Reference.com
Hotels in Augsburg
Book your hotel in Augsburg online. Good availability and great rates!
www.bookings.de
Sponsored Links
Augsburg Hotel Discounts
Save up to 75% on Augsburg hotels. Pay at check-in. No booking fees.
www.priceline-europe.com

Augsburg

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany, 50 miles north-west of Munich. It is the capital and the largest city of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria, and is located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers. The population was 276,193 in 2004. Augsburg is part of the larger Munich Metropolitan Area with a population of > 6 million.

History

The city was founded in 15 BC in the reign of Roman emperor Augustus as a garrison called Augusta Vindelicorum. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia. It was laid to waste by the Huns in the fifth century, by Charlemagne in the eighth, and by Welf of Bavaria in the eleventh; it rose each time only to greater prosperity.

It became an Imperial Free City on March 9, 1276. Given its strategic location on the trade routes to Italy, it became a major trading centre. It produced large quantities of woven goods, cloth and textiles, and was the base for the Fugger banking empire. The Fuggerei, part of the city devoted to housing for the needy citizens of Augsburg, was founded in 1516 and is still in use today.

In 1530 the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg. Following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, after which the rights of religious minorities in imperial cities were to be protected, a mixed Catholic–Protestant city council presided over a majority Protestant population; see Paritätische Reichsstadt . Until the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), religious peace in the city was largely maintained despite increasing confessional tensions. In 1629, Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution resulting in the installation of an entirely Catholic city government that radically curtailed the rights of local Protestants. This persisted until April 1632, when the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus took the city without resistance. Just over two years later, the Swedish army was routed at nearby Nördlingen, and by October 1634 Catholic troops had surrounded Augsburg. The Swedish garrison refused to surrender and a disastrous siege ensued through the winter of 1634–5, during which thousands died of hunger and disease.

These difficulties, together with the discovery of America, and of the route to India by the Cape, conspired to destroy the town's prosperity. In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Augsburg lost its independence to become part of the kingdom of Bavaria. It increased considerably in industrial importance in the 19th century. It contained large cotton and woollen mills, machine shops, and manufacturers of acetylene gas, paper, chemicals, jewellery, and leather. Out of one acetylene gas plant the company KUKA was founded (1898) as Keller und Knappich Augsburg, today one of the leading companies for industrial robots. Also it gave birth to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (Later to merge with Maschinenfabrik Nürnberg and become Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg or MAN AG) — a machine factory where Rudolf Diesel pioneered commercial production of his Diesel engine.

During World War II, various sub-camps of the Dachau concentration camp were located in the city. They supplied slave labour to local industry.

In 1941 Rudolf Hess took off from a local airport and flew to Scotland to meet the Duke of Hamilton and attempt to mediate the end of the European front of World War II and join sides for the upcoming Russian Campaign.

In 1945 elements of the U.S. Army occupied the heavily damaged city. An American Military presence in the city started with the 11th Airborne Division, moving to the 24th Infantry Division, US Army Seventh Corps Artillery, and, ending with the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which left the area in 1998.

Main sights

Incorporations

Year Municipality Area
July 1, 1910 Meringerau 9.5 km²
January 1, 1911 Pfersee 3.5 km²
January 1, 1911 Oberhausen 8.6 km²
January 1, 1913 Lechhausen 27.9 km²
January 1, 1913 Hochzoll 4.4 km²
April 1, 1916 Kriegshaber 59 km²
July 1, 1972 Göggingen
July 1, 1972 Haunstetten
July 1, 1972 Inningen

Historical population development:

Year Population
1635 16,432
1645 19,960
1806 26,200
1830 29,019
December 1, 1871 ¹ 51,220
December 1, 1890 ¹ 75,629
December 1, 1900 ¹ 89,109
December 1, 1910 ¹ 102,487
June 16, 1925 ¹ 165,522
June 16, 1933 ¹ 176,575
May 17, 1939 ¹ 185,369
September 13, 1950 ¹ 185,183
June 6, 1961 ¹ 208,659
May 27, 1970 ¹ 211,566
June 30, 1975 252,000
June 30, 1980 246,600
June 30, 1985 244,200
May 27, 1987 ¹ 242,819
June 30, 1997 257,300
December 31, 2002 259,231
December 31, 2003 259,217
December 31, 2004 260,407
December 31, 2005 263,804
December 31, 2006 269,449

