WORMS, one of the oldest, and from an historical point of view one of the most interesting, cities in Germany, is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, 25 miles south of Mainz and 20 miles north-west of Heidelberg. The town is irregularly built, and some of the old walls and towers still remain, but its general aspect is modern and commercial. The chief squares are the market-place and the Dom-Platz. Worms formerly contained many ecclesiastical buildings, now represented by eight churches, two of which, however, are no longer used for divine service. The principal church and chief building is the spacious Romanesque cathedral, which ranks beside the cathedrals of Spires and Mainz among the famous ecclesiastical edifices of the Rhine. This magnificent building, with four round towers, two large domes, and a choir at each end, has a specially imposing exterior, though the impression produced by the interior is also one of great dignity and simplicity, heightened by the natural colour of the red sandstone of which it is built. In this last particular it differs from the cathedrals of Mainz and Spires, where the natural colour of the stone no longer appears in the interior. Only the lower part of the western towers belongs to the original building consecrated in 1110; the remainder dates from 1181, with the exception of the west choir and the vaulting, which were built in the 13th century, and the elaborate south portal, which was added in the 14th century. The ornamentation of the older parts is simple to the verge of rudeness; and even the more elaborate later forms show no high development of workmanship. The church is 485 feet long and 114 feet wide; the transepts, which are at the west end, are about 120 feet long (inside ...measurement), and the choir is 160 feet high. The cathedral belongs to the Roman Catholic community, who possess also the church of St Martin and the Liebfrauenkirche, a handsome Gothic edifice outside the town, finished in 1467. The principal Protestant place of worship is Trinity church, built in 1726. Second in interest to the cathedral is the church of St Paul, also in the Romanesque style, and dating from 1102-16, with a choir of the early 13th century. It is adjoined by the remains of an abbey and cloisters of various epochs. Since 1881 this church has contained an interesting museum of national antiquities. The late Romanesque St Andrew’s church is also used for secular purposes. The synagogue, an unassuming building erected in the 11th century and restored in the 13th, is now completely modernized. The Jewish community of Worms (about 1400 in number) claims to be the most ancient in Germany, and to have existed continuously since before the Christian era, though the earliest authentic mention of it occurs in 588. A curious tradition, illustrating the efforts of the dispersed people to conciliate their oppressors, asserts that the Jews of Worms gave their voice against the crucifixion, but that their messenger did not arrive at Jerusalem until after the event.
The town-house of Worms was restored in 1884. The Bischofshof, in which the most famous diet of Worms (1521) was held, is now replaced by a handsome modern residence. The Luginsland is an old watch-tower of the 13th century. Worms also contains numerous schools and a richly endowed hospital. In the Luther-Platz rises the imposing Luther monument (unveiled in 1868), consisting of a series of twelve statues on a platform 16 feet square. In the centre the colossal statue of Luther rises, on a pedestal at the base of which are sitting figures of Peter Waldus, Wycliffe, Huss, and Savonarola, the heralds of the Reformation; at the corners of the platform, on lower pedestals, are statues of Luther’s contemporaries, Melanchthon, Reuchlin, Philip of Hesse, and Frederick the Wise of Saxony, between which are allegorical figures of Magdeburg (mourning), Spires (protesting), and Augsburg (confessing). The greater part of the work, which took nine years to execute, was designed by Rietschel, and carried out after his death in 1861 by Kietz, Dondorf, and Schelling.
The trade and industry of Worms are not unimportant. The leading resource of the inhabitants is wine-growing, the most famous vintage being known as Liebfrauenmilch, grown on vineyards near the Liebfrauenkirche. Luginlander and Katterlocher are also well-known varieties. The manufacture of patent leather employs 3000 hands. Machinery, chicory, slates, <fcc., are also produced. Worms possesses a river-harbour, and carries on some trade by water. The population in 1885 was 21,903, of whom about one-third were Roman Catholic. In its prosperous days Worms is estimated to have had from 40,000 to 70,000 inhabitants.
Borbetomagus, the name by which Worms was known in Roman times, seems to indicate a Celtic origin for the town. The modern name is usually connected with Wurm or Lindwurm, the German word for a dragon. Drusus is said to have erected a fort on the site of the town in 14 b.c. As a settlement of the Germanic tribe of the Vangiones, it existed under Roman protection till about the middle of the 5th century. The Burgundians then took it and made it their capital, and its name appears in many of the heroic legends of that people. King Gunther and Brunhilde held their court at Worms; and here Sigfried wooed the fair Chriemhild. The “Rosengarten,” often mentioned in these legends, lay on the opposite bank of the Rhine. Under the Franconians this town was also important; and it was a frequent residence of Charlemagne and his successors. The scene of the graceful though unhistorical romance of Eginhard and Emma, the daughter of Charlemagne, is laid at Worms. The first bishop of Worms of whom anything authentic is known was Erembert (670), though an “episcopus Vangionum” is said to have attended a council at Cologne in 347. Worms seems to have thriven under the bishops,'but the citizens invariably espoused thecause of the emperors against them, and were rewarded by privileges which fostered the trade of the town and eventually led to its recognition as a free imperial city. Worms was frequently visited by the imperial court, and won the proud title of “Mother of Diets.” The most famous diet was that held in 1521, at which Luther appeared to defend his doctrines before Charles V. Four years later the town formally embraced Protestantism. Worms preserved a tolerable prosperity even through the hardships of the Thirty Years’ War; but in 1689 it was laid in ashes by the French, a blow from which it has never thoroughly recovered. The peace of Lunéville annexed it in 1801 to France; but in 1815 it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt, being then an unimportant town with 6250 inhabitants.
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