c. 1250, the Schaiblingsturm is a remnant of the town’s medieval fortifications.

The nearby Kirche St Michael is a 17th c. Jesuit church.

The Altes Rathaus was founded in 1398. It is situated in a square on the banks of the Danube. Markings on the side of the building show the water levels of various floods through the centuries.

Dom St Stephan is the town’s late-Gothic cathedral, constructed between 1407-1530. It boasts a 17th c. Baroque nave with sumptuous stucco decoration. The organ, though modern (1928) is one of the largest in the world with over 17,000 pipes and 231 stops.

St Paul’s is a pretty Baroque church dating to 1678. It is located on Rinder Markt, the towns’ former cattle market.

The video ends with a series of still photos, many of which were taken by my wife, Pam, but the first photo is one of mine. It’s of a bronze bust of Emerenz Meier, a 19th c. poet who lived in Passau. She achieved considerable recognition but probably never fulfilled her full potential due to the domestic expectations placed on women of her era. The people of Passau erected this statue and plaque in her honor, incorporating several lines that she composed late in her career: “If Goethe had to prepare supper and salt the dumplings, if Schiller had to wash the dishes, if Heine had to mend what he had worn, clean the rooms, kill the bugs — Oh the menfolk, none of them would have become great poets.”