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Sigruns Hohenzollern Story Hohenzollern Burg

The Burg Hohenzollern is the seat of the last royal dynasty of Germany. When they lost World War I, Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate.

Burg or Castle Hohenzollern is located on a hill near the town of Hechingen. It was badly enough damaged by an earthquake in the early 1970's that it had to be closed to the public for several years so that it could be restored and secured against further earthquake damage in that area.

When I came to work at a boarding school in Mössingen? a few miles north of the Burg Hohenzollern, I had no idea that I would experience my first earthquake in Germany. Had anybody told me that there were earthquakes there, I would have thought he was joking.

One day, not long after I arrived there in January of 1970, I went to the beauty salon to ask about getting my hair cut. Suddenly everything began to shake. The bottles on the shelves began a weird dance and some fell over or onto the floor. I wasn't too sure what to do but since everyone went about their business as if nothing were happening, I decided not to make a fuss. Indeed, in a few moments all was quiet again. Yes, I was told, once in a while they had these little earthquakes but they didn't really do much if any damage. There were no more earthquakes while I lived in the little town.

After the year was up, I moved to Stuttgart? to work at another school belonging to the Lutheran Church (in German, Evangelische Kirche). The capital was located about 50 miles north of the little town I had lived in. One day, I felt another earthquake which seemed definitely stronger than the previous one. I knew it had originated in that area. And sure enough, soon reports came that the Burg (Castle) Hohenzollern had been damaged when some of the stone-work crashed to the ground. Other than that, there was little or no damage to report.

Certainly, don't let the possibility of a small earthquake keep you from visiting the area. It has the beauty of rolling hills with little towns set in valleys. The most important city in the area is the old university town of Tübingen on the way to Stuttgart? the capital of Baden-Württemberg?.