In August 1346, John of Bohemia died during the Battle of Crécy, fighting as an ally of the French king; six hundred years later, in August 1946, John's remains were returned from the German town of Kastel to Luxembourg and re-interred in the cathedral of Notre Dame. In this book, Heinz-Dieter Heimann relates the fascinating story of how the fourteenth-century Bohemian king from Luxembourg died in France and, venerated in Germany, became a symbol of exemplary medieval knighthood to represent Prussian dynastic claims and, ultimately, on his return to Luxembourg, served as an assertion of Luxembourg's sovereignty after the Second World War.
Schinkels Brunnen centers around three key dates: 1346, 1838, 1946. Heimann meticulously extricates the strands of the story from a tangle of historical and historiographical records that have been wrapped over time in dynastic imaginations and national myths. First, Heimann tells the story of John of Bohemia and the various resting places of his remains from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The monument of the book's title, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, was installed in the Saarland town of Mettlach in 1838, while John's remains were re-interred in a newly dedicated tomb in Kastel on the river Saar. Both Mettlach and Kastel belonged to Prussia at that time, though they had been part of territorial Luxembourg in John's lifetime. Heimann traces the reception of the monument and the establishment of new rituals and ceremony around the monument as a symbolic entrenchment of Prussian authority. The book ends with the circumstances of the return of John's remains to Luxembourg around the 600th anniversary of his death at Crécy. The complex tale reflects the role of medievalism in perceptions and constructions of history as constituent of national identities, particularly emerging from the time between 1750 and 1850.
The first chapters of the provide extensive background that initially seems extraneous but the patient reader is rewarded with an intricately complex tapestry of memory, memoria, history, politics, and national and regional identities that adds much to an understanding of the role medievalisms play in creating the narratives that various groups (scholars, artists, historians, poets) weave from their respective histories to shape the present in which they live and which they wish to see – this is what Heimann calls Mittelaltergegenwarten, or the need of any present time to shape and utilize its own understandings of the Middle Ages. Part A establishes the book's methodological and theoretical foundations by toggling between a discussion of the monument in Mettlach and the life (and death) of John of Bohemia. Heimann identifies several key concepts for his argument, such as history, memory, medievalism, and mythmaking. All of these, he asserts, play a role in the culture of monuments (Denkmalkultur), tomb sculpture (Sepulkralkultur), and memory (Gedächtniskultur) that intersect in the narrative of John of Bohemia and the memorialization of his remains – physically, ideologically, politically.
Part B picks up John's story as it migrates to the equally complex political landscape of Prussia, France, and Luxembourg in the early nineteenth century. At this time, intellectuals looked toward the Middle Ages to find an alternative to the tradition-changing chaos that seemed to follow in the wake of the French Revolution. The Prussian kings were also cognizant of the need for an aesthetic program that would provide a firmer ideological and political foundation to support the monarchy. The Middle Ages thus became the new future. Three key players emerge in the nineteenth-century chapter of John of Bohemia's story: the entrepreneur Jean Francois Boch-Buschmann, founder of the famous (and still successful) company Villeroy and Boch (chapter B.II); the architect and engineer Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who worked closely with Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm on various cultural projects (chapter B.III); and, last but not least, Friedrich Wilhelm himself (chapter B.IV). Boch-Buschmann provided the inspiration and the place for the new monument that would be dedicated in John's memory in 1838 – he also had possession of John's remains, which he gifted to Friedrich Wilhelm in November 1833. Schinkel provided the design to frame John's new story in Hohenzollern medievalism. Friedrich Wilhelm provided the dynastic anchor to validate, and be validated by, the revival of John's memory.
The book's conclusion returns to the introductory discussion of what Heimann calls Mittelaltergegenwarten, which I might loosely translate as “medieval presents,” with a look at the return of John's remains to Luxembourg in 1946. Each new present time establishes its idea of the Middle Ages. As Heimann deftly demonstrates, the case of John of Bohemia represents a particularly convoluted example of this medievalism at work. What “medieval” means or what “history” means is reimagined at key moments in this story: the gift of John's remains to Friedrich Wilhelm in November 1833, the creation and installation of the monument between 1833 and 1838, the demand for and return of John's remains to Luxembourg in 1946. Schinkel's monument still stands today, a point of regional pride and identity for the Saarland, much of its story lost to the archives. As a story of medievalism and mythmaking, politics and history, the monument's tale deserves to be told.
In sum, Schinkels Brunnen is an impressive interdisciplinary contribution to a number of fields ranging from art and architecture to medieval studies and European history, as it weaves together an impressive array of sources (French, German, Czech) from across Europe from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. A particular achievement of this book is its focus on sometimes marginalized geographical and historical areas (Luxembourg, Bohemia) to highlight the unexpected centrality of John of Bohemia to Prussian dynastic ambitions, where John's story became a powerful way to leverage medievalism in the formation of emerging national identities in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.
