City Wall

My next story is not to do with Friedrichshafen, but about Buchhorn! That’s what the city was called until 1802. At that time the city was no bigger than a village, with no more than 500 inhabitants! The small free city was still quite important though as a bridge to Switzerland and Italy. Because of this, there was always a lot of trade taking place with Buchhorn, and for a long time the little city was doing rather well.

Emperor Frederick visited all the cities in his empire, including Buchhorn. When the Emperor arrived, the mayor of Buchhorn wanted to bow – but the mayor was quite fat and when bending down, he let out a very loud fart. He was obviously extremely embarrassed and hoped that the story would soon be forgotten.

Some time later, all the mayors in the empire had to go and visit the Emperor for a conference. Normally the Emperor spoke to the larger territories first, and tiny Buchhorn had to wait a long time. But the Emperor saw the fat mayor and called through the entire throne room, “the farter from Buchhorn, let him be the first to come to the front!”. So the mayor became the laughing stock of the event, but he was allowed to be the first one to speak with the Emperor, even before the larger territories.

The wall in front of you is one of the last two pieces of the old city wall of Buchhorn. From here onwards, the cast iron manhole covers will lead you straight along the road and right up until the Zeppelin Museum. Try and count how many there are! Along this road and under the arcade, if you look very carefully, you will see the second piece of the city wall. When we get to stop 11, the Zeppelin Museum, I’ll tell you how many manhole covers there were.