THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY.
CHAPTER
107
III.
THE STONEMASONS (STEINMETZEN) OF GERMANY.
is
A
/
-Qj^
of the building art, tliroughout the strife
ceaseless progress
and turmoil of
Middle Ages, is a remarkable phenomenon wliich at once arrests our
Prince and Bishop, Kaiser and Free
attention, and challenges our research.
the
wage
City,
their eternal feuds; nations rise,
fall,
amalgamate, or dissolve.
AU
Europe is in a ferment and yet throughout the greater part of it the mason quietly
and unceasingly plies his trade. B)' the margin of the peaceful lake, in the gloom
of the primeval forest, arise the monastery and the convent; on the summit of each lofty
;
'^
is reared the castle of the feudal chieftain; by the rushing tide of every noble stream
and on the primitive highways of commerce spring into existence countless walled cities;
and within their safe enclosure, with never-tiiiug perseverance, the busy masons pile stone
crag
tower or graceful steeple of the cathedral almost scales the skies.
of the monuments of architecture erected from the ninth to the fifteenth
on
stone, ti