Love Locks in Germany.

Germans aren’t exactly known for being romantic, but all the love locks throughout the country would suggest that there is plenty of romance going on in the land of beer and sausage.  The tradition of love locks has been around for a century or so but Europe didn’t start seeing them in large numbers until the early 2000’s.  While they are meant to be a sweet gesture or symbol of lasting love, the locks have caused quite a controversy in some places.  Fortunately we’ve mostly seen sparsely decorated bridges throughout Germany and some locks that weren’t even on a bridge.  Whether the locks are shiny and new or old and rusty, Germany’s fascination with love locks fascinates me, so I keep an eye out for them everywhere we go.  Here are the ones I’ve found so far.

Bamberg

Bamberg invited the public to place love locks on the Kettenbrücke in 2011, but wanted to remove them later that year because of the rusting problems (Bambergers are quite proud of their bridges).  But the threat of removal made people so angry that the city relented.

  

  

Large and small, old and new, strange and… hairy.  Yup, there are actual locks of hair tied onto the bridge in one spot.  You’ll also see bike locks, door key storage locks, handcuffs (creepy much?), and so on.  We found these locks on our first trip to Bamberg.

Bad Kissingen

I love the puzzle pieces.

Berlin

This city had more love locks than I could ever hope to capture, but here’s some of what we saw.

  

  

If you take a closer look at the bottom right photo you’ll see that the love lock is actually locked onto a rat’s tail!  We saw that one when we visited the lucky rat on the Gertraudenbrücke; there are several love locks on the bridge and a few attached to various rats.

We also saw a handful of love locks on the Berlin wall (below), which I did find a bit curious.  I’m not sure I would have chosen that location, but perhaps it has meaning for some.

Mannheim

  

These love locks are on the water tower (Wasserturm) in Friedrichsplatz.

Munich

I’m surprised that we didn’t find more of these in Munich, maybe we will on our next trip there.  We found this one on a bridge in the Englischer Garten.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

  

Schweinfurt

  

These are in one of the old towers along the city wall.  One time I asked a German couple what they thought about these love locks and the woman told me that she actually put up a love lock with a previous boyfriend.  That was a slightly awkward conversation that we met with jokes about how the current boyfriend should perhaps go cut it off.

Würzburg

The fence along the Main River (near Oberer Mainkai) isn’t quite right for love locks, since it’s mostly vertical bars, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from laying them flatly on the bottom of the rails.

  

There are several clumps of locks along the Alte Mainbrücke (an iconic bridge in the city).

These are from the Friedensbrücke.

  

There are some on the Marienberg Fortress as well.

  

And the Wallfahrtskirche Käppele.

So, do you think that Mr. Meena and I should get a love lock of our own?

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This post is linked up with Weekend Wanderlust: