Today is January 10th, 2024, and it is our second full day in Nürnberg (aka Nuremberg). Today was split between math in the morning and a museum visit in the afternoon.
After breakfast, we jumped straight into a three-hour math class. We worked on a sequence of increasingly complicated concepts in Ring Theory. After a lot of head-scratching, we arrived a proof of the incredibly valuable Lasker-Noether Theorem. Essentially, we were able to create a more general version of prime number factorization, with applications in many fields of math. Having reached that theorem, we wrapped up our work with the mathematics of Emmy Noether, the woman who invented the field of Ring Theory, which we have been working with over the past week.
an example of a proof we worked on in class
As the math began to settle in our brains, we were let out and given a few hours to find lunch and wander the city. I had a curry from the Red Curry House, which I ate under the Lorenzkirche in the southern half of city. Shortly after, I ran into another group who had eaten sandwiches at Casa Pane.
a little bird, waiting patiently for me to spill my curry
We crossed the river, and arrived at the Hauptmarkt in the very center of the city. At the fountain there, we took turns spinning a small metal ring looped through the fence. The story goes, if you make a wish while turning the ring and you don't tell anyone what you wished for, your wish will come true. With that complete, we climbed the hill to the Imperial Palace in the north of the central city. There, we took in the sunlight (which has been rare in Germany) and the great views of Nürnberg. Then we hurried back to the hotel, for the next event of the day.
left: me, wishing for infinite wishes
center: the Frauenkirche, behind the fountain.
right: the back end of the Sebalduskirche
That afternoon, we walked to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, a collection of German art throughout the ages. It had an especially large collection of Medieval and Renaissance artwork, including paintings, tapestries, sculptures and many others. We saw a number of items during the guided tour, including:
Countless tormented Jesuses,
The Behaim Globe - the oldest known globe of the earth. The Americas are missing, because it was built a year before Columbus' return to Europe.
This 3-foot tall gold hat, from Bronze Age Germany. Not much is known about where this hat came from. People think it was worn by a priest, and that the shapes etched into the cone form a calendar. I think it would be very heavy on your neck.
After that, we saw a collection of paintings by Albrecht Dürer - Nürnberg resident credited with bringing Renaissance painting techniques from Italy to Germany. After hearing a bit about his life, the guided tour ended and we were free to roam the museum. I headed to the 20th century art exhibit. There, I found an eclectic mix including works of Pre-WW1 expressionism, Weimar-era dadaism, Nazi-era propaganda art, and postwar abstract art. Here are two of my favorites:
And here are some of the stranger ones:
Art people are a little odd. Anyway, with the Museum visit complete, a group of 10 of us made our way to our reservation (credit to Otto for making the call) at the Nassauer Keller, a beautiful German restaurant built in the former wine cellar of the 800-year old Nassauer Haus. It had an about 5-foot tall door and an incredibly steep set of stairs, which monks would use to get up and down. After squeezing in, I ate roast pork neck with Sauerkraut there, while others had Spätzle, Sausages, Schnitzel, Salmon and more.
With this blog post complete, I am going to finish the readings for tomorrow and head to bed. Auf Wiedersehen!
-Elliot Gengler
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