Schwabentor
Medieval city gate on the east side of Freiburg’s old town, towards the Dreisam, Germany. See Freiburg (Literary).
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAG History: Freiburg Tram Drivers Also Collected for the Bereaved and Refugees During the First World War | VAG Freiburg | setting | Where a First World War “nail tree” stood, studded with nails bought for the Red Cross. |
VAG History: Freiburg Tram Drivers Also Collected for the Bereaved and Refugees During the First World War — VAG Freiburg (2026)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
As the location, they chose the space between the two gate passages at the Schwabentor towards the Dreisam.
- Role: setting
- In the article: In late 1915 the town council set up a felled linden tree, four metres high, under a shelter at the gate. Citizens bought iron, silver or golden nails (one, three or ten marks) to drive into it, with the money going to the local Red Cross for the wounded, bereaved and refugees; tram staff donated too. The tree stayed after the war, went to the Natural History Museum in 1931 because of weathering, was re-erected at the gate on the new Nazi mayor’s order in 1933, decayed without a roof, moved to the cloister of the Augustiner Museum in 1936, and was burned in 1938.
- Why it matters: The gate is the monument’s home for most of its life; the article traces the city’s politics through where the tree was allowed to stand.