At a glance, the city of Koblenz reflects all the typical military clichés in German history. Ritter des Deutschen Ordens (Knights of the German Order) settled at the confluence of the rivers Mosel and Rhine and named the tip of land between the two bodies of water the “Deutsches Eck” (German Corner). There, the German Emperor Wilhelm I reigns on his bronze battle horse while looking down imperiously from his monument’s pedestal on the two rivers flowing together in front of him, the Rhine and the Mosel. On the other bank of the Rhine, the threatening Prussian fortress, Ehrenbreitstein is visible. This side of Koblenz reminds us of military and war, of sables rattling and canon shots thundering. The green hills of the Eifel region, of Hunsrück, Taunus and Westerwald meet where the Mosel flows into the Rhine. Facing the monument at Deutsches Eck back in 1930, the satirist Kurt Tucholsky called it the “gigantic cake decoration” and found that the area was much too pretty for this “rocky clump”. Deutsches Eck, the Emperor’s monument and the Prussian fortress still attract many tourists to the city every day. The buzzing of video cameras and snapping of pictures sometimes even drown the clamor of international voices. Surely the labyrinth of winding little streets in the romantic old city center has utterly delighted many a Japanese traveler and then, driven them to resignation and despair. With eyes on the binoculars at all times, the enthused visitors from the Far East can easily lose their orientation and get lost, only to find themselves in one of the many wine bars and then, surrendering to their fate, trying to console themselves with many pints of wine from the Rhine or Mosel region. This all wouldn’t be necessary if visitors from faraway Nippon would consult a handy travel guide by Karl Baedecker, who currently runs the travel publishing house, Baedecker, in Koblenz. But the palatable regional wine doesn’t particularly care whether it is drunk with or without the travel guide. And neither do the dozens of local bar owners. The bar and restaurant owners in Koblenz may be pleased about the money the tourists spend when visiting the city, but otherwise during high season, the 110,000 inhabitants avoid the old city center overrun with tourists. The inhabitants of Koblenz don’t have much time for tourist leisure, as people seem to work a great deal. The Rhine harbor, industry, the service sector, and of course, the numerous public authorities of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, as well as the Federal Republic of Germany, are places where the people earn their daily bread. In Koblenz, 12,000 members of the German armed forces fulfill their daily duties. The concentration of military in the city has always been a characteristic of Koblenz, from the Roman times until the present. The situation wasn’t always rosy for the city on the Rhine and Mosel. During the World War Two, destiny struck at the gates of the city like Ludwig van Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Allied bombers blew Koblenz, an important military center, into debris and ashes. Speaking of Beethoven, Maria Magdalena, the composer’s mother was born on Wambachstrasse in Koblenz. Nowadays you can visit the largest private Beethoven exhibition in the world here. One of the contemporaries for whom Ludwig van Beethoven felt the deepest contempt was Prince Metternich. The conservative hard-liner of the 18th century was born in Koblenz in 1773. It’s strange how time passes and history evolves in one place. To have a sense of this change, just think of the new university campus at Koblenz. It was once a place where military commands were bellowed and now its a quiet place for academics. An old barrack complex hosts students and professors. And Where? In Metternich, a district of Koblenz.