The Bells of Nuremberg

Backstory

When preparing my August Newsletter, recalling as a 27 year old foreign exchange Summer in Nuremberg (southern Germany) a long forgotten memory emerged, that I set aside for a separate sharing.

That was 1958 – just 13 years after the Allied forces defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe.  My host family, the Pitzkes, took great pride in showing me the amazing progress made in rebuilding their beautiful city.  A mutual courtesy, the language barrier, and a 17-year-old’s youthful American naivete prevailed in avoiding actual conversation about the war itself.  It’s only in retrospect that I consider that Herr Pitzke had been a German soldier in the war, and that my German‘ brother’ Klaus had been born into those fateful Nazi years.

The Bells

The lost memory that now emerges is of the Bells of that city.  Especially on Sunday mornings, it seemed that all morning, dozens, if not more, bells would peal throughout the city, in festal contemplation of a sonic joy for my youthful ears.  My host parents never ratified my commenting about them.  And nobody else seemed to echo my exuberance.

And so that experience of sonic joy, was eventually buried in a far distant corner of life memory, only to awaken here in 2025.  And why now?  It seems to connect with nothing specific in my current life.

[At least not yet. Sometimes I write so that I can know what I know.]

“The Bells of Europe”

Sometime back in the ‘70’s I came upon a wonderful hour-long recording, probably copied from the radio, and stored on a 7” reel-to-reel tape, called “The Bells of Europe.”¹  I would listen to it again and again – foolishly lending it out, until once when I never got it back.

(Recently I scoured the internet, but was only able to find a written transcription.  Here are some salient points.

No one has ever witnessed the birth of a bell. It takes place down below in the ground. Molds are dug into the ground in front of the furnace.  Copper and tin are mixed in the furnace to become bronze (bell metal).  When the red brew becomes yellow and white (1120°) the molten metal is poured into the mold(s).  Then a tense silence.  Men take off their hats, a minister folds his hands and speaks the first words, a grace.  It’s as it has always been.

Canon

The time came when in order to win a war, canons were necessary.  And to produce a canon, one needs the same formula, copper and tin – bronze. And what was the primary available supply of bronze? Bells. So every time there was war, bells were taken down from their towers or belfries.  It began in the 15th century.

And so it was that in those war years, beginning in 1939, the Nazi-regime coldly gave orders that all church bells must be handed over to the armament industry.  Copper and tin are not natural resources in German territory.  It was finally conceded that the church authorities could keep 5%.  The total loss, as the German war machine rolled across Europe, from Germany alone – 47,000 bells.  Then from other conquered countries, 33,000 more bells. 

Only now I’m beginning to understand why I was listening to the Bells of Nuremberg.  There’s a larger story now penetrating my consciousness.

.

What Bells Do

When first contemplating this writing, it made sense that they would celebrate that war, that Great War, finally concluding, and ushering in a time of peace, of the wonderful joy which bells can so wonderfully share.  Bells can ring out to announce a birth, a baptism, a marriage, celebrations of life, or an ‘all’s well’ for the town in the hours of the night.

When I’d hear the jubilation of those Sunday and daily Bells of Nuremberg – I’d wonder why the people seemed to not hear or speak of them.  They could rebuild their industry, their economy, infrastructure, architecture, their government.  My host father, Herr Pitzke, was an “engineer” of some sort, and it was his diligent German “engineer” spirit that had rebuilt their city.  No wonder his pride.

But it seemed they could not be uplifted by the sheer energy and beauty of the bells returned to their towers and belfries.  And then I returned home, and for a half a century, forgot about it.

Bells have another heritage.  As I have noted, they are birthed in darkness. Which in a metaphoric way means, “they know things we don’t”  They have long been an early-warning network.  To listen to them is to be alert to warnings.  On an ocean coast, they warn of storms that can destroy dikes, seawalls, calamities of nature that can wreak havoc on the lives of humans and animals.  They can alert people of an encroaching enemy.  In our culture, they still can be (if only symbolically) mounted on fire-engines and not too long ago on railway engines. 

Somewhere in the back of our memories lies the concept of the “warning bell.”

An Unholy Exchange.

The documentary notes, “In Europe, the guns chime and the bells fire.”

What the documentary tangentially hints, is that if you want to take away a people’s warning network, take away their bells.  You’re not only depriving them of a way to celebrate life, you’re taking away their ability to sense danger and death.  AND you can now better afford to build armaments against them.

It is well understood that history goes through numerous cycles, often leading to great difficulty for the weaker and disadvantaged of a population.  A wise and caring ruler class will develop resources to assist those in special need. 

An example is the Old Testament story of Joseph, a Hebrew slave, who interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams that after seven fruitful years, there will follow seven years of famine.  Pharaoh trusted Joseph, and put him in charge of storing up grain for seven years, so the poor of Egypt and surrounding countries could buy grain and live through the famine.  And Joseph’s own family and people were also saved.

But what I’ve seen in our own country is a betrayal of that wisdom, the recent activity of our rulers has been to deliberate decimate those government programs designed to protect the vulnerable, so that in a “difficult time” basically, the rich will survive and the poor will die.

What the Bells Knew / What the Germans Were Learning

It makes sense to me now, that the Germans were just beginning again to understood the double life that the Bells represented.  The Bells of Europe had been co-opted and then used against the people as armament (again).  The government’s playbook used that double-life against the people, and millions were murdered.

And this idealist 17y old boy from Iowa, back then, could only just enjoy the raucous beauty of those Sunday morning bells of Nuremberg.  Until now.

What Can the Bells Teach Us?

Here’s a direct copy from the transcript of that lost recording:

After the Russian Revolution of  1917 there is a dearth of bells in the Soviet Union.  Many are broken up and their bronze is sold to Germany.  Because of her needs of copper and tin, Germany had lost almost 50 percent of her bells during World War One – but there is no money.  So the Russian bronze moves on to France.  A part of it is bought by the Parisian bell-foundry Blanchet.

In 1927 an elegant American lady enters the office of Monsieur Blanchet.

“Monsieur, I am Ann Thorburn van Buren.  I have come here to donate a bell – to a French village destroyed during the war.”

“Madame, a small bell for a village weights 50 kilo, the kilo costs 20 Francs – that’s 1,000 Francs.”

“That’s too small.”

“Very well, Madame, 100 kilo, that’s 2,000 Francs.”

“Too small.”

“The people of that village will be very happy, Madame, 200 kilo, but that’s 4,000 Francs.”

“Too small.”

“Madame, too large, your bell will now be too large for a village.”

“Well then, cast a bell for a destroyed town.”

“Madame, do you want your bell to be placed in the tower of Douaumont?  That’s 2,000 kilo.  40,000 Francs.  The Church of France cannot pay such a price.”

“What’s Douaumont?”

“Douaumont, Madame, that’s Verdun.  And Verdun, that’s half a million dead.”

“Bon, that’s large enough.”

(The recording plays the sound of that bell.)

And every year on February 21 (at least till the time of this documentary, 1973) the  “Ceux de Verdun” gather together, the survivors march through the battlefield, through the sea of crosses, to Douaumont, the annual Mass for the Dead.

The secret of any bell, from it’s very birth, is that it can know both halves of the story. 

   I’ll leave it to your imagination to ponder the power of that secret – other than to say that the people of Nuremberg, of course, needed more time.  As I’ve said, it’s taken me much of my adult life.  We can learn from them, or just get rid of them.  You choose!  And it’s a most significant choice.

Footnote

   ¹ The Bells of Europe – a stereophonic documentary

by Peter Leonhard Braun, 1973.   Translated from German by Michael Stone

If any reader has access to this recording, please share it or a source with me.  It includes, in magnificent stereo, a number of notable European bells, including some “cast from canons.”  It’s an audiophile’s treasure box.   Transcription (English): 

Note:  At my own funeral, I want that single bell in St. Jude’s tower, to ring out loudly as if it’s doling out the spirit of my entire life.   You can tell I like bells