Monument to Hans Sachs
Statue of Hans Sachs
after Jan. 1945 bombing
The statue of Hans Sachs managed to survive
the destruction of Nürnberg by Allied bombing in January
1945, although all the buildings around it were demolished. New
modern buildings have replaced the historic buildings that were
destroyed.
Hans Sachs lived from 1494 to 1576, during
the Renaissance period, and was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer
and Martin Luther, who led the Protestant Reformation. Sachs
was a folk singer who belonged to the guild of Meistersingers
or master singers in Germany. In 1515, he established his residence
at Nürnberg after a period of traveling all over Germany
writing and singing songs. He became a shoemaker but continued
to compose thousands of poems and songs. His name was immortalized
by Richard Wagner (1813 to 1883) who based an opera on him, called
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. A performance of this opera
always preceded the annual Nazi rallies at Nürnberg in the
1930ies.
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