Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria · Travel Poster

Not just a view, the heritage behind it. Ella writes about the place, its hidden history, and the details that never make it into the guidebooks, all printed on the poster.

On 31 March 1945, an Allied bombing raid destroyed hundreds of buildings and much of Rothenburg's medieval wall in a single afternoon, with a full ground assault due next. The town was spared from finishing that fate almost by accident. John McCloy, the American assistant secretary of war, had never once visited Rothenburg himself, but his mother had, decades earlier, and had come home so full of stories about the place that he grew up with a soft spot for it. When the order came through to level the town, McCloy talked the commanding general into negotiating a surrender instead, and Rothenburg's medieval streets survived because one man remembered his mother's holiday photos.

An original illustration, available in colour or black and white, created for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included.

Please note that, to protect the original artwork from copyright infringement, the images shown on this website are low resolution. The poster you receive is printed in high resolution, with all the detail and clarity of the original.