Me, Nuremberg & Attack on Titan
This city captured my imagination from the very first day I stepped here. I dropped my baggage in my small room in a WG (Wohngemeinschaft) said hello to everyone in other rooms and went straight to the city center, where I spent 3 hours just wandering on the cobblestone traffic-free streets.
This was a city I knew only from history books and documentaries. All pieces of information I had were of the journey from Nuremberg Laws to Nuremberg Trials. But there was something else, the city, the walls, the architecture, and the narrow streets. It felt really close to me. Until I realized this is the Xerox copy of the city I have been seeing in the Anime Series: Attack on Titan. This city has seen so much and AOT has given me a new dimension to see it again.
Nuremberg’s old city area is filled with “Fachwerkhaus” (Half-timbered houses), similar to what we find inside the walls on Paradise Island. Hell, it even has the wall and a castle and a church and those church bells. The market place, the red rooftops, those coffee spots, a river, and a list goes on. Take a look at some comparison photos I collected a few minutes ago:
As soon as I found those similarities, I started Googling and O’ Man was I not wrong. The Attack on Titan indeed has been inspired by the old towns of Bavaria (I know Nuremberg is in Franconia, O you Franconian readers). The walled city centers are common throughout the southern German state.
There was already so much to imagine while you take a walk in the city center. Especially when your brain is buffering out most of the German language. You feel really out of the time-space and observe everything in the Third-Person. These wild imaginations can take you to the busy markets of Nuremberg in Medieval Days or spine-shivering mid 20th Century but nothing even comes close to imagining the city surrounded by Titans.
The show not only shares the architecture of Nuremberg City but also revolves around the brief period of darkness that loomed over this city. That part deepens the horror even more.
The anime is reaching its finale and the walk I had last month in the city center with few people outside gave me a flashback of early episodes when people were just hiding away from the Titans. The Titan this time is few nanometers in length — The Corona Titan.
P.S. As always the pop culture strikes Germany here and there every year. Attack on Titan also has subtle references to the past which I would definitely avoid here.
