Augsburg

Infobox German Location
image_photo=Rathaus Augsburg.jpg
image_caption=The City Hall of Augsburg
type = Stadt
Wappen = Augsburg wappen.svg
lat_deg = 48 |lat_min = 22 |lat_sec = 0
lon_deg = 10 |lon_min = 54 |lon_sec = 0
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Bayern
Regierungsbezirk = Schwaben
Landkreis = Kreisfreie Stadt
Höhe = 446-561
Fläche = 146.93
Einwohner = 263477
Stand = 2007-01-01
PLZ = 86150–86199
PLZ-alt = 8900
Vorwahl = 0821
Kfz = A
Gemeindeschlüssel = 09 7 61 000
Bürgermeister = Kurt Gribl
Bürgermeistertitel = Oberbürgermeister
Partei = Infobox Former Country
native_name = "Paritätische Reichsstadt Augsburg
conventional_long_name = Mixed Imperial City of Augsburg
common_name = Augsburg
continent = Europe
region = Alps
country = Germany
era = Middle Ages
status = City-state
empire = Holy Roman Empire
government_type = Theocracy
year_start = 1276
year_end = 1803
event_pre = Bishopric established
date_pre = 4th century
event_start = Bishopric gained
spaces|4"Reichsfreiheit"
date_start =
"ca" 888
event1 = City gained "Reichsfreiheit"
date_event1 = 1276
event2 = Diet of Augsburg:
spaces|4"Confessio Augustana"
date_event2 =
1530
event3 = Joined Schmalkadic
spaces|4League
date_event3 =
1537
event4 = Peace of Augsburg
date_event4 = 1555
event_end = Occupied by Sweden
date_end = 1632–35
event_post = Mediatised to Bavaria
date_post = 1803
p1 = Duchy of Swabia
image_p1 =
s1 = Electorate of Bavaria
flag_s1 = Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg
capital = Augsburg
footnotes =

Augsburg is an independent city in the south-west of Bavaria. The College town is home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and also of the Bezirk Schwaben and the Landkreis Augsburg. 1906 Augsburg became "Großstadt" and is nowadays with more than 264,000 citizens the third-largest city in Bavaria. Only Munich and Nuremberg are larger.

The name of the city dated from the Roman settlement Augusta Vindelicorum. The city was founded by the Roman emperor Augustus 15 BC as a castra. Therefore the "Fuggerstadt" is the second oldest city in Germany after Trier.

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" de icon.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.

In the Nazi-era, Augsburg became the capital of the "Gau Schwaben", one of 42 administrative regions of Nazi Germany.

During World War II, various sub-camps of the Dachau concentration camp were located in the city. They supplied slave labour to local industry. [ Edward Victor. "Alphabetical List of Camps, Subcamps and Other Camps." http://www.edwardvictor.com/Holocaust/List%20of%20camps.htm]

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.

Politics

Municipality

On the head of the city Augsburg as chairman of the town council governed since 1266 the so-called "Stadtpfleger", sometimes also called "mayor", so it happened that both titles were in use at the same time.

Not before 1548 the title was fixed on "Stadtpfleger". These man officiated for some years and after that they were elected for lifetime. This is why there were sometimes two or more "Stadtpfleger" simultaneously.

After the transfer to Bavaria in 1806 Augsburg constituted a magistrate with two mayors, it was supported by a additional council of so called "community commissioners" (Gemeindebevollmächtige).

Since 1907 the mayor is called Oberbürgermeister, because Augsburg reached a population of 100,000. The title is stated in the bavarian Gemeindeordnung.

Town Council

¹ Census result

Partner cities

*flagicon|Scotland Inverness, Scotland, since 1956
*flagicon|Japan Amagasaki, Japan, since 1959
*flagicon|Japan Nagahama, Japan, since 1959
*flagicon|France Bourges, France, since 1963
*flagicon|United States Dayton Ohio, United States, since 1964
*flagicon|Czech Republic Liberec, Czech Republic, since 2001
*flagicon|People's Republic of China Jinan, People's Republic of China, since 2004

Information on the partner cities can also be found at [http://www2.augsburg.de/index.php?id=21 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 seven 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 seven Regionalbahn lines from the main station to:
*Mammendorf
*Schmiechen
*Aichach/Radersdorf
*Meitingen/Donauwörth
*Dinkelscherben
*Schwabmünchen
*Klosterlechfeld.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)
* manroland
* MT-Aerospace
* NCR
* Osram
* Siemens
* UPM-Kymmene (former Haindl)
* Verlagsgruppe Weltbild
* WashTec (former Kleindienst)

Education

Augsburg is home to the following universities and colleges:

*University of Augsburg, founded in 1970 [http://www.uni-augsburg.de]
*Fachhochschule Augsburg

Notable citizens

*1459-1525 Jakob Fugger Noted banker and financial broker. An area within the city, called the Fuggerei was set aside for the poor and needy. Founded in 1519.
*1460-1524 Hans Holbein the Elder, a pioneer in the transformation of German art from the Gothic to the Renaissance style.
*1517-1579 Paulus Hector Mair, martial artist.
*1573-1646 Elias Holl, architect
*1580-1627 Julius Schiller, lawyer and astronomer.
*1704-1767 Johann Jakob Haid, engraver
*1719-1787 Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
*1898-1956 Bertolt Brecht, famous German writer.
*1858-1913 Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine.
*1933 Ulrich Biesinger, a former German footballer, part of the Team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
*1939 Helmut Haller, a footballer who represented West Germany at three World Cups.
*1957 Bernhard Langer, famous Professional Golfer.
*1959 Bernd Schuster, a German football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of the Spanish club Real Madrid.

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 Tyr.

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.

ports

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 regularly draws around 4000 spectators, which is quite reasonable for German ice hockey. The club plays its 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 called Impuls Arena is scheduled to open in 2009 and it is planned to host games of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

ee also

*List of civic divisions of Augsburg
*League of Augsburg
*Augsburg College A private Lutheran College in the United States that takes its name from the Augsburg Confession.
*List of mayors of Augsburg
*Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine, who also used biodiesel
* [http://www.augsburgacademy.net Augsburg Academy] A private Lutheran elementary school in Laurel/Beltsville, Maryland, that takes its name from the City of Augsburg and the Augsburg Confession.

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

* [http://www2.augsburg.de/index.php?id=1447 Stadt Augsburg] Official site (English version)
* [http://www.regio-augsburg.de/ Augsburg Region Tourism]
* [http://kiza.kcore.de/art/photography/augsburg/node.cgi?node=1 Fotosafari Augsburg] An interactive set of pictures which allows you to explore Augsburg
*Sites in German:
** [http://www.stadtplan.net/brd/bayern/augsburg/home.html Augsburg City Plan]
** [http://www.landkreis-augsburg.de/ District of Augsburg]