¹ Census result

Partner cities

Information on the partner cities can also be found at www.augsburg.de

Commerce and infrastructure

Transport

The main road link is the autobahn A 8 towards Munich and Stuttgart

Public transport

Public transport in Augsburg is controlled by the Augsburger Verkehrsverbund (Augsburg transport union, AVV), which extends over central Swabia, and includes six Regionalbahn lines, four tram lines, 27 city bus and six night bus lines as well as several taxi companies.

The tram network is now 35.5 km-long following the opening of new lines to the university in 1996, the northern city boundary in 2001 and to the Klinikum Augsburg (hospital) in 2002. Two more tram lines are planned to be completed in 2011.

Rail services

Augsburg has seven stations, including the Hauptbahnhof (main station), which was built from 1843 to 1846 and is Germany’s oldest main station in a large city still in service in its original building. It is currently being modernized and an underground tram station is being built under it. It is on the Ulm–München line and is connected by ICE and IC services to Munich, Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. Since December 2007 the french TGV connects Augsburg with a direct High Speed Connection to Paris. In addition EC and night train services connect to Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna and connections will be substantially improved by the creation of the planned Magistrale for Europe.

The AVV operates six Regionalbahn lines from the main station to:

Starting in 2008, the regional services are to be operated to S-Bahn frequencies and are to be developed in the long term into the Augsburg S-Bahn.

Economy

Augsburg is a classical production site. World market leaders and global players like MAN, EADS or KUKA produce technologically demanding products like printing systems, large diesel engines, industrial robots or components for the Airbus A380 and the Ariane carrier rocket. Besides Munich, Augsburg is the high-tech centre for Information and Communication in Bavaria and takes advantage of its proximity to Munich and the huge potential of customers.

  • Boewe Systec
  • EADS
  • EMCON Technologies (former Zeuna-Staerker)
  • Fujitsu Siemens Computers
  • KUKA Robotics / Systems
  • MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg)
  • MT-Aerospace
  • Osram
  • Siemens
  • UPM-Kymmene (former Haindl).
  • Verlagsgruppe Weltbild
  • NCR
  • WashTec (former Kleindienst)

Education

Augsburg is home to the following universities and colleges:

Notable citizens

Miscellaneous

The patron saints of Augsburg are Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra, who was killed by the Romans at Augsburg in 304. An earlier patroness was Zisa, referenced in the 11th century, feast day September 28), possibly an early Germanic goddess and originally the consort of Tiwaz.

Every year on 29 September (Michaelmas or St. Michael's Day) the Turamichele (Archangel Michael) appears in a window on the west side of the citytower ("Perlachturm") and fights with the devil. The day is also marked by a big children's party.

The White Water Canoeing events for the 1972 Summer Olympics were held on the Lech in Augsburg. The facilities are still open to the public.

Sports

The city is home to a DEL (first-division) ice hockey team, the Augsburger Panther. The original club, AEV, was formed in 1878 and is the oldest ice sport club in Germany. The team regualary draws around 4000 spectators, which is quite resonable for German ice hockey. The club plays it's homegames at the Curt Frenzel Stadion. It is not actually an indoor ring in the proper sense since the sides are open. A new stadium is in the process of planning.

The FC Augsburg is a 2nd Bundesliga football team based in Augsburg and plays in the Rosenaustadion. A new stadium is scheduled to open in 2009 and it is planned to host games of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

See also

References

  • Die Chroniken der schwäbischen Städte, Augsburg, (Leipzig, 1865-96)
  • Werner, Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, (Augsburg, 1900)
  • Lewis, "The Roman Antiquities of Augsburg and Ratisbon", in volume xlviii, Archæological Journal, (London, 1891)

External links



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday February 28, 2008 at 22:08:30 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation