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You are here: Home Leisure Arts & Culture Schwerin....it's a cosy old town

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29/07/2003Schwerin....it's a cosy old town

Gemuetlitch is one of those very expressive German words like “Doch!” and “lekker”, “quark”, “Schadenfreude” and “Nazi”. Gemuetlich means cosy, homey and warm.

Schwerin Castle
Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorprommen, is gemuetlich, in the snow it is mega-gemuetlich. Tiled roofs, church spires, cobbled streets all look impossibly scenic with a dusting of snow. The town follows the common German tradition of having an Alt Stadt that dates back to medieval times at its heart, with a nondescript modern city sprawling around it. With a population of just under 100,000, Schwerin is not a big centre and, like many cities in the former East Germany, it is getting smaller. But it has buildings and attractions out of proportion to its size, thanks partly to its standing as a regional capital. Chief among the attractions of the city are the “fachwerkhauser”, the timber-beamed houses built 400 to 500 years ago in what would the English would call Tudor style. Each one is a wonderfully individual construct — no two beams meet at right angles, and most houses lean at drunken angles relying on each for support. But they stay up for centuries. One near the centre of Schwerin, dating from the mid-1600's, features a perilous overhang that has the first floor extending past the ground floor by the best part of a metre. Our guide explained that at the time of construction, households were taxed according to the land area taken up by the house, so the over-hang was a way of pinching a bit more space without facing higher taxes. It is that sort of engaging insight that makes it worthwhile to sign up for a walking tour of Schwerin. And it is guides like Inga Gundlach, full of knowledge and enthusiasm for his hometown, which make the tours entertaining.
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