Hitler's Table Talk

ANCIENT NUREMBERG 567
couraged to no small degree by false premises about the age of
our cities. I was myself quite taken aback, for instance, when I
found that Nuremberg itself was but seven centuries old.
Nuremberg's reputed antiquity is attributable in some measure
to the slyness of the Nurembergers themselves. The Oberbürgermeister
Liebel—as he himself confessed to me—allowed
the seven hundredth anniversary to pass unheralded, because he
did not wish the attention of people, who believed the city to be
much older, drawn to the truth of the matter.
It has, however, been reasonably firmly established that the
origin of Nuremberg was an old Salic castle, round which,
little by little, a village grew. Most medieval cities were
founded in the same way; hence the large number of towns
created during the Middle Ages in Eastern Germany. These
fortress castles were of great importance for the protection of the
peasantry. Without them, the country folk would never have
been able to maintain themselves against the oriental hordes,
which even at that time ceaselessly pressed against our frontiers,
and sometimes even over-ran our territories. In Transylvania,
where these fortresses were not so numerous, fortifications had
to be constructed against, among others, the Turks, and this
explains why one frequently finds that even the churches are
designed to resist attack.
254 yth July 1942, at dinner
The changing Spanish scene—Serrano Suner and the
Church—Where Franco's policy differs from National
Socialism or Fascism—Spanish Reds are not Russia's
vassals—A nincompoop not a hero—The intervention of
Heaven in war—and of the skies—a different thing—The
first Falange—General Munoz Grande, a fine soldier—
Anti-social elements, female Communists.
General Jodl told the Fuehrer of an incident which had occurred at
the Spanish frontier on the occasion of the return home of some wounded
of the Blue Division. These men were refused places in the South
Express, and when they tried to get into the guard's van, a company of
infantry intervened on the orders of the Military Governor and ejected
them. Marshal Keitel suggested that the Blue Division was in bad
odour because of its name, the colour blue being a reminder of the old