Günzburg

:"This article relates to the city in Germany. For the family name, see Günzburg (surname)."Infobox German Location
type = Stadt
Wappen = Coa guenzburg.pnglat_deg = 48 |lat_min = 27.16
lon_deg = 10 |lon_min = 16.28
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Bayern
Regierungsbezirk = Schwaben
Landkreis = Günzburg
Höhe = 478
Fläche = 55.40
Einwohner = 19919
Stand = 2006-01-01
PLZ = 89312
PLZ-alt = 8870
Vorwahl = 08221
Kfz = GZ
Website = [http://www.guenzburg.de/ www.guenzburg.de]
Bürgermeister = Gerhard Jauernig
Bürgermeistertitel = Oberbürgermeister
Partei = SPD

Günzburg is a "Große Kreisstadt" and capital of the district of Günzburg in Swabia, Bavaria. This district was constituted in 1972 by combining the city of Günzburg—which had not previously been assigned to a "Kreis" (district)—with the district of Günzburg and the district of Krumbach.

Günzburg lies where the river Günz enters the Danube, and has a population of about 19,800.

History

Günzburg was founded in about 70 BC by the Romans to defend the borders of their land along the Danube; it was known as "Castellum Guntia", "Gontia" or "Contia". The name comes from that of a Celtic moon goddess (Góntia). It consisted of a fort, later replaced by at least one other on the same site, a fairly large civilian settlement and most likely an important bridge over the Danube.

After the Romans left in the 5th century, the Alamanni tribe settled there. In around 700 the nearby castle of "Ricinis" was mentioned by the Cartographer of Ravenna as one of the five most important castles of Alemannia. In 1065 first documentary evidence appears of the town itself as "Gunceburch".

In 1301 the town became part of the Habsburg house and was developed into the centre of the margraviate of Burgau; for a time it was even the capital of all Further Austria. In 1806 the town became part of Bavaria.

Very near Günzburg is the site where the "Leipheim Horde" was defeated by the Swabian army in 1525 during the German Peasants' Revolt. The same site saw the first flight by a Messerschmitt Me 262 in 1942.

Main sights

The attractions of Günzburg include the Church of Our Lady ("Frauenkirche") built by Dominikus Zimmermann, the margraves' castle (the only Habsburg castle built in Germany), the "Reisensburg" fort, today the congress centre of the University of Ulm and the nearly-intact old town centre.

In 2002 Legoland built a theme park near the town.

Famous people

*Johann Eck
*Johann Eberlin von Günzburg, the reformist preacher and author, was born in the town around 1470.
*Petra Kelly, peace activist and Green politician
*Josef Mengele, the Nazi war criminal was born in Günzburg; on 8 March 2005 a monument to his victims was erected in the town.
*Kunigunde Schumann, the wife of Conrad Schumann
*Franz Xaver Schwarz
*Diana Damrau

References

*This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding article from the German Wikipedia, retrieved on April 2 2005

See also

*Góntia
*Günzburg (surname)
*Günzburg (district)